-
God’s Secretaries
- The Making of the King James Bible
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $15.56
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Charles Dickens
- A Life
- By: Claire Tomalin
- Narrated by: Alex Jennings
- Length: 16 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Charles Dickens: A Life gives full measure to Dickens's heroic stature - his huge virtues both as a writer and as a human being - while observing his failings in both respects with an unblinking eye. Renowned literary biographer Claire Tomalin crafts a story worthy of Dickens's own pen, a comedy that turns to tragedy as the very qualities that made him great - his indomitable energy, boldness, imagination, and showmanship - finally destroyed him.
-
-
A great biography brilliantly read
- By C. Randall Curb on 11-04-13
By: Claire Tomalin
-
The Last King of America
- The Misunderstood Reign of George III
- By: Andrew Roberts
- Narrated by: Phillipe Stevens
- Length: 36 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most Americans dismiss George III as a buffoon - a heartless and terrible monarch with few, if any, redeeming qualities. The best-known modern interpretation of him is Jonathan Groff's preening, spitting, and pompous take in Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway masterpiece. But this deeply unflattering characterization is rooted in the prejudiced and brilliantly persuasive opinions of 18th-century revolutionaries. After combing through hundreds of thousands of pages of never-before-published correspondence, award-winning historian Andrew Roberts has uncovered the truth.
-
-
Fantastic .. a proud defense of George III
- By Wyatt on 11-12-21
By: Andrew Roberts
-
Why Homer Matters
- By: Adam Nicolson
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adam Nicolson sees the Iliad and the Odyssey as the foundation myths of Greek - and our - consciousness, collapsing the passage of 4,000 years and making the distant past of the Mediterranean world as immediate to us as the events of our own time.
-
-
Fascinating
- By Jean on 05-04-15
By: Adam Nicolson
-
Social Justice Fallacies
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Brad Sanders
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The quest for social justice is a powerful crusade of our time, with an appeal to many different people, for many different reasons. But those who use the same words do not always present the same meanings. Clarifying those meanings is the first step toward finding out what we agree on and disagree on. From there, it is largely a question of what the facts are. Social Justice Fallacies reveals how many things that are thought to be true simply cannot stand up to documented facts, which are often the opposite of what is widely believed.
-
-
Timely book by 93 year old Thomas Sowell
- By Wayne on 09-27-23
By: Thomas Sowell
-
The Antiquities of the Jews
- By: Flavius Josephus
- Narrated by: Allan Corduner
- Length: 51 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Among the many important historical documents from the Classical world of Greece and Rome The Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus is one of the most distinctive and characterful. Josephus (37-c100 CE) set out with the clear purpose of telling the history of the Jews from the creation in Genesis to the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 66 CE. Born in Jerusalem as Yosef ben Matityahu, he rose to become a leading participant in the First Jewish Revolt (66-73 CE).
-
-
Narrator surprisingly good Worth way more than $10
- By Jim Davis on 10-05-21
By: Flavius Josephus
-
The Rational Bible: Genesis
- By: Dennis Prager
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 19 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Many people today think the Bible, the most influential book in world history, is not only outdated but irrelevant, irrational, and even immoral. This explanation of the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, demonstrates clearly and powerfully that the opposite is true. The Bible remains profoundly relevant - both to the great issues of our day and to each individual life. It is the greatest moral guide and source of wisdom ever written.
-
-
So glad I bought this!
- By Alex Martinez on 06-10-19
By: Dennis Prager
-
Charles Dickens
- A Life
- By: Claire Tomalin
- Narrated by: Alex Jennings
- Length: 16 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Charles Dickens: A Life gives full measure to Dickens's heroic stature - his huge virtues both as a writer and as a human being - while observing his failings in both respects with an unblinking eye. Renowned literary biographer Claire Tomalin crafts a story worthy of Dickens's own pen, a comedy that turns to tragedy as the very qualities that made him great - his indomitable energy, boldness, imagination, and showmanship - finally destroyed him.
-
-
A great biography brilliantly read
- By C. Randall Curb on 11-04-13
By: Claire Tomalin
-
The Last King of America
- The Misunderstood Reign of George III
- By: Andrew Roberts
- Narrated by: Phillipe Stevens
- Length: 36 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most Americans dismiss George III as a buffoon - a heartless and terrible monarch with few, if any, redeeming qualities. The best-known modern interpretation of him is Jonathan Groff's preening, spitting, and pompous take in Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway masterpiece. But this deeply unflattering characterization is rooted in the prejudiced and brilliantly persuasive opinions of 18th-century revolutionaries. After combing through hundreds of thousands of pages of never-before-published correspondence, award-winning historian Andrew Roberts has uncovered the truth.
-
-
Fantastic .. a proud defense of George III
- By Wyatt on 11-12-21
By: Andrew Roberts
-
Why Homer Matters
- By: Adam Nicolson
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adam Nicolson sees the Iliad and the Odyssey as the foundation myths of Greek - and our - consciousness, collapsing the passage of 4,000 years and making the distant past of the Mediterranean world as immediate to us as the events of our own time.
-
-
Fascinating
- By Jean on 05-04-15
By: Adam Nicolson
-
Social Justice Fallacies
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Brad Sanders
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The quest for social justice is a powerful crusade of our time, with an appeal to many different people, for many different reasons. But those who use the same words do not always present the same meanings. Clarifying those meanings is the first step toward finding out what we agree on and disagree on. From there, it is largely a question of what the facts are. Social Justice Fallacies reveals how many things that are thought to be true simply cannot stand up to documented facts, which are often the opposite of what is widely believed.
-
-
Timely book by 93 year old Thomas Sowell
- By Wayne on 09-27-23
By: Thomas Sowell
-
The Antiquities of the Jews
- By: Flavius Josephus
- Narrated by: Allan Corduner
- Length: 51 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Among the many important historical documents from the Classical world of Greece and Rome The Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus is one of the most distinctive and characterful. Josephus (37-c100 CE) set out with the clear purpose of telling the history of the Jews from the creation in Genesis to the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 66 CE. Born in Jerusalem as Yosef ben Matityahu, he rose to become a leading participant in the First Jewish Revolt (66-73 CE).
-
-
Narrator surprisingly good Worth way more than $10
- By Jim Davis on 10-05-21
By: Flavius Josephus
-
The Rational Bible: Genesis
- By: Dennis Prager
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 19 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Many people today think the Bible, the most influential book in world history, is not only outdated but irrelevant, irrational, and even immoral. This explanation of the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, demonstrates clearly and powerfully that the opposite is true. The Bible remains profoundly relevant - both to the great issues of our day and to each individual life. It is the greatest moral guide and source of wisdom ever written.
-
-
So glad I bought this!
- By Alex Martinez on 06-10-19
By: Dennis Prager
-
Scribes and Scripture
- The Amazing Story of How We Got the Bible
- By: John D. Meade, Peter J. Gurry
- Narrated by: Tim H. Dixon
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There are many common questions and misconceptions surrounding the formation and history of the Bible: Why is the Bible composed of the current 66 books instead of others? Why are there so many translations? How are we to understand both the human and divine elements of the Bible? In Scribes and Scripture, scholars John D. Meade and Peter J. Gurry answer these questions and give listeners tools to interpret the evidence about God’s word.
-
-
easy to understand, biblically sound
- By Joshua Kilburn on 03-07-24
By: John D. Meade, and others
-
Paul
- A Biography
- By: N. T. Wright
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this definitive biography, renowned Bible scholar, Anglican bishop, and best-selling author N. T. Wright offers a radical look at the apostle Paul, illuminating the humanity and remarkable achievements of this intellectual who invented Christian theology - transforming a faith and changing the world. For centuries, Paul, the apostle who "saw the light on the Road to Damascus" and made a miraculous conversion from zealous Pharisee persecutor to devoted follower of Christ, has been one of the church's most widely cited saints.
-
-
Different type of writing for Wright is helpful
- By Adam Shields on 04-25-18
By: N. T. Wright
-
The French Revolution
- From Enlightenment to Tyranny
- By: Ian Davidson
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The French Revolution casts a long shadow, one that reaches into our own time and influences our debates on freedom, equality, and authority. Yet it remains an elusive, perplexing historical event. Its significance morphs according to the sympathies of the viewer, who may see it as a series of gory tableaux, a regrettable slide into uncontrolled anarchy - or a radical reshaping of the political landscape. In this riveting new book, Ian Davidson provides a fresh look at this vital moment in European history. He reveals how it was an immensely complicated and multifaceted revolution....
-
-
superficial; trite
- By David Hart on 04-25-19
By: Ian Davidson
-
Hide Your Children
- Exposing Marxists Behind the Attack on America's Kids
- By: Liz Wheeler
- Narrated by: Stephanie Richardson
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Having conquered all the major institutions of our culture, the left is closing in on its final frontier—your children. In this new book, Liz Wheeler exposes where the forces of wokeness are at work and explains how parents can fight back for a change. Everything is on the line.
-
-
Great book!
- By CO-MAC on 10-03-23
By: Liz Wheeler
-
Jesus, Interrupted
- Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible
- By: Bart D. Ehrman
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Picking up where Bible expert Bart Ehrman's New York Times best seller, Misquoting Jesus, left off, Jesus, Interrupted addresses the larger issue of what the New Testament actually teaches...and it's not what most people think. This is the book that pastors, educators, and anyone interested in the Bible have been waiting for, a clear and compelling account of the central challenges we face when attempting to reconstruct the life and message of Jesus.
-
-
Take a college course in New Testament in a book
- By R. Reed on 04-09-09
By: Bart D. Ehrman
-
Get Trump
- The Threat to Civil Liberties, Due Process, and Our Constitutional Rule of Law
- By: Alan Dershowitz
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 5 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alan Dershowitz has been called “one of the most prominent and consistent defenders of civil liberties in America” by Politico and “the nation’s most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer and one of its most distinguished defenders of individual rights” by Newsweek. Get Trump makes clear that unconstitutional efforts to stop Trump from retaking the presidency challenge the very foundations of our liberty: due process, right to counsel, and free speech.
-
-
Good Book
- By Ron on 05-12-23
By: Alan Dershowitz
-
The Year of Lear
- Shakespeare in 1606
- By: James Shapiro
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the years leading up to 1606, since the death of Queen Elizabeth and the arrival in England of her successor, King James of Scotland, Shakespeare's great productivity had ebbed, and it may have seemed to some that his prolific genius was a thing of the past. But that year, at age 42, he found his footing again, finishing a play he had begun the previous autumn - King Lear - then writing two other great tragedies, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra.
-
-
Detailed and satisfying
- By Tad Davis on 02-24-16
By: James Shapiro
-
Turning Small Talk into Big Talk
- By: Jan Janura
- Narrated by: Jan Janura
- Length: 4 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Small talk isn’t getting us anywhere. What we need today more than ever is “Big Talk,” real conversations in which we dig deep into our souls and discuss intriguing topics that truly shape the world and impact our daily lives. Conversation is undoubtedly the most important part of a relationship, whether it’s business, personal, or spiritual. In Turning Small Talk into Big Talk, Jan Janura unpacks the simple, easy-to-apply method he’s used throughout his career to turn dinner parties and other gatherings into fun, interesting, sometimes life- and career-changing experiences.
-
-
5🌟 concise primer on facilitating connection
- By Michaela "Myca" Jester, Esq. The Lawyer Life Coach on 04-20-23
By: Jan Janura
-
Powers and Thrones
- A New History of the Middle Ages
- By: Dan Jones
- Narrated by: Dan Jones
- Length: 24 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the once-mighty city of Rome was sacked by barbarians in 410 and lay in ruins, it signaled the end of an era—and the beginning of a thousand years of profound transformation. In a gripping narrative bursting with big names—from St Augustine and Attila the Hun to the Prophet Muhammad and Eleanor of Aquitaine—Dan Jones charges through the history of the Middle Ages. Powers and Thrones takes listeners on a journey through an emerging Europe, the great capitals of late Antiquity, as well as the influential cities of the Islamic West.
-
-
Hard to take a break from it!
- By Mariano's Music on 12-09-21
By: Dan Jones
-
Martin Luther
- The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World
- By: Eric Metaxas
- Narrated by: Eric Metaxas
- Length: 20 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Five hundred years after Luther's now famous 95 Theses appeared, Eric Metaxas, acclaimed biographer of the best-selling Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy and Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, paints a startling portrait of the wild figure whose adamantine faith cracked the edifice of Western Christendom and dragged medieval Europe into the future.
-
-
A Metaxas Hat Trick
- By Tommy on 11-04-17
By: Eric Metaxas
-
Wide as the Waters
- The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspired
- By: Benson Bobrick
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The most famous of all English Bibles, the King James Version, was the culmination of centuries of work by various translators, from John Wycliffe, the 14 century catalyst of English Bible translation, to the committee of scholars who collaborated on the King James translation. Wide as the Waters examines the life and work of Wycliffe and recounts the tribulations of his successors, including William Tyndale, who was martyred, Miles Coverdale, and others who came to bitter ends.
-
-
Very imformative
- By Anonymous User on 01-15-24
By: Benson Bobrick
-
Napoleon
- A Life
- By: Andrew Roberts
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 32 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Andrew Roberts' Napoleon is the first one-volume biography to take advantage of the recent publication of Napoleon's thirty-three thousand letters, which radically transform our understanding of his character and motivation. At last we see him as he was: protean multitasker, decisive, surprisingly willing to forgive his enemies and his errant wife Josephine.
-
-
What a dynamo!
- By Tad Davis on 01-16-15
By: Andrew Roberts
Publisher's summary
A net of complex currents flowed across Jacobean England. This was the England of Shakespeare, Jonson, and Bacon; the Gunpowder Plot; the worst outbreak of the plague England had ever seen; arcadian landscapes; murderous, toxic slums; and, above all, sometimes overwhelming religious passion. Jacobean England was both more godly and less godly than it had ever been, and the entire culture was drawn taut between the polarities.
This was the world that created the King James Bible. It is the greatest work of English prose ever written, and it is no coincidence that the translation was made at the moment “Englishness” and the English language had come into its first passionate maturity. Boisterous, elegant, subtle, majestic, finely nuanced, sonorous, and musical, the English of Jacobean England has a more encompassing idea of its own reach and scope than any before or since. It is a form of the language that drips with potency and sensitivity. The age, with all its conflicts, explains the book.
The sponsor and guide of the whole Bible project was the king himself, the brilliant, ugly, and profoundly peace-loving James the Sixth of Scotland and First of England. Trained almost from birth to manage the rivalries of political factions at home, James saw in England the chance for a sort of irenic Eden over which the new translation of the Bible was to preside. It was to be a Bible for everyone, and as God’s lieutenant on earth, he would use it to unify his kingdom. The dream of Jacobean peace, guaranteed by an elision of royal power and divine glory, lies behind a Bible of extraordinary grace and everlasting literary power.
Adam Nicolson is the author of Seamanship, God’s Secretaries, and Seize the Fire. He has won both the Somerset Maugham and William Heinemann awards, and he lives with his family at Sissinghurst Castle in England.
Critic reviews
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea
- Why the Greeks Matter
- By: Thomas Cahill
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best selling history writer Thomas Cahill continues his series on the roots of Western civilization with this volume about the contributions of ancient Greece to the development of contemporary culture. Tracing the origin of Greek culture in the migrations of armed Indo-European horsemen into Attica and the Peloponnesian peninsula, he follows their progress into the creation of the Greek city-states, the refinement of their machinery of war, and the flowering of intellectual and artistic culture.
-
-
Super super
- By Richard on 12-28-03
By: Thomas Cahill
-
The Swerve
- How the World Became Modern
- By: Stephen Greenblatt
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nearly six hundred years ago, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late 30s took a very old manuscript off a library shelf, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. That book was the last surviving manuscript of an ancient Roman philosophical epic by Lucretius—a beautiful poem containing the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life, and that matter was made up of very small particles.
-
-
Very compelling history, a less compelling thesis
- By A reader on 05-01-12
-
Fatal Discord
- Erasmus, Luther, and the Fight for the Western Mind
- By: Michael Massing
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 34 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This deeply textured dual biography and fascinating intellectual history examines two of the greatest minds of European history - Desiderius Erasmus and Martin Luther - whose heated rivalry gave rise to two enduring, fundamental, and often colliding traditions of philosophical and religious thought.
-
-
Excellent work - up until the discussion of America
- By Michele Esposito on 08-24-19
By: Michael Massing
-
Martin Luther
- Renegade and Prophet
- By: Lyndal Roper
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 15 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On October 31, 1517, an unknown monk nailed a theological pamphlet to a church door in a small university town and set in motion a process that helped usher in the modern world. Within a few years, Luther's ideas had spread like wildfire. His attempts to reform Christianity by returning it to its biblical roots split the Western Church, divided Europe, and polarized people's beliefs.
-
-
The purpose of this book is not to be a biography
- By LionsCalling09 on 01-25-18
By: Lyndal Roper
-
Augustine
- Conversions to Confessions
- By: Robin Lane Fox
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 25 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Saint Augustine is one of the most influential figures in all of Christianity, yet his path to sainthood was by no means assured. Born in AD 354 to a pagan father and a Christian mother, Augustine spent the first 30 years of his life struggling to understand the nature of God and his world. He learned about Christianity as a child but was never baptized, choosing instead to immerse himself in the study of rhetoric, Manicheanism, and then Neoplatonism - all the while indulging in a life of lust and greed.
-
-
Excellent
- By Chelsie P. on 12-06-16
By: Robin Lane Fox
-
The Year of Lear
- Shakespeare in 1606
- By: James Shapiro
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the years leading up to 1606, since the death of Queen Elizabeth and the arrival in England of her successor, King James of Scotland, Shakespeare's great productivity had ebbed, and it may have seemed to some that his prolific genius was a thing of the past. But that year, at age 42, he found his footing again, finishing a play he had begun the previous autumn - King Lear - then writing two other great tragedies, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra.
-
-
Detailed and satisfying
- By Tad Davis on 02-24-16
By: James Shapiro
-
Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea
- Why the Greeks Matter
- By: Thomas Cahill
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best selling history writer Thomas Cahill continues his series on the roots of Western civilization with this volume about the contributions of ancient Greece to the development of contemporary culture. Tracing the origin of Greek culture in the migrations of armed Indo-European horsemen into Attica and the Peloponnesian peninsula, he follows their progress into the creation of the Greek city-states, the refinement of their machinery of war, and the flowering of intellectual and artistic culture.
-
-
Super super
- By Richard on 12-28-03
By: Thomas Cahill
-
The Swerve
- How the World Became Modern
- By: Stephen Greenblatt
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nearly six hundred years ago, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late 30s took a very old manuscript off a library shelf, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. That book was the last surviving manuscript of an ancient Roman philosophical epic by Lucretius—a beautiful poem containing the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life, and that matter was made up of very small particles.
-
-
Very compelling history, a less compelling thesis
- By A reader on 05-01-12
-
Fatal Discord
- Erasmus, Luther, and the Fight for the Western Mind
- By: Michael Massing
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 34 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This deeply textured dual biography and fascinating intellectual history examines two of the greatest minds of European history - Desiderius Erasmus and Martin Luther - whose heated rivalry gave rise to two enduring, fundamental, and often colliding traditions of philosophical and religious thought.
-
-
Excellent work - up until the discussion of America
- By Michele Esposito on 08-24-19
By: Michael Massing
-
Martin Luther
- Renegade and Prophet
- By: Lyndal Roper
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 15 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On October 31, 1517, an unknown monk nailed a theological pamphlet to a church door in a small university town and set in motion a process that helped usher in the modern world. Within a few years, Luther's ideas had spread like wildfire. His attempts to reform Christianity by returning it to its biblical roots split the Western Church, divided Europe, and polarized people's beliefs.
-
-
The purpose of this book is not to be a biography
- By LionsCalling09 on 01-25-18
By: Lyndal Roper
-
Augustine
- Conversions to Confessions
- By: Robin Lane Fox
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 25 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Saint Augustine is one of the most influential figures in all of Christianity, yet his path to sainthood was by no means assured. Born in AD 354 to a pagan father and a Christian mother, Augustine spent the first 30 years of his life struggling to understand the nature of God and his world. He learned about Christianity as a child but was never baptized, choosing instead to immerse himself in the study of rhetoric, Manicheanism, and then Neoplatonism - all the while indulging in a life of lust and greed.
-
-
Excellent
- By Chelsie P. on 12-06-16
By: Robin Lane Fox
-
The Year of Lear
- Shakespeare in 1606
- By: James Shapiro
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the years leading up to 1606, since the death of Queen Elizabeth and the arrival in England of her successor, King James of Scotland, Shakespeare's great productivity had ebbed, and it may have seemed to some that his prolific genius was a thing of the past. But that year, at age 42, he found his footing again, finishing a play he had begun the previous autumn - King Lear - then writing two other great tragedies, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra.
-
-
Detailed and satisfying
- By Tad Davis on 02-24-16
By: James Shapiro
-
A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare
- 1599
- By: James Shapiro
- Narrated by: James Shapiro
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1599 was an epochal year for Shakespeare and England. During that year, Shakespeare wrote four of his most famous plays: Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet; Elizabethans sent off an army to crush an Irish rebellion, weathered an Armada threat from Spain, gambled on a fledgling East India Company, and waited to see who would succeed their aging and childless queen.
-
-
Note!--Abridged version
- By Scott on 01-05-16
By: James Shapiro
-
Our Oriental Heritage
- The Story of Civilization, Volume 1
- By: Will Durant
- Narrated by: Robin Field
- Length: 50 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first volume of Will Durant's Pulitzer Prize-winning series, Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization, Volume I chronicles the early history of Egypt, the Middle East, and Asia.
-
-
Wonderful
- By Michael on 11-30-13
By: Will Durant
-
Shakespeare and the Resistance
- By: Clare Asquith
- Narrated by: Allan Corduner
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The 1590s were bleak years for England. The queen was old, the succession unclear, and the treasury empty after decades of war. Amid the rising tension, William Shakespeare published a pair of poems dedicated to the young Earl of Southampton: Venus and Adonis in 1593 and The Rape of Lucrece a year later. Although wildly popular during Shakespeare's lifetime, to modern readers both works are almost impenetrable. But in her enthralling new book, the Shakespearean scholar Clare Asquith reveals their hidden contents.
-
-
Excellent scholarship unveiling hidden history
- By Anonymous User on 07-03-23
By: Clare Asquith
-
The Life and Times of Chaucer
- By: John Gardner
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this exquisite biography, John Gardner brings to life Geoffrey Chaucer, illuminating his writings and their inspiration like never before. Through exhaustive research and expert storytelling, Gardner takes readers through Chaucer’s varied career - from writing The Canterbury Tales to performing diplomatic work at the Parliament - and creates a fully realized portrait of an author whose work would remake the English language forever. Written with passion and insight, this a must-listen for those interested in Chaucer and the medieval time period.
-
-
Good book, but quoted passages are in Old English
- By Kathi on 02-26-14
By: John Gardner
-
Caravaggio
- A Life Sacred and Profane
- By: Andrew Graham-Dixon
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 18 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the tradition of John Richardson's Picasso, a commanding new biography of the Italian master's tumultuous life and mysterious death. For four hundred years Caravaggio's (1571-1610) staggering artistic achievements have thrilled viewers, yet his volatile personal trajectory - the murder of Ranuccio Tomasini, the doubt surrounding Caravaggio's sexuality, the chain of events that began with his imprisonment on Malta and ended with his premature death - has long confounded historians.
-
-
Interesting life
- By Jean on 08-28-13
-
Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World
- By: Leo Damrosch
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 20 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jonathan Swift is best remembered today as the author of Gulliver’s Travels, the satiric fantasy that quickly became a classic and has remained in print for nearly three centuries. Yet Swift also wrote many other influential works, was a major political and religious figure in his time, and became a national hero, beloved for his fierce protest against English exploitation of his native Ireland. What is really known today about the enigmatic man behind these accomplishments? Can the facts of his life be separated from the fictions?
-
-
JOHNATHAN SWIFT AND POWER OF THE PEN
- By chetyarbrough.blog on 09-30-14
By: Leo Damrosch
-
Kierkegaard
- A Single Life
- By: Stephen Backhouse
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An accessible, expert introduction to one of the greatest minds of 19th century. Whether you're completely new to him, or if you're already familiar with his work, Kierkegaard: A Single Life presents a fresh understanding of his life and thought. Kierkegaard was a brilliant and enigmatic loner whose ideas permeated culture, shaped modern Christianity, and influenced people as diverse as Franz Kafka and Martin Luther King Jr. Though few people today have read his work, that lack of familiarity with the real Kierkegaard is changing with this biography by scholar Stephen Backhouse.
-
-
Great!
- By Will on 07-11-17
-
Yiddish Civilisation: The Rise and Fall of a Forgotten Nation
- By: Paul Kriwaczek
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tracing Yiddish civilization from its roots in the Diaspora to the present, Paul Kriwaczek combines intimate family anecdote, travelogue, historical research, and interviews with scholars to give us a rich portrait of a nearly extinguished culture as it survived across the centuries. He begins his chronicle in Jerusalem, with the destruction of the Jewish temple at the hands of the Romans in the year 70. We see the burgeoning exile population disperse, moving outward and northward throughout the following centuries, making their mark in more far flung cities under Roman rule.
-
-
Disorganized, inconclusive and disappointing
- By Alex on 12-15-20
By: Paul Kriwaczek
-
Natasha's Dance
- A Cultural History of Russia
- By: Orlando Figes
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 29 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning in the 18th century with the building of St. Petersburg - a 'window on the West' - and culminating with the challenges posed to Russian identity by the Soviet regime, Figes examines how writers, artists, and musicians grappled with the idea of Russia itself - its character, spiritual essence and destiny. He skillfully interweaves the great works - by Dostoevsky, Stravinsky, and Chagall - with folk embroidery, peasant songs, religious icons and all the customs of daily life, from food and drink to bathing habits to beliefs about the spirit world.
-
-
A Kaleidescopic panorama of an enigmatic culture.
- By Tarquin on 02-13-19
By: Orlando Figes
-
The Fellowship
- The Literary LIves of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams
- By: Philip Zaleski, Carol Zaleski
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 26 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
C. S. Lewis is the 20th century's most widely read Christian writer and J. R. R. Tolkien its most beloved mythmaker. For three decades they and their closest associates formed a literary club known as the Inklings, which met weekly in Lewis' Oxford rooms and a nearby pub. They read aloud from works in progress, argued about anything that caught their fancy, and gave one another invaluable companionship, inspiration, and criticism.
-
-
If You Love Literature...
- By Ray M on 07-14-16
By: Philip Zaleski, and others
-
Heretics and Believers
- A History of the English Reformation
- By: Peter Marshall
- Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan
- Length: 35 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Centuries on, what the Reformation was and what it accomplished remain deeply contentious. Peter Marshall's sweeping new history argues that 16th-century England was a society neither desperate for nor allergic to change, but one open to ideas of "reform" in various competing guises. This engaging history reveals what was really at stake in the overthrow of Catholic culture and the reshaping of the English Church.
-
-
A heavy read but well worth it.
- By chemtrooper on 12-02-18
By: Peter Marshall
-
Tried by Fire
- The Story of Christianity's First Thousand Years
- By: William J. Bennett
- Narrated by: Wayne Campbell
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Full of larger-than-life characters, stunning acts of bravery, and heart-rending sacrifice, Tried by Fire narrates the rise and expansion of Christianity from an obscure regional sect to the established faith of the world's greatest empire with influence extending from India to Ireland, Scandinavia to Ethiopia, and all points in between.
-
-
Best history of Christianity I've read
- By JOHN F KANARY on 05-05-16
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Why Homer Matters
- By: Adam Nicolson
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adam Nicolson sees the Iliad and the Odyssey as the foundation myths of Greek - and our - consciousness, collapsing the passage of 4,000 years and making the distant past of the Mediterranean world as immediate to us as the events of our own time.
-
-
Fascinating
- By Jean on 05-04-15
By: Adam Nicolson
-
Life Between the Tides
- By: Adam Nicolson
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Life Between the Tides, Adam Nicolson investigates one of the most revelatory habitats on earth. Under his microscope, we see a prawn's head become a medieval helmet and a group of "winkles" transform into a Dickensian social scene, with mollusks munching on Stilton and glancing at their pocket watches. Or, rather, is a winkle more like Achilles, an ancient hero, throwing himself toward death for the sake of glory? For Nicolson, the world of the rockpools is infinite and as intricate as our own.
-
-
Mixed
- By Chris Quigg on 02-08-23
By: Adam Nicolson
-
Bible
- The Story of the King James Version
- By: Gordon Campbell
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a history of the King James Version of the Bible over the 400 years from its remote beginnings to the present day and helps to explain the enduring popularity of the King James Version throughout the world today. Gordon Campbell, expert in Renaissance literatures, tells the fascinating and complex story of how this translation came to be commissioned, of who the translators were, and of how the translation was accomplished. The story does not end with the printing of that first edition, but introduces the subsequent generations who edited and interacted with the text.
-
-
This is not the bible
- By Keith on 03-02-21
By: Gordon Campbell
-
How to Be
- Life Lessons from the Early Greeks
- By: Adam Nicolson
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In How to Be, Adam Nicolson takes us on a glorious, immersive journey. Grounded in the belief that places give access to minds, however distant and strange, this book reintroduces us to our earliest thinkers through the lands they inhabited. To know the mental occupations of Homer or Heraclitus, one must visit their cities, sail their seas, and find landscapes not overwhelmed by the millennia that have passed but retain the atmosphere of that ancient life. Nicolson takes us to the dawn of investigative thought and a nexus of cross-cultural connection.
-
-
Impressed but overwhelmed
- By moss on 02-28-24
By: Adam Nicolson
-
Amazing Grace in the Life of William Wilberforce
- By: John Piper
- Narrated by: Wayne Shepherd
- Length: 1 hr and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
William Wilberforce (1759 - 1833) was a British politician and philanthropist, and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. John Piper's biography of Wilberforce takes readers beyond his battle against slavery and explores the beliefs and motivations of this influential evangelical politician.
-
-
Great role model
- By Anonymous User on 07-04-23
By: John Piper
-
Augustine
- Conversions to Confessions
- By: Robin Lane Fox
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 25 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Saint Augustine is one of the most influential figures in all of Christianity, yet his path to sainthood was by no means assured. Born in AD 354 to a pagan father and a Christian mother, Augustine spent the first 30 years of his life struggling to understand the nature of God and his world. He learned about Christianity as a child but was never baptized, choosing instead to immerse himself in the study of rhetoric, Manicheanism, and then Neoplatonism - all the while indulging in a life of lust and greed.
-
-
Excellent
- By Chelsie P. on 12-06-16
By: Robin Lane Fox
-
Why Homer Matters
- By: Adam Nicolson
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adam Nicolson sees the Iliad and the Odyssey as the foundation myths of Greek - and our - consciousness, collapsing the passage of 4,000 years and making the distant past of the Mediterranean world as immediate to us as the events of our own time.
-
-
Fascinating
- By Jean on 05-04-15
By: Adam Nicolson
-
Life Between the Tides
- By: Adam Nicolson
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Life Between the Tides, Adam Nicolson investigates one of the most revelatory habitats on earth. Under his microscope, we see a prawn's head become a medieval helmet and a group of "winkles" transform into a Dickensian social scene, with mollusks munching on Stilton and glancing at their pocket watches. Or, rather, is a winkle more like Achilles, an ancient hero, throwing himself toward death for the sake of glory? For Nicolson, the world of the rockpools is infinite and as intricate as our own.
-
-
Mixed
- By Chris Quigg on 02-08-23
By: Adam Nicolson
-
Bible
- The Story of the King James Version
- By: Gordon Campbell
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a history of the King James Version of the Bible over the 400 years from its remote beginnings to the present day and helps to explain the enduring popularity of the King James Version throughout the world today. Gordon Campbell, expert in Renaissance literatures, tells the fascinating and complex story of how this translation came to be commissioned, of who the translators were, and of how the translation was accomplished. The story does not end with the printing of that first edition, but introduces the subsequent generations who edited and interacted with the text.
-
-
This is not the bible
- By Keith on 03-02-21
By: Gordon Campbell
-
How to Be
- Life Lessons from the Early Greeks
- By: Adam Nicolson
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In How to Be, Adam Nicolson takes us on a glorious, immersive journey. Grounded in the belief that places give access to minds, however distant and strange, this book reintroduces us to our earliest thinkers through the lands they inhabited. To know the mental occupations of Homer or Heraclitus, one must visit their cities, sail their seas, and find landscapes not overwhelmed by the millennia that have passed but retain the atmosphere of that ancient life. Nicolson takes us to the dawn of investigative thought and a nexus of cross-cultural connection.
-
-
Impressed but overwhelmed
- By moss on 02-28-24
By: Adam Nicolson
-
Amazing Grace in the Life of William Wilberforce
- By: John Piper
- Narrated by: Wayne Shepherd
- Length: 1 hr and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
William Wilberforce (1759 - 1833) was a British politician and philanthropist, and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. John Piper's biography of Wilberforce takes readers beyond his battle against slavery and explores the beliefs and motivations of this influential evangelical politician.
-
-
Great role model
- By Anonymous User on 07-04-23
By: John Piper
-
Augustine
- Conversions to Confessions
- By: Robin Lane Fox
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 25 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Saint Augustine is one of the most influential figures in all of Christianity, yet his path to sainthood was by no means assured. Born in AD 354 to a pagan father and a Christian mother, Augustine spent the first 30 years of his life struggling to understand the nature of God and his world. He learned about Christianity as a child but was never baptized, choosing instead to immerse himself in the study of rhetoric, Manicheanism, and then Neoplatonism - all the while indulging in a life of lust and greed.
-
-
Excellent
- By Chelsie P. on 12-06-16
By: Robin Lane Fox
-
Heretic Queen
- Queen Elizabeth I and the Wars of Religion
- By: Susan Ronald
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Acclaimed biographer Susan Ronald delivers a stunning account of Elizabeth I that focuses on her role in the Wars of Religion - the battle between Protestantism and Catholicism that tore Europe apart in the sixteenth century. Elizabeth’s 1558 coronation procession was met with an extravagant outpouring of love. Only 25 years old, the young queen saw herself as the nation’s Protestant savior, aiming to provide new hope, prosperity, and independence from the foreign influence that had plagued her sister Mary’s reign. Given the scars of the Reformation, Elizabeth would need all of the powers of diplomacy and tact she could summon.
-
-
a thorough history of a great lady
- By Angelus56 on 07-24-18
By: Susan Ronald
-
How We Got the Bible
- By: Neil R. Lightfoot
- Narrated by: Claton Butcher
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How We Got the Bible provides factual, accessible answers to questions such as: How and when did the books of the Bible originate? In what sense are these books different from other books? How have these books been preserved and transmitted to us? Why do we have so many different translations of the Bible? A popular guide for Bible students, it has sold more than one million copies during its 40 years in print. Learn about the development of the most important book in history.
-
-
An Excellent and Enlightening Audiobook
- By Teresa on 07-12-16
-
Daniel Boone
- The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer
- By: John Mack Faragher
- Narrated by: Tom Parker
- Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the first and most reliable biography of Daniel Boone in more than 50 years, award-winning historian Faragher brilliantly portrays America's famous frontier hero while illuminating the American hero-making process itself. Drawing from popular narrative, the public record, scraps of documentation from Boone's own hand, and a treasure trove of reminiscences gathered by nineteenth-century antiquarians, Faragher uses the methods of new social history to create a portrait of the man and the times he helped shape.
-
-
Excellent book for history readers
- By James P Carter on 11-11-13
-
Wide as the Waters
- The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspired
- By: Benson Bobrick
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The most famous of all English Bibles, the King James Version, was the culmination of centuries of work by various translators, from John Wycliffe, the 14 century catalyst of English Bible translation, to the committee of scholars who collaborated on the King James translation. Wide as the Waters examines the life and work of Wycliffe and recounts the tribulations of his successors, including William Tyndale, who was martyred, Miles Coverdale, and others who came to bitter ends.
-
-
Very imformative
- By Anonymous User on 01-15-24
By: Benson Bobrick
-
The Question of Canon
- Challenging the Status Quo in the New Testament Debate
- By: Michael J. Kruger
- Narrated by: Brian P. Craig
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Did the New Testament canon arise naturally from within the early Christian faith? Were the books written as Scripture, or did they become Scripture? Why did early Christians have a canon at all? These are the types of questions that led Michael J. Kruger to pick apart modern scholarship's dominant view that the New Testament is a late creation of the church imposed on books originally written for another purpose.
-
-
Effectively argues for the early establishment of the NT Canon
- By Nicodemas27 on 01-20-23
-
The Compleated Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin
- By: Mark Skousen
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Benjamin Franklin's autobiography is one of the greatest autobiographies of all time, but it was incomplete. Franklin ended his life's story in 1757, when he was 51. He lived another 33 eventful years, serving as America's advocate in London, Pennsylvania's representative in the Continental Congress, and America's wartime ambassador to France. Now, at last, we get the rest of the story, in Franklin's own words.
-
-
Facinating!
- By Michael on 03-21-07
By: Mark Skousen
-
Understanding the New Testament
- By: The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Professor David Brakke
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Join Professor David Brakke, an award-winning Professor of History at The Ohio State University, for Understanding the New Testament. In these 24 eye-opening lectures, he takes you behind the scenes to study not only the text of the New Testament, but also the authors and the world in which it was created. You will explore Jewish lives under Roman occupation, reflect on the apocalyptic mood of the first and second centuries AD, witness the early Christians’ evangelism beyond the Jewish communities, and witness the birth of a faith that continues to shape our world today.
-
-
Familiar but Worthwhile
- By Mark on 12-01-19
-
Galileo
- By: James Reston Jr.
- Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The founder of modern science and the embodiment of the conflict between science and faith, Galileo remains the most fascinating figure of his age. In this biography, James Reston Jr. provides a lively, vivid portrait of Galileo, taking the listener to the heart of this passionate, embattled, arrogant, and brilliant man.
-
-
Lifesavr
- By Lifesavr on 09-16-03
By: James Reston Jr.
-
The Rise of Western Christendom (10th Anniversary Revised Edition)
- Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000
- By: Peter Brown
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 26 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This tenth anniversary revised edition of the authoritative text on Christianity's first thousand years of history features a new preface and an updated bibliography. The essential general survey of medieval European Christendom, Brown's vivid prose charts the compelling and tumultuous rise of an institution that came to wield enormous religious and secular power.
-
-
Mind-expanding book
- By ABC on 06-15-23
By: Peter Brown
-
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
- By: Benjamin Franklin
- Narrated by: Fredd Wayne
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ben Franklin's own lively story of his early years is a unique, fascinating, and influential look at this American founding father. It has been taught in schools as a moral tract, as a guide to self-improvement, and as the Great American Success Story. It also is relished both for its insight into colonial life and the mind of the man who most affected the development of our democratic form of government.
-
-
Interesting
- By Karen on 09-25-07
-
Matriarch
- Queen Mary and the House of Windsor
- By: Anne Edwards
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 16 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The life of Princess May of Teck is one of the great Cinderella stories in history. From a family of impoverished nobility, she was chosen by Queen Victoria as the bride for her eldest grandson, the scandalous Duke of Clarence, heir to the throne, who died mysteriously before their marriage. Despite this setback, she became queen, mother of two kings, grandmother of the current queen, and a lasting symbol of the majesty of the British throne.
-
-
Wow! Did not want this to end!
- By Susan Nall Sheehan on 07-16-17
By: Anne Edwards
-
Understanding the Old Testament
- By: Professor Robert D. Miller II, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Professor Robert D. Miller II
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Old Testament is one of the foundational texts of Western civilization, and is among the most impactful and widely read books in world history. In 24 enthralling lectures, Professor Miller guides you through a core selection of the major books of the Old Testament, inviting you to probe their meaning and relevance in incisive and thought-provoking commentary. In Understanding the Old Testament, you’ll take a revelatory look at this epically impactful document, finding its deeper historical and religious meanings, as well as its sublime literary treasures.
-
-
This is not what I was hoping for...
- By A person healing on 05-09-20
By: Professor Robert D. Miller II, and others
What listeners say about God’s Secretaries
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Greg
- 12-29-13
Not what I was expecting
There was nothing in the "Publisher's Summary" nor in the "What the Critics Say" sections for this book on this website which led me to believe that this book was anything other than favorable to the KJV of the Bible. I have complete confidence in the KJV which I have been studying for 30 years, and did not anticipate that this book would attempt to undermine in any way that confidence.
Small red flags began popping up as I listened. This author seems to be going out of his way, I found myself thinking, to emphasize negative details of some of the translators and of King James himself. Then I came across this quote from another book I was reading simultanously:
"After reading and enjoying the light from the writings of the KJV translators, compare them to the dark and vile propaganda printed by Rupert Murdoch's Harper Collins Publishers (owner of Zondervan), the publisher of the NIV and TNIV. To smear their staunchest competitor, the KJV, they have produced a snare-filled history of the King James Bible, entitled, "God's Secretaries" by Adam Nicolson (who boasts he is no churchgoer). With a palette piled with dark words, but no facts or footnotes, he paints a hideous face for King James I and his translators - calling the King "ugly," "vulgar," nervous," and "foul-mouthed" and dubbing his translators "worldly," sensuous," and "self-serving." ("In Awe of Thy Word" by G.A. Riplinger, pg.618)
I was not totally surprised but I was disappointed with the overall flavor of this book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- The Lifelong Learner
- 12-26-15
A Committee That Actually Accomplished Something!
Fascinating book on how the translation was accomplished. The author fully develops the history, the context of the 'why' (to, in essence, end the war between the factions supporting the horrid Bishop's translation and the anti-king Geneva bible), the politics, and the budget. It would be a worthy read if it were written on any literature. Classically, even those not given to following the words of the bible, have always called the KJV 'great literature.' It is! And this book shows us how that came to be.
Out of the extravagant court of King James, surrounded by clusters of 'spangle babies' (men and women made juvenile by money), came the king's desire to bring unity to the nation, a nation with rising literacy.
Great scholars across the spectrum were consulted. Yes, even moderate Puritans (but no Presbyterians!). Unofficially, even men at the extreme ends served as consultants to the translators when they were truly expert in a subject. The translators brought prodigious linguistic scholarship to the project, able to tease nuance and subtleties from the original texts.
To loosely quote the author: The beauty of this project is the end result by a committee - a system not designed for genius or great works. It was the organization that was the genius. The translation committee was divided into 6 subcommittees. Each committee had assigned sections, and member was to work alone until he finished his part then review with other members of his subgroup. Each committee had oversight over all the others.
What is amazing is to see how men of so varied opinions, with vigorous and even fierce disagreements, could develop this beautiful and fairly accurate translation. The author weaves their backgrounds in beautifully so you truly understand them as men, not names in a history book.
I was surprised at another reviewer's comments on the "dark" stance of the author vis-a-vis this translation. After hearing 2 lengthy interviews with him and reading the book, I have to say I don't see that at all. The pace slowly gathers all the stories together, so it starts slower. But I definitely did NOT find it monotonous.
The timing was impeccable. It was finished in 1611. By 1614 Parliament had enough of James' excesses and cut his budget. James moved away from reconciliation with the Puritan's camp that had included so many Puritan moderates in the project. And the 30 years' wars in Europe began, with Catholic pitted against Protestant.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dan
- 06-27-12
Monotonous
This book starts slowly and is ponderously written throughout, but it is the exceedingly dull narration that ultimately does it in.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lynne W
- 08-30-17
A wonderful book
This is a well researched, highly literate but very engaging history of the King James translation of the Bible. The author plunges the reader into the world of 16th century England, headed by the difficult, learned, complicated monarch, King James. He conveys the special majesty of the translation, and its enduring significance. One does not have to be a churchgoer to appreciate the heightened language of the King James translation. Beautifully narrated in a well modulated tone.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Carolyn from Santa Cruz
- 04-29-16
Entertaining and well-researched
Lots of colorful characters, not dull academics translated the KJV. Narrator keeps it interesting.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 01-24-15
Very good history of the King James Bible
It is a tedious read but very informative.
I have a new found respect for King James & the translators.
I must admit I have not finished the book yet but I do enjoy listening to it. It is a great study of world history at the time.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 02-28-21
just biographies
Says almost nothing about the translation. Just a bunch of (interesting) biographies about Jacobean personages.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- mark s. zumhagen
- 03-22-18
Great read!
This elegant and fascinating history beautifully imerses the reader in Jacobean England, as it introduces the reader to many of the Translators and persons involved in creating the Bible known as the Authorized Version. A must read for all who love the English language and its heritage.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Yenrab Namrehs
- 09-14-21
Exceptional Work of Historical Christianity
The book is great. Well researched and story will told with brilliant writing in some sections to bring out the story of the St. James bible, it's history and creation from older biblical texts. Lose yourself in the words and you can truly imagine yourself back in England in the 1500s-1600s.
The story teller--sigh. Initially impressed with a rich, heralded British accent, I soon found myself bored with a nearly sonorous performance. I had never heard a British monotone before, but now I have. My God man, tell the story! It's ups! It's downs! Use voice acting!
Overall, very good book. I may read the hard copy.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lynne OConnor
- 01-20-20
Lengthy, but does justice to the subject
The narration is great, keeps it interesting over the long complicated process. The subject is fascinating.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful