God: A Human History

About the Book

From the internationally bestselling author of Zealot comes a fascinating, provocative and meticulously researched history of humanity's relationship with the divine. THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In God, Reza Aslan sheds new light on mankind's relationship with the divine and challenges our perspective on the history of faith and the birth of religion. From the origins of spiritual thought to the concept of an active, engaged, divine presence that underlies all creation, Aslan examines how the idea of god arose in human evolution, was gradually personalized, endowed with human traits and emotions, and eventually transformed into a single Divine Personality- the God known today by such names as Yahweh, Father, and Allah. Bold, wide-ranging and provocative, God challenges everything we thought we knew about the origins of religious belief, and with it our relationship with life and death, with the natural and spiritual worlds, and our understanding of the very essence of human existence.

About the Author :
Reza Aslan is an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions. He is also a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. At Harvard, Aslan was elected president of Harvard's chapter of the World Conference on Religion and Peace, a UN organisation committed to global understanding. His is first book, No god but God- The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam, has been translated into thirteen languages and named by Blackwells as one of the hundred most important books of the last decade. Currently teaching an introductory course on Islam at Iowa, Aslan is also at work on a novel.

Review :
A brief and lively history... Extraordinary. Aslan turns Genesis on its head. The extent of our divine anthropomorphism is fascinating. As an introductory biography of a figure who has good claim to be called the most influential of all time, it is interesting indeed.

Timely, riveting, enlightening and necessary.

[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. Reza Aslan offers so much to relish in his excellent ‘Human History’ of God. In tracing the commonalities that unite religions, Aslan makes truly challenging arguments that believers in many traditions will want to explore further, and to mull over. This rewarding book is very ambitious in its scope, and it is thoroughly grounded in an impressive body of reading and research. Breathtaking in its scope and controversial in its claims, God: A Human History shows how humans from time immemorial have made God in their own image, and argues that they now should stop. Writing with all the verve and brilliance we have come to expect from his pen, Reza Aslan has once more produced a book that will prompt reflection and shatter assumptions. 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. Aslan is a born storyteller, and there is much to enjoy in this intelligent survey.