GOD: A HUMAN HISTORY

What if you were told that the past, present, and future of God could be read as a single, interconnected, ever-evolving, and remarkably cohesive narrative, and that knowing this story may, far from diminishing faith in God, actually foster greater belief? This is the premise of internationally-bestselling author Reza Aslan’s new book.

This new book is about how our ideas of God have evolved—from the days of the Neanderthal shaman who etched the world of spirits onto the walls of caves, to the age of reason and the scientific revolution. It is about how a handful of the world’s greatest religious innovators—Akhenaten and Pythagoras, Zarathustra and Siddhartha, Abraham and Moses, Jesus and Paul, Muhammad and Baha’u’llah—transformed the way we think about God. And it is about what God may look like thousands of years from now, when there may no longer be any boundary between science and religion. Most of all, this book will answer the question: Why believe in God? Just as he showed in ZEALOT that one can be a follower of Jesus without necessarily being a Christian, Aslan’s new book will show that one can believe in God—fully, passionately, and with complete devotion—without necessarily being religious.

Reza Aslan is the author of three previous books, NO GOD BUT GOD, BEYOND FUNDAMENTALISM, and 2013’s runaway #1 New York Times bestseller, ZEALOT, which was licensed in 30 territories. Aslan was born in Iran, and now lives in Los Angeles with his wife (author, entrepreneur and Spiegel & Grau author Jessica Jackley). He is Associate Professor of Creative Writing and Cooperating Faculty in the Department of Religion at the University of California, Riverside. Random House has a work of fiction, THE HISTORY OF ZERO, also under contract with the author.