Exploring the Divine in the Human: A Look at God's Role in Human History with Reza Aslan

Vikram Prabhu: A good book to connect the different historical aspects of religious thought without getting too much into the weeds.

India on Oct 09, 2023

Jenn Thomas: Reza Aslan's book delves into the beginnings of religion and the creation of God in our human image. It goes back to the cave days, right up through the various religions of the past, into Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, as well as pantheism.

I learned a lot from this book, which is very well written and easy to follow.

I had little use for the final chapter, which seemed to be proselytize a fair bit in favor of Sufi-ism and pantheism. Your own mileage on that may vary.

Over all, an excellent and educational read.

United States on Apr 18, 2023

Asad Khan: I've always wondered how did religions come about and how they evolved, the reasoning behind it and how human began believing in the concept of God and this book explains all of that and has left me satisfied.

As the name of the book indicates, the book takes you through the history of how humans developed the concept of God and how much variation it attained till the period when Islam was founded and accepted by a large number of people in the world. The book isn't about one particular religion, it isn't about convincing anybody whether God exists or not, the author just explains the understanding he has developed over years and has beautifully articulated that knowledge in this thoughtful and extraordinary book.

The writing of this author gets hard at times, gets a little monotonous when goes deep in history like Reza Aslan's previous books but he always comes around with a mind-blowing and thought-provoking conclusion which has always left me awestruck.

It's a book for people who are interested in history, humans, God and most importantly religion. The book is great and highly recommended.

India on Jun 15, 2021

Bai: A story of how the idea of God developed and evolved, from an anthropological rather than religious perspective. The author is from Iran and was born a Muslim, converted to Christianity, then converted back to a Muslim, so he is familiar with multiple religions.

Humans have an instinct to believe in god, and have done so since prehistoric times. Paintings and hand prints were found in caves, but these were religious and ceremonial sites, not places where people lived. Religion doesn't provide any direct advantages for us (arguments involving social cohesion and altruism don't hold up to scrutiny), but rather as a byproduct of a survival mechanism makes us see humanlike qualities in inanimate things. We ascribe this to the supernatural and this forms the basis of religion.

Neolithic revolution is when humans first began transitioning from hunter-gather to agrarian lifestyle. Author argues that religion preceded this transition: the Golbekli Tepe was constructed before agriculture by hunter-gather peoples, and this settlement in the same place for a long time enabled agriculture to be possible.

We have a tendency to humanize our gods, but only to a partial...

Canada on Oct 17, 2020

Saleem Khan: Just finished this fantastic book by Reza Aslan. It traces the history of beliefs and concepts about Soul, God, Creation, Prophets and Afterlife ever since Human species have existed on this earth, inhabiting different regions. There have been both - remarkable commonalities as well as a mind boggling variety in how humans sought to make sense of the self, their place in this world, life and death, the existence of a supreme soul etc. giving rise to religious societies, rituals, worship and priesthood. Especially remarkable are his expositions on concepts like Politicomorphism, Henotheism and the like. Those of you who might have read the magisterial work "A History of God" be Karen Armstrong - believe me this one is not an image of the former. It presents new material. It's also, in a way, the personal spiritual journey of the author himself....highly recommended for those who are interested in the history of religion. I must add a word of caution though: Some of the narratives and references may not be palatable to some readers.

India on Aug 14, 2020

Mr M Wadham: When I first came across this book and read the description; its fair to say I looked forward to reading this monograph. I was impressed by Aslans usage of current archeological evidence in building his case for animism but this is where the argument begins to struggle. I actually found the preceding chapters boring where Aslan doesnt bring anything new to the party. By the end of the book, I was surprised by two things; first the immense size of the acknowledgements, notes etc is simply too much and actually gives the reader a false sense of the actual size of the text. Second, the conclusion is almost like the concluding comments of a essay. It doesnt have the same writing style as the rest of the text. I am disappointed with this book, I enjoyed Aslans monograph on islam and I still consider it to be an commanding overview of the history of Islam but this book is a far cry from that literary achievement

United Kingdom on Aug 05, 2020

LabRat: I've read many books on New Testament history but this is the first about the origins and evolution of religion from Neanderthals and cave paintings up through the Old Testament and beyond. Very readable, fascinating information about all the gods mankind has invented and battled over since prehistory. Of course any book that looks at religion and/or God(s) in a secular light as historical human invention will require an open mind. Believers will likely see this as an attack on faith - it is not. It is a study of the evolution of human thought into the birth of philosophy and assignment of agency to the unexplainable and unseen. Any investigation into prehistory requires assumptions to be made to a point, and Aslan's are largely reasonable assumptions based on observation with a little personal influence thrown in. My only complaint is with authors who pack tons of information into the end notes as Aslan does here, forcing the reader to flip back and forth, over and over, from front to back as you're trying to read. Nearly one quarter of this book is after the final chapter in the form of notes. Still highly interesting and recommended. Set your scriptures aside for a moment and...

United States on Jan 19, 2018

Daniel F. Pigg: Reza Aslan in God: A Human History describe the human preoccupation with God across time. Much attention as would be expected is given to the axial age. Aslan’s book is directed toward a relatively educated audience who wants to examine a very complex topic to expand a knowledge base for understand. The extensive notes section of the text from pages 175 to 279 shows his book to be a rather good distillation of scholarship. I was somewhat surprised to see Karen Armstrong’s scholarship not included, but I must say that he has done his research carefully and has been able to translate what can be very arcane material typically presented at scholarly conference such as the American Academy of Religion and/or published in scholarly journal for those engaged in various aspects of religious studies into a readable book for non-specialists.

Long ago, it was thought that animism was the most ancient religion and that other religions in some sense were evolutionary developments of that principle. Aslan adds to the discussion with the emergence of cognitive science as a way of understanding the God concept as originating in the mind itself. Humans are “wired” that way. If...

United States on Dec 28, 2017

Roger DeBlanck: Each of Reza Aslan’s previous books made a lasting impression on me. God: A Human History is no different. It is an empowering study that relies on impeccable scholarship and yet reads with the lyricism and emotion of great literature. All the while, Aslan maintains a page-turning narrative that shows how we have made sense of God throughout history by assigning human attributes to our divine beliefs.

Aslan starts with the first humans of “Adam and Eve.” He explains how they performed burial rituals that sought to embrace an afterworld where the deceased took on spiritual forms. He shows how this idea of a transcendent soul in the afterlife has been part of every culture throughout human evolution. Then, with the birth of agriculture, the humanization of gods intensified as it was fitting to transfer the powers of the gods from heaven to earth so that humans could fulfill the harvest.

With the Sumerians’ invention of writing, humans had the ability to chronicle history, and with the power of writing came the “compulsion to humanize the divine.” This led to the widespread worship of idols. Each idol became a type of adobe where a spirit dwelt, often with a...

United States on Dec 16, 2017