Here’s something from a seminal book – The Soul of Christianity – by Huston Smith, an American expert on comparative religions (and, incidentally, a universalist Christian who personally adopts various spiritual disciplines from Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam):

First, Protestant diversity is not as great as its hundreds of denominations (most of them more adequately termed *sects*) suggest. Most of these are of negligable size. Actually, 85% of all Protestants belong to twelve denominations. Considering the freedom of belief that Protestantism affirms in principle, the wonder lies not in its diversity, but in the extent to which Protestants have managed to stay together.

Second, Protestant divisions reflect differing national origins in Europe and differing social groupings in the U.S. more than they do differing theologies.

The third point, however, is the most important. Who is to say that diversity is bad? … Protestants believe that life and history are too fluid to allow God’s redeeming word to be enclosed in a single form, whether it be doctrinal or institutional… (pp. 160-161).

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Shalom! Rowland Croucher

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