In an era of hardening religious attitudes and explosive religious violence, this book offers a welcome antidote. Richard Holloway retells the entire history of religion�from the dawn of religious belief to the twenty-first century�with deepest respect and a keen commitment to accuracy. Writing for those with faith and those without, and especially for young readers, he encourages curiosity and tolerance, accentuates nuance and mystery, and calmly...

The modern notion of tolerance--the welcoming of diversity as a force for the common good--emerged in the Enlightenment in the wake of centuries of religious wars. First elaborated by philosophers such as John Locke and Voltaire, religious tolerance gradually gained ground in Europe and North America. But with the resurgence of fanaticism and terrorism, religious tolerance is increasingly being challenged by frightened publics. In this book, Denis...

The early twenty-first century could be characterized as a time of tremendous religious awareness, when both believers and non-believers are deeply engaged by questions of religion and tradition. This book ranges back to the origins of the Hebrew Bible and covers Christianity around the world, following the three main strands of the Christian faith, to teach modern readers how Jesus' message spread and how the New Testament was formed. The book follows...

God is not dead. "Wall Street Journal". The world is "more" religious than ever before. Everyone seems to take it for granted that the world is getting more secular that faith is doomed by modernity. Scientists, secularists, and atheists applaud the change; religious believers lament it. But here's the thing: "they re all wrong" and the bestselling author and influential scholar of religion Rodney Stark has the numbers to prove it. He explodes the...

Thomas Jefferson collected books on all religions and required that the brand new Library of Congress take his books, since Americans needed to consider the "twenty gods or no god" he famously noted were revered by his neighbors. Looking at the Americans who believed in these gods, Manseau fills in America's story of itself, from the persecuted "witches" at Salem and who they really were, to the persecuted Buddhists in WWII California, from spirituality...

"For the young Henry Louis Gates, Jr., growing up in a small, residentially segregated West Virginia town, the church was a center of gravity--an intimate place where voices rose up in song and neighbors gathered to celebrate life's blessings and offer comfort amid its trials and tribulations. In this tender and expansive reckoning with the meaning of the Black Church in America, Gates takes us on a journey spanning more than five centuries, from...

The author believes that-in the course of history-few forces are more powerful than religion and therefore religion is worthy of rigorous study. In his 1901 work, Jastrow tackles fundamental questions about the origin, character, and classification of religion, as well as ethics, philosophy, psychology, mythology, and more-attempting to place in the hand of the reader a tool with which to begin a scientific study of religion.

"How to live in a supposedly faithless world threatened by religious fundamentalism? Terry Eagleton, formidable thinker and renowned cultural critic, investigates in this thought-provoking book the contradictions, difficulties, and significance of the modern search for a replacement for God. Engaging with a phenomenally wide range of ideas, issues, and thinkers from the Enlightenment to today, Eagleton discusses the state of religion before and after...