This is a wide ranging and deep book and I have taken my time to read it. I will read it again. I have made copious notes and ideas to research. Mr Hunt has taken thousands of years of history and managed to wrap it up as a fairly easy read. There is a lot here but it is lightly told.

I particularly liked the exposition around how we ended up with our current bible. It all seems like a lottery. What was in and what was out. Who had power and who didn’t. A revelation.

There are stories about all aspects of religion from Christianity through Judaism and Islam to Buddhism via others but it’s very non judgemental and this is not a polemic. It’s a fairly dispassionate look at how we have ended up where we are. This is a read for anyone interested in where our beliefs came from and how a group of people hundreds of years after Jesus put together a book of beliefs. It has the murder and the mayhem of many good books but this is all true. He touches on the results of hatred in places like Northern Ireland, Rwanda, South Africa. This is a real eye opener.

This book needs revisiting, as having got to the end with a new level of understanding I want to read the earlier parts to understand them better.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley

Very comprehensive book! It truly brings God up to date. What was the original message of Jesus that has been watered down? I will need to take a second and careful run through this packed full of information book to mine for the missed nuggets. I encourage you to slowly read this book and learn from it.

A really interesting book, that doesn’t come across as trying too hard. The style is very conversational and it is this relaxed way of giving information out that makes it all the more impactful. There is a feeling of having a chat with a very clever person at a wedding! The book is for every one from devout believers to those who think there is something out there. It covers the history of Christianity look at words and the big ideas and looks at where they came from - there is even a bit of Shakespeare quoted to show there is something for us all! Bible verses are woven into the text and the history of religion and how we got to where we are now.