Very interesting look at the development of religion through history. I appreciate the critical gaze he places on the blind trust that many have.

I read Aslan's No God But God and I was impressed. It was entertaining and readable. Then I attended a Seminary and got a degree in religion. Now I'm not so impressed by the guy. There's a comedy skit about a religious service for people who don't believe in religion. That's Aslan. He's a theologian for people who don't believe in theology. In God, Aslan starts off by flipping the Bible quote that God created man in His own image. We as man created God in our image he says. I think this probably sounded very intelligent in his own head. I couldn't get past it though. Is it supposed to be deep? Because I've heard it said better elsewhere. Also as a Muslim, which Aslan claims to be now, it's not something you could even say theoretically. God is so far above what His creation thinks of Him. Anyway, couldn't finish this.

First off, I will read whatever Reza Aslan. He is such a great writer and looking at the human concept of God is and will always be that quest that humans can never quite master. Aslan does what he can with History and how our perception/concept of God has evolved to the present day.

I enjoyed this read, since I, like many others, do not have blind trust in th traditional religious world, like churches. Aslan asks us to consider things that we may not have thought about or realized, in an effort to broaden our own understanding of God and divinity. I would like to read this in the context of a comparative religion type of course.

In God: A Human History, author Reza Aslan gives us an interesting and multidisciplinary look at how the belief in gods and eventually God developed from pre-history to the present. The book is divided into three parts:

1-The Embodied Soul - pre-history, the earliest attempts by man (or, as Aslan conjectures, woman) at developing the idea of a divine being within nature.

2- The Humanized God - man created gods in their own image eg early Greek gods with all the characteristics and flaws of man. This reached its culmination even as man moved from the idea of many gods to one with the idea of God become man in the form of Jesus

3- Conclusion: The One - the idea of pantheism, that God is in everything and everything is in God, Aslan’s own belief and what he sees as 'the belief of nearly every religious tradition'. As he says,

<i>This is essentially what our prehistoric ancestors believed. Their primitive animism was predicated on the belief that all things - living or not - share a single essence: a single <i>soul</i>, if you will. The same belief spurred the ancient Mesopotamians to deify the elements of nature, long before they began to transform those elements into individual, personalized gods. It lay at the heart of the early Egyptian belief in the existence of a divine force that manifested itself in both gods and humans. It is what the Greek philosophers meant when they spoke of "one god" as the singular, unified principle steering all of creation. All of these belief systems can be viewed as different expressions of pantheistic conception of God as the sum of all things.</i>

Aslan is a very good writer and he has taken what could easily have become a dry pedagogical tome and made it highly interesting and readable. However, it should be noted that much of what he writes is supposition and conjecture especially as it relates to pre-history - this, in itself is not surprising since early man left no written records and much of what we know is based on pictograms found in caves. But Aslan's conjectures are later used as evidence of the evolution of his own faith in pantheism. Still, as I said, this is a very interesting account of religion - one of the greatest, if not the greatest, influences on humanity. I would suggest, however, that it is a great starting off point for anyone interested in the subject, not an endpoint.

3.5

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Company for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review</i>

Reza Aslan's Zealot was high on my "enjoyed" list, and I learned quite a bit from it. Looking back on that post, I wish I had written more in-depth about my thoughts on it and how the book effected me. So I decided to pick up God: A Human History when I saw it available for advanced review.

I have been a fan of Allan since reading Zealot, and I find him to be an accomplished scholar who does outstanding historical research. This should come as no surprise seeing as how this is literally his job. I need to spell that out early on, though, so that we can be clear in explanation that the dude has got a point. You don’t have to be an atheist to find his work to be incredibly deep and explanatory. However, if you don’t like exploring knowledge that may contradict your faith, you should look for another work. That being said, I would encourage you to explore historical facts that you believe might not support what you have faith in — you might find some insight into why you believe what you believe.

So now that my disclaimer is out there, let’s get to the meat of the book. I have a teensy background in religious history just through reading my beloved non-fiction religious scholars, but I had never explored the origins of the human belief in God. It’s funny now that I think about it, particularly as cognitive psych-oriented I am, that I have never spent time mulling over this. Hence my fascination with Aslan’s latest work.

Where does God come from? Not in terms of physical origin, but in our own thoughts and minds. Who is he, and what is he like? Since no one on this earth actually knows (not even you), we as hominids with complex cognitive reasoning skills have created a likeness in our image because it’s what we can understand. How can we possibly imagine a being that isn’t something within our cognitive framework already? (This starts to get complicated on my end in terms of psych concepts, so as simply as I can explain it: we can’t know more than we know, so the conception of God is super complicated.)

So ancient relatives of ours created God in their own image. Religion helped settle hominids and, Aslan argues, pushed us from a hunter-gatherer culture to an agricultural one. We created many gods pan-culturally with similar backstories based on historical events, and those gods had the ability to do specific things that humans could relate to. They were an explanation for a species who are primarily meaning-makers. (Now you are getting a part of my human development class mixed in with Aslan!)

Then comes in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. I could go into it all here, but you should read the book yourself because it is an awesome (in the most literal sense of the word) intellectual exploration of humans and deities and how we got to here.

Aslan discusses some important-to-me topics in here such as theory of mind and ancient Hellenic culture, and I was amazed at my ability to synthesize it all. I was fascinated and humbled by the research presented and the depth of Aslan’s understanding of from whence we come. I only read one chapter at a time so I could ruminate on his words and the string of his narrative in relation to my own history and conception of the divine.

The most moving piece of his book was the conclusion when Aslan opens up about his own journey to believe in what he does. He leaves the journey up to each of us, but indeed I identify with his short but profound words about his own beliefs, because I share them. He says in the last chapter that to reach this point in your beliefs, you have to come to it willingly and deliberately, and this struck such a strong cord with me. He’s right. I, too, have come here willingly and deliberately. What a beautiful thing it is.

I really look forward to Aslan's books. In some of the undergraduate classes I teach, we've read No god But God and had really good discussion. My hope were high for this book, but I just didn't find it as engaging as other books that he has written. It isn't a bad book, but either the subject area or his writing this time didn't compare well to his other books for me.

I found this to quite the provocative read, to put it lightly. Aslan takes his readers on an expansive journey starting far back in prehistory, though the narrative is expertly constructed in a succinct and accessible manner that keeps one from getting lost along the way.

While I didn’t necessarily agree with the author on everything (especially with the way his narrative gets over-focused on the great Semitic religions), I do appreciate the way that Aslan’s personal attempt to understand the divine has gotten me seriously contemplating an array of matters regarding the godly that haven’t ever really crossed my mind before, and I doubt I'll stop mulling over them anytime soon.

This relatively short yet challenging work is more than mere food for thought; I say this is more like a several-course meal.

Reza Aslan does it again in "God: A Human History". Taking us on a journey of God through humanity. This book is a new look at an ancient concept. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in religions.

Readers who enjoyed Rena Azlan's "Zealot" will love "God." It's a thought-provoking examination of how humans conceptualize God.

I do not believe in God, but I am pretty certain this is a must read for those like myself as well as believers. Incredibly informative and just beautifully written.

Just a wonderful book on G-d and how so many look at religion. Easy to read and understand, its an invaluable read!

I am always interested in learning more about the world's different religions, how they came to be, what the primary differences/beliefs among them are etc. so god by Reza Aslan seemed a perfect fit.

This is the first book I've read by Aslan, and at first I thought I was in way over my head. The more I read though, the more taken I was not only with his research, but with his ability to tell a complicated story in an understandable manner. I loved how he shared his own spiritual search before proceeding with his analysis of the history of various religions. He asked keen questions along the way and that intrigued me as well, as I find it most interesting to "listen in" and see how people think, and come to the conclusions that they do.

All in all, I learned a lot about the history of various religions (enough to make me want to learn more) and found this to be a fascinating read!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for introducing me to this to this interesting author.

Biblical, and using that term generically, texts aside, author-scholar Reza Aslan charts the history – and the concept - of God, providing a fascinating follow-up to Zealot, where he de-constructed and then re-constructed a historical look at Jesus the Messiah. Here, Aslan does not solely present the Jewish/Christian/Muslim God, but theorizes how the idea of “god” is so prevalent with human history; a concept that either most people, devout or not, might have either taken for granted, or simply not have given an origin story much thought. After all, the God of the Big-Three never really required an origin as, in the case with those religions, In The Beginning… God… Right?

Within God: A Human History, Aslan presents a palatable historical journey that traces the idea of God starting from prehistoric times, where an all-encompassing spirit of nature was dominant, to the pantheon of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian gods, to how monotheism became dominant after the Babylonian conquest of Israel, through the birth of Christianity, and finally to the rise of Islam. The pacing skips ahead through history at an outstanding rate. Aslan devotes significant time to the prehistoric concept of God, pointing out the examples of the Trois-Frères caves of southwest France and the stone temple of Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, but then rockets ahead to introduce the God of the Big-Three, yet spends starting little time in referencing why other cultures have been able to follow religious systems, such as Buddhism, without a deity at their center. Rather, he focuses much of his thesis at the idea of a humanized God.

Aslan approaches the topic as subjectively as possible and, as was bluntly noticed in Zealot, does so without the allusion of faith - for the most part. Aslan does present a beautiful illustration in showing that God is akin to a prism of light, where yellow and blue and violet can all be viewed as perspectives change, yet it is all light from the same source. As an open-minded Christian, this is a outlook I have long adhered to and appreciate the back-up in these conservative times. Aslan, however, goes several steps further with his personal enlightenment of pantheism - that “God” is present in all creation at all times and with everyone. This is his explanation on how one god could be capable of both good and evil, as the concept of “god” has been thoroughly humanized and personified. Aslan is committed in his argument, but such beliefs might be seen as heretical with his Christian and Muslim readership, while the less devout might placate such as hippy-dippy baloney.

God: A Human History is successful in showing the importance of God, which is the true underlying factor in tying humanity together.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to read Aslan’s latest and consider this review my recommendation for others. Read it for the history, for the viewpoints, for the opinions, but keep your faith on hand as a bookmark.

In a short history, Aslan covers large topic over a massive period of time.Thought provoking and insightful. Not only a history book, this encourages the reader to reflect on the very meaning of what it is to be human.

I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for honest feedback.

This is the first book I've read by Reza Aslan. In <i>God: a Human History</i> he attempts to chart the history of the human religious impulse, mainly using anthropological research, which, according to the book, starts with primitive animism and slowly morphs into the monotheism of the Abrahamic religions.

I think it's undeniable that religious or spiritual practice, in one form or another, was historically inherent in human cultures and has existed possibly as long as we've been homo sapiens. It's fascinating to explore what evolutionary purpose this spiritual impulse has served, if any. In that vein, Alsan provides an interesting and broad, if somewhat shallow, read (Most of the meat is in the notes section.). There is a lot of interesting info here that had me rushing to Google. In the end, however, I think he relied too heavily on conclusions that may not be substantiated by the evidence. I also got the idea, in the final chapter, that the whole exercise was undertaken to justify his own belief in Sufism, which I felt to be a bit intellectually dishonest for a scholar.

Aslan's book is probably best read as a jumping off point for people who have little prior knowledge of the history of God as a human concept. Overall, my interest is piqued and I plan to search out better material on the topic.

Aslan writes about God with the accessibility that was key to his book about Jesus. Another solid work.

I'm not sure how I feel about this book. As usual, Aslan presents religious history and ideas in a very readable book that is great for the general public. Most of the ideas presented in the book weren't new to me and won't be new to anyone who studies religion or reads books about theology and religion. Aslan's thesis is that throughout history god is us . He goes through a brief but readable history of religion and god that supports his assertion that all through history, our conception of gods and eventually God and the divine are really reflections of ourselves. The book is only 240 pages so there was only so much Aslan could cover but the history of God really deserves more depth that Aslan gave it. Plus, I can't help but feel that the religious history that he does cover was cherry picked to force the reader to come to the same conclusion as him. I don't regret reading this book and I think it might be a good starting point for someone interested in the subject. However, I would hope that people don't take this as an exhaustive history of the concept of God.

Thanks to Random House Publishers and NetGalley for the advanced reading copy.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2139578228

"What is God? That question has been st the center of the human quest to make sense of the divine from the very beginning."

This was a lot shorter than I expected, the actual content taking up only about 50% of the book. However, the rest of the book is the authors bibliography, notes, and research which I appreciated. When reading non-fiction it's nice to be able to see where the author is getting his source material and the amount of research he put in. And even though it is on the shorter side, it does not lack content.

One thing that needs to be stated clearly: this is not a religious novel. This is a book that takes a look at God through the context of history.

I enjoyed how Aslan related history, society, and cultural to the context of god(s). It creates an informative, well-rounded, and at times fascinating read.

I can see a lot of religious people being upset with this book as it can come across as discounting religion. I would be interested in seeing what leaders of various religions think of this book.