God: A Human History (Unabridged) God: A Human History (Unabridged)

God: A Human History (Unabridged‪)‬

    • 4.5 • 31 Ratings
    • $14.99

    • $14.99

Publisher Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The bestselling author of Zealot and host of Believer explores humanity’s quest to make sense of the divine in this concise and fascinating history of our understanding of God.
 
In Zealot, Reza Aslan replaced the staid, well-worn portrayal of Jesus of Nazareth with a startling new image of the man in all his contradictions. In his new book, Aslan takes on a subject even more immense: God, writ large.
 
In layered prose and with thoughtful, accessible scholarship, Aslan narrates the history of religion as a remarkably cohesive attempt to understand the divine by giving it human traits and emotions. According to Aslan, this innate desire to humanize God is hardwired in our brains, making it a central feature of nearly every religious tradition. As Aslan writes, “Whether we are aware of it or not, and regardless of whether we’re believers or not, what the vast majority of us think about when we think about God is a divine version of ourselves.”
 
But this projection is not without consequences. We bestow upon God not just all that is good in human nature—our compassion, our thirst for justice—but all that is bad in it: our greed, our bigotry, our penchant for violence. All these qualities inform our religions, cultures, and governments.
 
More than just a history of our understanding of God, this book is an attempt to get to the root of this humanizing impulse in order to develop a more universal spirituality. Whether you believe in one God, many gods, or no god at all, God: A Human History will challenge the way you think about the divine and its role in our everyday lives.

Praise for God

“Timely, riveting, enlightening and necessary.”HuffPost

“Tantalizing . . . Driven by [Reza] Aslan’s grace and curiosity, God . . . helps us pan out from our troubled times, while asking us to consider a more expansive view of the divine in contemporary life.”—The Seattle Times

“A fascinating exploration of the interaction of our humanity and God.”Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“[Aslan’s] slim, yet ambitious book [is] the story of how humans have created God with a capital G, and it’s thoroughly mind-blowing.”—Los Angeles Review of Books

“Aslan is a born storyteller, and there is much to enjoy in this intelligent survey.”San Francisco Chronicle

GENRE
Religion & Spirituality
NARRATOR
RA
Reza Aslan
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
05:22
hr min
RELEASED
2017
November 7
PUBLISHER
Random House Audio
SIZE
338.9
MB

Customer Reviews

JPoniez ,

Eye-opening & comprehensive

Reza does a phenomenal job at looking at the concept of god/gods through a scientific and historical perspective and explaining how the concept of god evolved over time. He really did his homework and answered a lot of my big-life questions.

Johngrantsings ,

Modern, informed and honest.

What a fantastic read. This is such an honest and modern approach to spirituality in the 21st-century. Knowledge is power and being in formed and educated on religions origin sets a precedent for my future spiritual pursuits. I appreciate the fact that Reeza approach is sharing his information objectively and yet remains a very spiritual person. Science, History and Anthropology along with the context of the Scriptures he references and the spiritual writings and texts he illuminates are not ignored but tools! I love that. This book will bring you closer to God in whatever way you understand it.