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How the Gospels Became History
- Jesus and Mediterranean Myths (Synkrisis)
- Narrated by: Doug Smith
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
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How the Gospels Became History
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Publisher's summary
Did the early Christians believe their myths? Like most ancient—and modern—people, early Christians made efforts to present their myths in the most believable ways.
In this eye-opening work, M. David Litwa explores how and why what later became the four canonical gospels take on a historical cast that remains vitally important for many Christians today. Offering an in-depth comparison with other Greco-Roman stories that have been shaped to seem like history, Litwa shows how the evangelists responded to the pressures of Greco-Roman literary culture by using well-known historiographical tropes such as the mention of famous rulers and kings, geographical notices, the introduction of eyewitnesses, vivid presentation, alternative reports, and so on. In this way, the evangelists deliberately shaped myths about Jesus into historical discourse to maximize their believability for ancient audiences.
This is the most compelling and thorough comparison of the gospels and Greco-Roman mythology to appear in the last 50 years.
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 216
In this highly accessible discussion, Bart Ehrman examines the most recent textual and archaeological sources for the life of Jesus, along with the history of first-century Palestine, drawing a fascinating portrait of the man and his teachings. Ehrman shows us what historians have long known about the Gospels and the man who stands behind them. Through a careful evaluation of the New Testament (and other surviving sources, including the more recently discovered Gospels of Thomas and Peter), Ehrman proposes that Jesus can be best understood as an apocalyptic prophet.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I must read for those whose wanting to expand their insight from a single perspective (devotional) to include historical
- By RGO on 11-25-19
By: Bart D. Ehrman
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How God Became God
- What Scholars Are Really Saying About God and the Bible
- By: Richard M. Smoley
- Narrated by: Richard M. Smoley
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 48
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 45
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Story5 out of 5 stars 45
This epic, thrilling journey through Bible scholarship and ancient religion shows how much of Scripture is historically false - yet the ancient writings also resound with theologies that crisscrossed the primeval world and that direct us today toward a deep, authentic inner experience of the truly sacred.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Just Okay.
- By Thom on 10-28-21
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How Jesus Became God
- The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee
- By: Bart D. Ehrman
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 986
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 869
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 862
In a book that took eight years to research and write, leading Bible scholar Bart D. Ehrman explores how an apocalyptic prophet from the backwaters of rural Galilee crucified for crimes against the state came to be thought of as equal with the one God Almighty Creator of all things. Ehrman sketches Jesus's transformation from a human prophet to the Son of God exalted to divine status at his resurrection. Only when some of Jesus's followers had visions of him after his death - alive again - did anyone come to think that he, the prophet from Galilee, had become God.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Wishing for a bit more meat on the bones
- By Darwin8u on 04-09-14
By: Bart D. Ehrman
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Forbidden Faith
- The Secret History of Gnosticism
- By: Richard Smoley
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 153
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 132
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 131
The success of books such as Elaine Pagels's Gnostic Gospels and Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code proves beyond a doubt that there is a tremendous thirst today for finding the hidden truths of Christianity - truths that may have been lost or buried by institutional religion over the last two millennia. In Forbidden Faith, Richard Smoley narrates a popular history of one such truth, the ancient esoteric religion of gnosticism, which flourished between the first and fourth centuries AD, but whose legacy remains even today, having survived secretly throughout the ages.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An absolute must for understanding Gnosticism.
- By Patriot RN - Doc on 05-12-21
By: Richard Smoley
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Mystery of the Magi
- The Quest to Identify the Three Wise Men
- By: Dwight Longenecker
- Narrated by: Stephen McLaughlin
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 64
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 57
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57
The Magi of nativity scenes are romanticized as well-dressed wisemen bringing gifts to Jesus. Traditional Chrstians tell of a miraculous star that guided exotic kings from Persia, India, and Africa. Academics dismiss both accounts as no more than a pious legend. Who is right? In The Mystery of the Magi, Dwight Longenecker shows that all sides are wrong and the Magi were diplomats from Petra, the capital of the Nabatean kingdom of Arabia.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Fascinating Deep Dive into the Story of the Magi
- By Pastor Ryan on 08-06-18
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The Great Shift
- Encountering God in Biblical Times
- By: James L. Kugel
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 30
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 29
Why does the Bible depict a world in which humans, with surprising regularity, encounter the divine - wrestling an angel, addressing a burning bush, issuing forth prophecy without any choice in the matter? These stories spoke very differently to their original audience than they do to us, and they reflect a radically distinct understanding of reality and the human mind. Yet over the course of the thousand-year biblical era, encounters with God changed dramatically.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Changing Conceptions of God and the Self
- By DJ on 10-27-22
By: James L. Kugel
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The Exodus
- By: Richard Elliott Friedman
- Narrated by: Richard Elliott Friedman
- Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 180
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 161
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 157
Biblical scholars, Egyptologists, archaeologists, historians, literary scholars, anthropologists, and filmmakers are drawn to the mystery of the exodus. Unable to find physical evidence until now, many archaeologists and scholars claim this mass migration is just a story, not history. Others oppose this conclusion, defending the biblical account.
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3 out of 5 stars
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It started well......
- By kboy2008 on 04-21-20
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Battling the Gods
- Atheism in the Ancient World
- By: Tim Whitmarsh
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 99
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 91
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 89
Long before the European Enlightenment and the Darwinian revolution, which we often take to mark the birth of the modern revolt against religious explanations of the world, brave people doubted the power of the gods. Religion provoked skepticism in ancient Greece, and heretics argued that history must be understood as a result of human action rather than divine intervention. They devised theories of the cosmos based on matter and notions of matter based on atoms.
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5 out of 5 stars
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We have a history as long and as rich as any relig
- By Glencannnon on 08-13-19
By: Tim Whitmarsh
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After Jesus, Before Christianity
- A Historical Exploration of the First Two Centuries of Jesus Movements
- By: Erin Vearncombe, Brandon Scott, Hal Taussig, and others
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 94
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 80
From the creative minds of the scholarly group behind the groundbreaking Jesus Seminar comes this provocative and eye-opening look at the roots of Christianity that offers a thoughtful reconsideration of the first two centuries of the Jesus movement, transforming our understanding of the religion and its early dissemination.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent and informative
- By Claire Z. on 04-17-22
By: Erin Vearncombe, and others
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The Evolution of God
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,074
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 688
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 685
In this sweeping narrative, which takes us from the Stone Age to the Information Age, Robert Wright unveils an astonishing discovery: there is a hidden pattern that the great monotheistic faiths have followed as they have evolved. Through the prisms of archeology, theology, and evolutionary psychology, Wright's findings overturn basic assumptions about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and are sure to cause controversy.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Very heavy reading
- By Stephen on 08-07-09
By: Robert Wright
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God and Empire
- Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now
- By: John Dominic Crossan
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 32
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 27
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 27
In contrast to the oppressive Roman military occupation of the first century, Crossan examines the meaning of the non-violent Kingdom of God prophesized by Jesus and the equality advocated by Paul to the early Christian churches. Crossan contrasts these messages of peace with the misinterpreted apocalyptic vision from the Book of Revelation, which has been misrepresented by modern right-wing theologians and televangelists to justify US military actions in the Middle East.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Smart Book
- By Wesley Bishop on 07-01-22
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The Fourth Gospel
- Tales of a Jewish Mystic
- By: John Shelby Spong
- Narrated by: Al Kessel
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 34
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
John Shelby Spong, best-selling author and popular proponent of a modern, scholarly, and authentic Christianity, argues that this last gospel to be written was misinterpreted by the framers of the fourth-century creeds to be a literal account of the life of Jesus when in fact it is a literary, interpretive retelling of the events in Jesus' life through the medium of fictional characters, from Nicodemus and Lazarus to the "Beloved Disciple."
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4 out of 5 stars
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Very thought-provoking
- By Mark J Mickey on 03-18-23
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The Bible's Cutting Room Floor
- The Holy Scriptures Missing from Your Bible
- By: Joel M. Hoffman
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 58
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 56
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Story4 out of 5 stars 56
In The Bible’s Cutting Room Floor, acclaimed author and translator Dr. Joel M. Hoffman gives us the stories and other texts that didn’t make it into the Bible even though they offer penetrating insight into the Bible and its teachings. The Book of Genesis tells us about Adam and Eve’s time in the Garden of Eden, but not their saga after they get kicked out or the lessons they have for us about good and evil.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good content, rather poor presentation by narrator
- By J_T on 12-28-16
By: Joel M. Hoffman
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The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross
- A Study of the Nature and Origins of Christianity Within the Fertility Cults of the Ancient Near East
- By: John M. Allegro
- Narrated by: Martyn Swain
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 220
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 187
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Story4 out of 5 stars 187
Where did God come from? What do the bible stories really tell us? Who or what was Jesus Christ? This audiobook challenges everything we think we know about the nature of religion.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Hated it,
- By Troy Sunde on 12-22-22
By: John M. Allegro
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Creating Christ
- How Roman Emperors Invented Christianity
- By: James S. Valliant, C. W. Fahy
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 204
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 184
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 184
This explosive work of history unearths clues that finally demonstrate the truth about one of the world's great religions: that it was born out of the conflict between the Romans and messianic Jews who fought a bitter war with each other during the first century. The Romans employed a tactic they routinely used to conquer and absorb other nations: they grafted their imperial rule onto the religion of the conquered.
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5 out of 5 stars
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life is one big lie
- By Anonymous User on 12-25-19
By: James S. Valliant, and others
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Primitive Mythology
- The Masks of God Series, Volume I
- By: Joseph Campbell, David Kudler - editor
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 19 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 146
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 124
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 124
The author of such acclaimed books as The Hero With a Thousand Faces and The Power of Myth discusses the primitive roots of mythology, examining them in light of the most recent discoveries in archaeology, anthropology, and psychology.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Epic speculation into the origins of our mythic consciousness
- By BGZ on 01-10-19
By: Joseph Campbell, and others
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The Alphabet Versus the Goddess
- The Conflict Between Word and Image
- By: Leonard Shlain
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 24 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 115
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 97
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 97
Who changed the sex of God? This groundbreaking book proposes that the rise of alphabetic literacy reconfigured the human brain and brought about profound changes in history, religion, and gender relations. Making remarkable connections across brain function, myth, and anthropology, Dr. Shlain shows why pre-literate cultures were principally informed by holistic, right-brain modes that venerated the Goddess, images, and feminine values.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Can't Even Get Started
- By Marie on 02-08-19
By: Leonard Shlain
What listeners say about How the Gospels Became History
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- J
- 07-19-24
Fantastic work by Dr. Litwa
This is an amazing scholarly review of the early works of Christianity. Dr. Litwa's work is groundbreaking and advances the field in a unique way. I highly recommend this for any fans of Ancient History!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Wintertao
- 08-12-23
Fun all 'round
Very entertaining and informative, I love the way Litwa makes observations and brings up points most do not see. I've been reading Philosophy, History, and books on Christianity since the early 70's at GSU in ATL and I always learn new things from his work.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Shahid
- 08-06-23
Excellent scholarly discussion
Excited to have Litwa's work in audiobook format. would love to have his other titles here as well.
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