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Dominion
- How the Christian Revolution Remade the World
- Narrated by: Tom Holland, Mark Meadows
- Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins
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Publisher's summary
A "marvelous" (Economist) account of how the Christian Revolution forged the Western imagination.
Crucifixion, the Romans believed, was the worst fate imaginable, a punishment reserved for slaves. How astonishing it was, then, that people should have come to believe that one particular victim of crucifixion - an obscure provincial by the name of Jesus - was to be worshipped as a god. Dominion explores the implications of this shocking conviction as they have reverberated throughout history.
Today, the West remains utterly saturated by Christian assumptions. As Tom Holland demonstrates, our morals and ethics are not universal but are instead the fruits of a very distinctive civilization. Concepts such as secularism, liberalism, science, and homosexuality are deeply rooted in a Christian seedbed. From Babylon to the Beatles, Saint Michael to #MeToo, Dominion tells the story of how Christianity transformed the modern world.
Critic reviews
"A sweeping narrative...[Holland] is an exceptionally good storyteller with a marvelous eye for detail...excellent fun." (The Economist)
"What in other hands could have been a dry pedantic account of Christianity's birth and evolution becomes in Holland's an all-absorbing story...It takes a master storyteller to translate the development of a philosophical notion into a captivating story, and Holland proves to be one... Holland offers a remarkably nuanced and balanced account of two millennia of Christian history - intellectual, cultural, artistic, social and political. The book's scope is breathtaking." (The Literary Review)
"Christianity may not be on the march, but its principles continue to dominate in much of the world; this thoughtful, astute account describes how and why... Holland delivers penetrating, often jolting discussions on great controversies of Western civilization in which war, politics, and culture have formed a background to changes in values... An insightful argument that Christian ethics, even when ignored, are the norm worldwide." (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)
What listeners say about Dominion
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- Honora
- 06-16-20
Only the forward is narrated by Holland.
12 hours in, I just can't take any more of the narrator's strange emoting. Every sentence is read with a melodramatic treatment that would be strange for any book - but for this text it seems particularly strange. It is as if Meadows has no confidence in Holland's writing and feels that he needs to pump some drama in what he (or the producer) feels is dull stuff. Also, I don't think it is fair of Audible to use Holland's brief narration of the Preface as the "sample" for the book when it is Meadows who takes over for another 22 plus hours!. Honestly, it was as if the narrator were reading aloud sentences in a language he only understood phonetically and had not the vaguest idea as to the meaning. It was so laughably bad - as members of my household can attest when I listened without earbuds - so disassociated with content that as engrossed as I was by the material, I pulled the plug at 12 hours in and am reading the rest of the book (at page 292) on my own.
btw - I have noticed a disturbing trend that "performance" by the narrator has begun to overwhelm the text in other Audible selections as well. These strange highly interpretive (and strange), hyper-dramatic narrative treatments have too often spoiled the nuanced writing of excellent authors. The voice of the writer is destroyed by narrators who I suppose have been told to "be engaging." It's awful! If this is an intentional effort by audiobook producers to be "entertaining" it reveals a lack of trust of both writer and reader.
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45 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-04-19
Author only reads preface
Author only reads preface. Other guy reads the rest. Beware. It’s good. You just won’t get that sweet accent for twenty-two hours!
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24 people found this helpful
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- John Murphy
- 12-19-19
A Little Confusing
This book was a little confusing, or at least my expectations were confused. I thought it was going to be a study of how Christian culture and thought took over the world (which it certainly did), instead it read to me like a travelogue of Christian history. I found myself repeatedly asking the question, “what is the author’s purpose in all this?” Rightly or wrongly it was befuddling to me.
That is not to say that the book isn’t interesting, because it is.
I think my favorite parts of the book were two-fold, first the prologue and epilogue because Mr. Holland writes personally in those sections and I found them the most interesting parts for me, especially in the epilogue concerning the influence of his great-aunt who was a committed Christian.
The other part of the book that I enjoyed was when Mr. Holland writes of current events. He rightly points out the origin in a Christian milieu of virtually all of the forces that are either outright opposed to the Christian faith, or certainly at odds with it. As one example the “woke” movement in which, not only must you ask forgiveness for your sins, but also do penance and atone for them. Where did this pattern come from? The Christian faith of course. Mr. Holland gives plenty of examples, and, like it or not, he is correct in his analysis
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19 people found this helpful
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- horoscopy
- 11-19-19
lots of nice writing, but kind of light on history
just like the other Tom Holland books I have read , I felt it was nice, sweet and fluffy, but kind of lacking in substance.
btw , I do think (along with many others) that "Rubicon" was his masterpiece. this is kind of the closest he has come to that I think, but still a bit too fluffy in content.
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- SF
- 10-13-20
Affectation ruins the text
I tried really hard to enjoy this as the topic is fascinating and relevant. I usually prefer listening to non-fiction because the narration brings the text more energy. However, in this case it is distracting at best and ruinous at times. I finally gave up, as I dreaded getting in the car and having to hit the play button. I will buy the book and read it instead. Hoping Tom Holland’s future books are given a more appropriate narrator.
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- TsundokuSensei
- 01-09-20
Christendom as societal foundation
As the subtitle states, the aim of this book is to show how Christianity is the foundation upon which modern secular societies have been built and upon which the morality of those societies is based. In this, I believe the book succeeds admirably though not without a few hiccups.
Starting several centuries before the birth of Christ, Tom Holland describes what morality - such as it was - actually meant in pre-Christian cultures. With this starting point, the author takes us through twenty-one chapters, leading up to the present day, each one further along in time, showing how Christianity itself evolved as well as the Christians' understanding of what it meant to be Christian. Through this, the author shows that modern society's moral principles are so fully ingrained in Western civilization that we take them as a given (the concept of human rights and equality being primary among these) without recognizing how alien these concepts are - or were before Christianity. Even today's secular humanists rely upon them, many if not most of whom are not aware of the wellspring of their now-cherished beliefs.
I thought it was an excellent book and I learned a lot about history and the evolution of moral thought in this book. One complaint would be that there isn't, at the end, any resolution to the question of, If society no longer recognizes that it owes its cherished moral beliefs to Christianity, what will happen to those beliefs when/if Christianity recedes from daily life. To some extent this question is dealt with, perhaps a bit more completely, by Douglas Murray near the end of his book, "The Strange Death of Europe." Holland leaves this as more of an open question, only briefly asking the question itself near the end of the book.
But other than that quibble, I found this be an enlightening book that any student of history would enjoy. The narration is superb - both Tom Holland's introduction and conclusion and Mark Meadows' reading of the majority of the book.
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- Tim E. Higgins
- 01-10-20
I Was Furious
I was furious when, eighteen hours into this 22 hour tome, the author finally revealed his willingness to egregiously mis-characterize facts to support his theory of history. The whole volume is supposed to be about how Christianity has shaped civilization. I spent eighteen hours listening to him set-up straw men and then "slay" them with unsupported assertions. It was intellectually mushy but there was enough interesting perspective to keep me going. Then, while discussing Christian influence in the Gilted Age, he savaged the life and reputation of Andrew Carnage. The author's characterization was so one-sided and vituperative that it caused me to question all his previous assertions about historical personages and situations. I stopped reading. I just wish it had happened earlier and saved me the wasted time.
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- B. Baxter
- 10-10-21
Not Worth The Time Unless You Love Arrogance
This book was recommended to me by several people whose opinions I value and trust. I gave it a good go - the preface and 2 chapters - and returned it in disgust (the very first book I returned in 3 years as an Audible member). First, the book itself. As other reviewers said, it is a sweeping summary of history. My objection is that the author is so full of himself that he is insufferable. "What a smart and good boy I am" comes through on every page. If I heard yet another sentence start with a clause, or a statement about Pompey or Demetrius with a cutesy aside, something on the order of "He never met an audience he didn't want to impress," I thought I'd scream. The book reads like a student who wants to cram every little bit of information he's acquired into the pages to impress us with his knowledge. Yuck.
The narrator was perfect for this book with his Oxbridge accent that made me want to rip the application out of my phone. While I would have loved listening to him on a different book, he exacerbated the pretentiousness of the text. Highly dramatic, one could say he was appropriately conveying the sense of the book - so I may look for other narrations by Meadows, but NEVER will try another book by Tom Holland. Be forewarned. I'm going to go wash off the memory of a really, really unsatisfactory experience.
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- Anonymous
- 07-04-20
Engaging, Insightful, Relevant, and Powerful
This is the best book I’ve read in a while. By giving a survey of from pre-Christian Rome to the modern day, Holland demonstrates that “universal equality”, “secularism”, and “glory of the downtrodden” are distinctly Christian innovations whose seditious and disruptive effects so profoundly shaped Western thought as we know it. So deeply have we internalized these values that they have become “self evident” even though throughout history, and even in some cultures today, they were and are far from self evident. As he builds up his framework throughout the narratives of history, the book crescendos into applying that framework to the recent social changes of the late 2010s and gives a truly innovative and spine-tingling paradigm through which to understand them.
Holland handles the history of Christianity very evenhandedly. He does not pull punches when documenting brutality done in Christ’s name, but neither does he shy away of almost fawning praise for those deserving of it.
The prose is engaging and the reading is well done, both by the author and the narrator.
I sincerely hope this book is widely read by many.
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- Anna Miller
- 01-28-20
I’m overwhelmed with emotion.
The final pages left me overwhelmed with emotion; gratitude for what I’ve inherited, grief for what’s been lost, and a profound sense of awe at the enduring power of the Christian myth, of which we are all a part.
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Story
At the approach of the first millennium, the Christians of Europe did not seem likely candidates for future greatness. They saw no future beyond the widely anticipated Second Coming of Christ. But when the world did not end, the peoples of Western Europe suddenly found themselves with no choice but to begin the heroic task of building a Jerusalem on Earth. In The Forge of Christendom, Tom Holland masterfully describes this remarkable new age, a time of caliphs and Viking sea kings, the spread of castles, and the invention of knighthood.
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A Worthy Expansion to the Dark Ages
- By William Ratkus on 12-11-18
By: Tom Holland
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Rubicon
- The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows, Tom Holland
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Roman Republic was the most remarkable state in history. What began as a small community of peasants camped among marshes and hills ended up ruling the known world. Rubicon paints a vivid portrait of the Republic at the climax of its greatness - the same greatness which would herald the catastrophe of its fall. It is a story of incomparable drama.
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If you’re looking for a history book, this isn’t it.
- By Richard Sweeny on 12-16-22
By: Tom Holland
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Pax
- War and Peace in Rome's Golden Age
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Tom Holland
- Length: 14 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Pax Romana has long been shorthand for the empire’s golden age. Stretching from Caledonia to Arabia, Rome ruled over a quarter of the world’s population. It was the wealthiest and most formidable state in the history of humankind. Pax is a captivating narrative history of Rome at the height of its power. From the gilded capital to realms beyond the frontier, historian Tom Holland shows ancient Rome in all its glory
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Great book!
- By Mic on 09-27-23
By: Tom Holland
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Dynasty
- The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 16 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Author and historian Tom Holland returns to his roots in Roman history and the audience he cultivated with Rubicon - his masterful, witty, brilliantly researched popular history of the fall of the Roman republic - with Dynasty, a luridly fascinating history of the reign of the first five Roman emperors.
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Accessible, enjoyable history
- By Mary on 01-28-16
By: Tom Holland
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In the Shadow of the Sword
- The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The evolution of the Arab empire is one of the supreme narratives of ancient history, a story dazzlingly rich in drama, character, and achievement. In this exciting and sweeping history - the third in his trilogy of books on the ancient world - Tom Holland describes how the Arabs emerged to carve out a stupefyingly vast dominion in a matter of decades, overcoming seemingly insuperable odds to create an imperial civilization.
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Misleading title
- By Edd Huetteman on 04-08-16
By: Tom Holland
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Persian Fire
- The First World Empire and the Battle for the West
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 14 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the fifth century BC, a global superpower was determined to bring truth and order to what it regarded as two terrorist states. The superpower was Persia, incomparably rich in ambition, gold, and men. The terrorist states were Athens and Sparta, eccentric cities in a poor and mountainous backwater: Greece. The story of how their citizens took on the Great King of Persia, and thereby saved not only themselves, but Western civilization as well, is as heart-stopping and fateful as any episode in history.
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Engaging
- By Jean on 02-16-17
By: Tom Holland
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The Forge of Christendom
- The End of Days and the Epic Rise of the West
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: James A. Gillies
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
At the approach of the first millennium, the Christians of Europe did not seem likely candidates for future greatness. They saw no future beyond the widely anticipated Second Coming of Christ. But when the world did not end, the peoples of Western Europe suddenly found themselves with no choice but to begin the heroic task of building a Jerusalem on Earth. In The Forge of Christendom, Tom Holland masterfully describes this remarkable new age, a time of caliphs and Viking sea kings, the spread of castles, and the invention of knighthood.
-
-
A Worthy Expansion to the Dark Ages
- By William Ratkus on 12-11-18
By: Tom Holland
-
Rubicon
- The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows, Tom Holland
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Roman Republic was the most remarkable state in history. What began as a small community of peasants camped among marshes and hills ended up ruling the known world. Rubicon paints a vivid portrait of the Republic at the climax of its greatness - the same greatness which would herald the catastrophe of its fall. It is a story of incomparable drama.
-
-
If you’re looking for a history book, this isn’t it.
- By Richard Sweeny on 12-16-22
By: Tom Holland
-
Pax
- War and Peace in Rome's Golden Age
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Tom Holland
- Length: 14 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Pax Romana has long been shorthand for the empire’s golden age. Stretching from Caledonia to Arabia, Rome ruled over a quarter of the world’s population. It was the wealthiest and most formidable state in the history of humankind. Pax is a captivating narrative history of Rome at the height of its power. From the gilded capital to realms beyond the frontier, historian Tom Holland shows ancient Rome in all its glory
-
-
Great book!
- By Mic on 09-27-23
By: Tom Holland
-
Dynasty
- The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 16 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author and historian Tom Holland returns to his roots in Roman history and the audience he cultivated with Rubicon - his masterful, witty, brilliantly researched popular history of the fall of the Roman republic - with Dynasty, a luridly fascinating history of the reign of the first five Roman emperors.
-
-
Accessible, enjoyable history
- By Mary on 01-28-16
By: Tom Holland
-
In the Shadow of the Sword
- The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The evolution of the Arab empire is one of the supreme narratives of ancient history, a story dazzlingly rich in drama, character, and achievement. In this exciting and sweeping history - the third in his trilogy of books on the ancient world - Tom Holland describes how the Arabs emerged to carve out a stupefyingly vast dominion in a matter of decades, overcoming seemingly insuperable odds to create an imperial civilization.
-
-
Misleading title
- By Edd Huetteman on 04-08-16
By: Tom Holland
-
Persian Fire
- The First World Empire and the Battle for the West
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 14 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the fifth century BC, a global superpower was determined to bring truth and order to what it regarded as two terrorist states. The superpower was Persia, incomparably rich in ambition, gold, and men. The terrorist states were Athens and Sparta, eccentric cities in a poor and mountainous backwater: Greece. The story of how their citizens took on the Great King of Persia, and thereby saved not only themselves, but Western civilization as well, is as heart-stopping and fateful as any episode in history.
-
-
Engaging
- By Jean on 02-16-17
By: Tom Holland
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Lord of the Dead the Secret History of Byron
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Richard E. Grant
- Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins
- Abridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From the Levant to London's society salons to the canals of Venice, famed poet Lord Byron embarks on a life of adventure as the world's most notable vampire, following a dark trail of long-hidden secrets, ancient black arts, and the depths of evil.
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abridged version
- By MEESHA on 10-11-15
By: Tom Holland
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Henry VIII: The Quest for Fame
- Penguin Monarchs, Book 2
- By: John Guy
- Narrated by: John Banks
- Length: 3 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Henry VIII: The Quest for Fame by John Guy, read by John Banks. Henry VIII's reign transformed the physical and spiritual landscape of England. Magnificent, tyrannical, a strong ruler, a 'pillager of the commonwealth', this most notorious of kings remains a figure of extreme contradictions: a devout traditionalist who oversaw a cataclysmic rupture with the church in Rome, a talented, charismatic, imposing figure who nevertheless could not bear to meet people's eyes when he talked to them.
By: John Guy
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The Triumph of Christianity
- How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion
- By: Rodney Stark
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Celebrated religious and social historian Rodney Stark traces the extraordinary rise of Christianity through its most pivotal and controversial moments to offer fresh perspective on the history of the world's largest religion.
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Balanced and unapologetic, excellent read
- By JARAM, CT on 08-04-20
By: Rodney Stark
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A Secular Age
- By: Charles Taylor
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 42 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
What does it mean to say that we live in a secular age? Almost everyone would agree that we - in the West, at least - largely do. And clearly the place of religion in our societies has changed profoundly in the last few centuries. In what will be a defining book for our time, Charles Taylor takes up the question of what these changes mean - of what, precisely, happens when a society in which it is virtually impossible not to believe in God becomes one in which faith, even for the staunchest believer, is only one human possibility among others.
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Needs Guest Narrators for French and German
- By Norman on 06-13-15
By: Charles Taylor
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Christianity
- The First Three Thousand Years
- By: Diarmaid MacCulloch
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 46 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Once in a generation, a historian will redefine his field, producing a book that demands to be read or heard - a product of electrifying scholarship conveyed with commanding skill. Diarmaid MacCulloch's Christianity is such a book. Breathtaking in ambition, it ranges back to the origins of the Hebrew Bible and covers the world, following the three main strands of the Christian faith.
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Bias
- By David Danielson on 10-04-10
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The Lost Spy
- An American in Stalin's Secret Service
- By: Andrew Meier
- Narrated by: David Chandler
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall