A Little History of Religion

By: Richard Holloway

Narrated by: James Bryce

Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins

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

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)

Perfectly consice and detailed overview

I had long been looking for a book to fill the gaps in my knowledge about where religions come from and how did they intertwine in history.
This book gives a great and very objective overview of the origins, similarities, differences and human mixups in the stories of all the main religions. It does not prefer one to another nor glorify subscribing to religious denominations in general. And yet it manages to not be too academic or repetitive as some very objective books tend to be.

Recommend to anyone who wants a short but solid overview of religion(s) in an objective way. Very good from a storytelling perspective too and an awesome performance by James Bryce.

Excellent narration

Wonderful narrator and a story that weaves its subject matter together seamlessly makes for a perfect overview.

great overall view

fantastic book good when it needed to be detailed when it had to be. I highly recommend this as an overall view of many religions and the views that may or may not go with them very objective writing well done

Logical and rational

I enjoyed this little history of religion, just the right amount of detail and length to be a useful and enjoyable overview of the subject.

Great secular survey of religions

Factual but compassionate. Nice level of detail and narrative flow as well as connections among religions. It has a pro-secular bent which speaks to me. It may not appeal to reactionary fundamentals

Good summary of religion

As the title suggests, this book is a short history of religion, but it has just enough information to cover the basis of most religions. It doesn't get very deep into specific events or details, but I feel like i can have a more insightful conversation with people of all religions. Good for beginners with no understanding of other religions.

More people should read this book to understand the similarities between everyone's beliefs.

The narrator is a little hard to understand with his accent and sounds like he whispers occasionally, but wasnt too bad once I got uses to it.

Well crafted !!

This book is a carefully curated collection of historic facts, religious stories and connecting comments with few reflective observations.
It tries to keep objective views, though at times you can read opinions between lines.
I truly enjoyed this book!!!
Highly recommended !!!

Right amount of information on the history of religion

Couldn’t recommend a better book for a brief history of most of the religions. This book is as straightforward as it can be with no inclination to a particular extreme view. It lays information before you and allows you to ponder about it, makes you comprehend your own views. As a reader, this book probably liberated my mind regarding my thoughts on the subject and inspired me to know more and for that I would give it 5 stars.

Everything makes so much more sense now...

Honestly, stop reading this review and just download the book.

The author brilliantly covers the history of religion and sheds light on the silly and petty ways religions bicker or start wars.

It's so obvious to me after reading this that all religions are just as silly as the next. I also found it interesting how my parents' views on protestants and atheists as Lutherans were a subject of their upbringing in strict Catholic/Lutheran homes as children.

Proving indoctrination is dangerous to our society.

I wished he touched on Lutherans, Baptists (especially that of the Westboro Baptists), and the Jefferson Bible (or did he, I can't recall now)... but it was a great story and great narrator through and through.