• A Little History of Religion

  • By: Richard Holloway
  • Narrated by: James Bryce
  • Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (651 ratings)

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A Little History of Religion  By  cover art

A Little History of Religion

By: Richard Holloway
Narrated by: James Bryce
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Publisher's summary

In an era of hardening religious attitudes and explosive religious violence, this book offers a welcome antidote. Richard Holloway retells the entire history of religion - from the dawn of religious belief to the 21st century - with deepest respect and a keen commitment to accuracy.

Writing for those with faith and those without, and especially for young listeners, he encourages curiosity and tolerance, accentuates nuance and mystery and calmly restores a sense of the value of faith.

Ranging far beyond the major world religions of Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism, Holloway also examines where religious belief comes from, the search for meaning throughout history, today's fascinations with Scientology and creationism, religiously motivated violence, hostilities between religious people and secularists and more.

Holloway proves an empathic yet discerning guide to the enduring significance of faith and its power from ancient times to our own.

©2016 Richard Holloway (P)2016 Audible, Ltd

What listeners say about A Little History of Religion

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    4 out of 5 stars

Great book, and I'm an atheist.

there was little-to-no apologetics. It really broke down how all the religions came to be.

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30 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

The Story vs the Approach

I appreciated the targeted, chronological approach of this book. It consumes a huge topic and produces a concise and informative narrative. The author’s approach to religion’s history and study leaves something to be desired though. Holloway seems to operate with the assumption that religious people cannot engage in the objective study of religion. (And in consequence, read his book.) He tells the story of religion through his own biases, without distinguishing them as such.
While there is a place for criticism, just like devotion, in religious study, it is separate from objectivity. He disregards this distinction treating his own viewpoints as being the same thing.

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22 people found this helpful

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excellent

loved it....understood the origin of religion. ..both author and reader was excellent...i loved it...thanks much

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12 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Narration

The narration made the book better. The content was great. A ton of knowledge within a short period. But the narrator carried it home.

Wish they would've included the original religion of the slaves that were taken from Africa (ex. Yoruba) and the practices created from it (ex. Santeria)

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11 people found this helpful

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essential study

A must for anyone who has ever wondered about the many different religions and why.

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9 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars

Good but biased

The author explains all the religions but brings a lot of personal baggage. He spends the last two chapters basically ripping on religion which would be fine if he endeavored to show its pros and cons as well.

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8 people found this helpful

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Easy to follow, very interesting

I find religion interesting in general and wanted an unbiased history of religion that would let me learn about multiple religions. While completely unbiased is kind of impossible, this book did a pretty good job. It definitely follows the religions of Abraham more than others, but after completing the book I feel that this made sense.I left feeling like I learned a lot and I've recommended this book to many people.

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7 people found this helpful

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Good Perspective

I learned a lot in this book and always appreciate learning about other religions. The most important thing i learned is how to answer the question of why there are so many sects of christianity, or religions in general. Groups of people join together to fight against a percieved injustice and then become their own tribe/culture who has their own way of understanding the world. The book ended with secular humanism. The book neither promoted religion or non religion but rather stated a history of comparison and patterns of human thinking/behavior inside religious worldviews and how the enlightenment and science affected religious thinkers and non religious thinkers alike.

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5 people found this helpful

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Excellent "in a nutshell" book!

This is a great book for all ages and gives you a well rounded view of religions of the world, views of God and where we started all the thinking from. Great narration, great info, great book.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent Religion History

I enjoyed this audio book as much as any of my 150 audiobooks. The author exposes many interesting aspects, many of which I have never considered. Every chapter is filled with new considerations with regards to old and new religions. The narrator does and excellent job and encourages deep thinking.
I would recommend this audiobook to anyone interested in the field of religion and philosophy. Hats off to a masterpiece!!

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3 people found this helpful