Creating God

Author : Robin Derricourt
Publisher : Manchester University Press
ISBN 13 : 1526156180
Total Pages : 424 pages
Book Rating : 4.81/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Creating God written by Robin Derricourt and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-17 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do we really know about how and where religions began, and how they spread? In this bold new book, award-winning author Robin Derricourt takes us on a journey through the birth and growth of several major religions, using history and archaeology to recreate the times, places and societies that witnessed the rise of significant monotheistic faiths. Beginning with Mormonism and working backwards through Islam, Christianity and Judaism to Zoroastrianism, Creating God opens up the conditions that allowed religious movements to emerge, attract their first followers and grow. Throughout history there have been many prophets: individuals who believed they were in direct contact with the divine, with instructions to spread a religious message. While many disappeared without trace, some gained millions of followers and established a lasting religion. In Creating God, Robin Derricourt has produced a brilliant, panoramic book that offers new insights on the origins of major religions and raises essential questions about why some succeeded where others failed.

Author : Mark Francisco Bozzuti-Jones
Publisher : Augsburg Fortress Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9780806645681
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.87/5 ( download)

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Download or read book God Created written by Mark Francisco Bozzuti-Jones and published by Augsburg Fortress Publishing. This book was released on 2003 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Illustrations and simple text detail God's creation of everything that exists.

Author : Alexander Bard
Publisher : Stockholm Text
ISBN 13 : 9175471825
Total Pages : 415 pages
Book Rating : 4.22/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Syntheism - Creating God in the Internet Age written by Alexander Bard and published by Stockholm Text. This book was released on 2014-10-06 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A book that dares to describe individualism as a religion and paint a reality that is primarily virtual, rather than physical. While the authors don’t mind challenging the reader’s view of the self and the world, their main intention is to induce passive receivers of the future to become more active participants. Engaging observations and perceptive interpretations of contemporary society.

Author : Anthony A. Hoekema
Publisher : Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9780802808509
Total Pages : 282 pages
Book Rating : 4.06/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Created in God's Image written by Anthony A. Hoekema and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 1994-09-06 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ccording to Scripture, humankind was created in the image of God. Hoekema discusses the implications of this theme, devoting several chapters to the biblical teaching on God's image, the teaching of philosophers and theologians through the ages, and his own theological analysis. Suitable for seminary-level anthropology courses, yet accessible to educated laypeople. Extensive bibliography, fully indexed.

Author : Daniel Wolpert
Publisher : Upper Room Books
ISBN 13 : 0835898555
Total Pages : 154 pages
Book Rating : 4.53/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Creating a Life with God written by Daniel Wolpert and published by Upper Room Books. This book was released on 2003 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'You'll meet 'traveling companions' from history, like Ignatius and Julian of Norwich--individuals and groups who illuminate these prayers. You'll discover how classical approaches to God can deepen your prayer life today. An appendix offers step-by-step instructions for practicing the Jesus Prayer, and the prayer of examen, for walking the labyrinth, praying with your body, and more--whether individually or in a group." -- Back cover

Author : Shankar Vedantam
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 0385525222
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.20/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Hidden Brain written by Shankar Vedantam and published by Random House. This book was released on 2010-08-31 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The hidden brain is the voice in our ear when we make the most important decisions in our lives—but we’re never aware of it. The hidden brain decides whom we fall in love with and whom we hate. It tells us to vote for the white candidate and convict the dark-skinned defendant, to hire the thin woman but pay her less than the man doing the same job. It can direct us to safety when disaster strikes and move us to extraordinary acts of altruism. But it can also be manipulated to turn an ordinary person into a suicide terrorist or a group of bystanders into a mob. In a series of compulsively readable narratives, Shankar Vedantam journeys through the latest discoveries in neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral science to uncover the darkest corner of our minds and its decisive impact on the choices we make as individuals and as a society. Filled with fascinating characters, dramatic storytelling, and cutting-edge science, this is an engrossing exploration of the secrets our brains keep from us—and how they are revealed.

Author : Hugh J. McCann
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 0253357144
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.44/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Creation and the Sovereignty of God written by Hugh J. McCann and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2012-07-20 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Creation and the Sovereignty of God brings fresh insight to a defense of God. Traditional theistic belief declared a perfect being who creates and sustains everything and who exercises sovereignty over all. Lately, this idea has been contested, but Hugh J. McCann maintains that God creates the best possible universe and is completely free to do so; that God is responsible for human actions, yet humans also have free will; and ultimately, that divine command must be reconciled with natural law. With this distinctive approach to understanding God and the universe, McCann brings new perspective to the evidential argument from evil.

Author : Selina O'Grady
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
ISBN 13 : 1250016827
Total Pages : 578 pages
Book Rating : 4.29/5 ( download)

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Download or read book And Man Created God written by Selina O'Grady and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2013-03-26 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the time of Jesus' birth , the world was full of gods. Thousands of them jostled, competed and merged with one another. In Syria ecstatic devotees castrated themselves in the streets to become priests of Atargatis In Galilee, holy men turned oil into wine, healed the sick, drove out devils, and claimed to be the Messiah. Every day thousands of people were leaving their family and tribes behind them and flocking into brand new multi-ethnic cities. The ancient world was in ferment as it underwent the first phase of globalisation, and in this ferment rulers and ruled turned to religion as a source of order and stability. Augustus, the first emperor of Rome (though he never dared officially to call himself so) was maneuvering his way to becoming worshipped as a god – it was one of the most brilliant makeovers ever undertaken by a ruler and his spin doctors. In North Africa, Amanirenas the warrior queen exploited her god-like status to inspire her armies to face and defeat Rome. In China the usurper Wang Mang won and lost his throne because of his obsession with Confucianism. To explore the power that religious belief has had over societies through the ages, Selina O'Grady takes the reader on a dazzling journey across the empires of the ancient world and introduces us to rulers, merchants, messiahs, priests and holy men. Throughout, she seeks to answer why, amongst the countless religious options available, the empires at the time of Jesus ‘chose' the religions they did? Why did China's rulers hitch their fate to Confucianism, a philosophy more than a religion? And why was a tiny Jewish cult led by Jesus eventually adopted by Rome's emperors rather than the cult of Isis which was far more popular and widespread? The Jesus cult , followed by no more than 100 people at the time of his death, should, by rights, have disappeared in a few generations. Instead it became the official religion of the Roman Empire. Why did Christianity grow so quickly to become the predominant world religion? What was it about its teachings that so appealed to people? And Man Created God looks at why and how religions have had such an immense impact on human history and in doing so uncovers the ineradicable connection between politics and religion - a connection which still defines us in our own age. This is an important, thrilling and necessary new work of history.

Author : Reza Aslan
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 0553394738
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.33/5 ( download)

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Download or read book God written by Reza Aslan and published by Random House. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The bestselling author of Zealot and host of Believer explores humanity’s quest to make sense of the divine in this concise and fascinating history of our understanding of God. In Zealot, Reza Aslan replaced the staid, well-worn portrayal of Jesus of Nazareth with a startling new image of the man in all his contradictions. In his new book, Aslan takes on a subject even more immense: God, writ large. In layered prose and with thoughtful, accessible scholarship, Aslan narrates the history of religion as a remarkably cohesive attempt to understand the divine by giving it human traits and emotions. According to Aslan, this innate desire to humanize God is hardwired in our brains, making it a central feature of nearly every religious tradition. As Aslan writes, “Whether we are aware of it or not, and regardless of whether we’re believers or not, what the vast majority of us think about when we think about God is a divine version of ourselves.” But this projection is not without consequences. We bestow upon God not just all that is good in human nature—our compassion, our thirst for justice—but all that is bad in it: our greed, our bigotry, our penchant for violence. All these qualities inform our religions, cultures, and governments. More than just a history of our understanding of God, this book is an attempt to get to the root of this humanizing impulse in order to develop a more universal spirituality. Whether you believe in one God, many gods, or no god at all, God: A Human History will challenge the way you think about the divine and its role in our everyday lives. Praise for God “Timely, riveting, enlightening and necessary.”—HuffPost “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.”—The Seattle Times “A fascinating exploration of the interaction of our humanity and God.”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette “[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.”—Los Angeles Review of Books “Aslan is a born storyteller, and there is much to enjoy in this intelligent survey.”—San Francisco Chronicle

Author : T.M. Luhrmann
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691211981
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.85/5 ( download)

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Download or read book How God Becomes Real written by T.M. Luhrmann and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-27 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The hard work required to make God real, how it changes the people who do it, and why it helps explain the enduring power of faith How do gods and spirits come to feel vividly real to people—as if they were standing right next to them? Humans tend to see supernatural agents everywhere, as the cognitive science of religion has shown. But it isn’t easy to maintain a sense that there are invisible spirits who care about you. In How God Becomes Real, acclaimed anthropologist and scholar of religion T. M. Luhrmann argues that people must work incredibly hard to make gods real and that this effort—by changing the people who do it and giving them the benefits they seek from invisible others—helps to explain the enduring power of faith. Drawing on ethnographic studies of evangelical Christians, pagans, magicians, Zoroastrians, Black Catholics, Santeria initiates, and newly orthodox Jews, Luhrmann notes that none of these people behave as if gods and spirits are simply there. Rather, these worshippers make strenuous efforts to create a world in which invisible others matter and can become intensely present and real. The faithful accomplish this through detailed stories, absorption, the cultivation of inner senses, belief in a porous mind, strong sensory experiences, prayer, and other practices. Along the way, Luhrmann shows why faith is harder than belief, why prayer is a metacognitive activity like therapy, why becoming religious is like getting engrossed in a book, and much more. A fascinating account of why religious practices are more powerful than religious beliefs, How God Becomes Real suggests that faith is resilient not because it provides intuitions about gods and spirits—but because it changes the faithful in profound ways.