We look forward to seeing you on your next visit to the library. Find a location near you.

God: A Human History
(OverDrive MP3 Audiobook, OverDrive Listen)

Book Cover
Average Rating
5 star
 
(2)
4 star
 
(1)
3 star
 
(0)
2 star
 
(0)
1 star
 
(0)
Author:
Narrator:
Published:
Books on Tape 2017
Status:
Checked Out
Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The bestselling author of Zealot and host of Believer explores humanity’s quest to make sense of the divine in this concise and fascinating history of our understanding of God.
 
In Zealot, Reza Aslan replaced the staid, well-worn portrayal of Jesus of Nazareth with a startling new image of the man in all his contradictions. In his new book, Aslan takes on a subject even more immense: God, writ large.
 
In layered prose and with thoughtful, accessible scholarship, Aslan narrates the history of religion as a remarkably cohesive attempt to understand the divine by giving it human traits and emotions. According to Aslan, this innate desire to humanize God is hardwired in our brains, making it a central feature of nearly every religious tradition. As Aslan writes, “Whether we are aware of it or not, and regardless of whether we’re believers or not, what the vast majority of us think about when we think about God is a divine version of ourselves.”
 
But this projection is not without consequences. We bestow upon God not just all that is good in human nature—our compassion, our thirst for justice—but all that is bad in it: our greed, our bigotry, our penchant for violence. All these qualities inform our religions, cultures, and governments.
 
More than just a history of our understanding of God, this book is an attempt to get to the root of this humanizing impulse in order to develop a more universal spirituality. Whether you believe in one God, many gods, or no god at all, God: A Human History will challenge the way you think about the divine and its role in our everyday lives.
Praise for God
“Timely, riveting, enlightening and necessary.”HuffPost
“Tantalizing . . . Driven by [Reza] Aslan’s grace and curiosity, God . . . helps us pan out from our troubled times, while asking us to consider a more expansive view of the divine in contemporary life.”—The Seattle Times
“A fascinating exploration of the interaction of our humanity and God.”Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“[Aslan’s] slim, yet ambitious book [is] the story of how humans have created God with a capital G, and it’s thoroughly mind-blowing.”—Los Angeles Review of Books
“Aslan is a born storyteller, and there is much to enjoy in this intelligent survey.”San Francisco Chronicle
Also in This Series
Formats
OverDrive MP3 Audiobook
Works on MP3 Players, PCs, and Macs. Some mobile devices may require an application to be installed.
OverDrive Listen
Need Help?
If you are having problem transferring a title to your device, please fill out this support form or visit the library so we can help you to use our eBooks and eAudio Books.
More Like This
Other Editions and Formats
More Copies In LINK+
Loading LINK+ Copies...
More Details
Format:
OverDrive MP3 Audiobook, OverDrive Listen
Edition:
Unabridged
Street Date:
11/07/2017
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780525524670
Reviews from GoodReads
Loading GoodReads Reviews.
Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Reza Aslan. (2017). God: A Human History. Unabridged Books on Tape.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Reza Aslan. 2017. God: A Human History. Books on Tape.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Reza Aslan, God: A Human History. Books on Tape, 2017.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Reza Aslan. God: A Human History. Unabridged Books on Tape, 2017.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
Copy Details
LibraryOwnedAvailable
Shared Digital Collection30
Staff View
Grouped Work ID:
bba62b6b-67fc-32f3-8e1c-ac920741be41
Go To Grouped Work
Needs Update?:
No
Date Added:
Jun 12, 2018 15:08:50
Date Updated:
Dec 06, 2020 02:40:16
Last Metadata Check:
Mar 26, 2024 10:21:48
Last Metadata Change:
Sep 22, 2023 18:14:51
Last Availability Check:
Mar 26, 2024 10:21:51
Last Availability Change:
Mar 26, 2024 10:20:02
Last Grouped Work Modification Time:
Mar 28, 2024 02:11:39

OverDrive Product Record

images
    • cover:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/1191-1/{0713DCF3-9056-4B3D-8B71-768B461DDD7D}Img100.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • thumbnail:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/1191-1/{0713DCF3-9056-4B3D-8B71-768B461DDD7D}Img200.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover150Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/1191-1/071/3DC/F3/{0713DCF3-9056-4B3D-8B71-768B461DDD7D}Img150.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover300Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/1191-1/071/3DC/F3/{0713DCF3-9056-4B3D-8B71-768B461DDD7D}Img400.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
formats
      • identifiers:
            • type: 8
            • value: penguinrandomhouse_audio#9780525524656
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780525524670
      • name: OverDrive MP3 Audiobook
      • id: audiobook-mp3
      • identifiers:
            • type: 8
            • value: penguinrandomhouse_audio#9780525524656
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780525524670
      • name: OverDrive Listen
      • id: audiobook-overdrive
mediaType
Audiobook
primaryCreator
    • role: Author
    • name: Reza Aslan
title
God
dateAdded
2017-10-20T16:00:00-04:00
contentDetails
      • href: https://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=141&titleID=3158072
      • type: text/html
      • account:
          • name: Sacramento Public Library (CA)
          • id: 1151
sortTitle
God A Human History
crossRefId
3158072
subtitle
A Human History
id
0713dcf3-9056-4b3d-8b71-768b461ddd7d
starRating
3.8

OverDrive MetaData

isPublicDomain
False
formats
      • duration: 05:25:25
      • fileName: God_9780525524656_3158072
      • partCount: 5
      • fileSize: 154777384
      • identifiers:
            • audience: retailer
            • type: 8
            • value: penguinrandomhouse_audio#9780525524656
            • audience: library
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780525524670
      • rights:
            • type: PlayOnPC
            • value: 1
            • type: PlayOnPCCount
            • value: -1
            • type: BurnToCD
            • value: 1
            • type: BurnToCDCount
            • value: -1
            • type: PlayOnPM
            • value: 1
            • type: TransferToSDMI
            • value: 1
            • type: TransferToNonSDMI
            • value: 1
            • type: TransferCount
            • value: -1
            • type: CollaborativePlay
            • value: 0
            • type: PublicPerformance
            • value: 0
            • type: TranscodeToAAC
            • value: 1
      • name: OverDrive MP3 Audiobook
      • isReadAlong: False
      • id: audiobook-mp3
      • onSaleDate: 11/7/2017
      • samples:
            • source: Part 1
            • formatType: audiobook-mp3
            • url: https://excerpts.cdn.overdrive.com/FormatType-425/1191-1/3158072-God.mp3
            • source: From the book
            • formatType: audiobook-overdrive
            • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=0713dcf3-9056-4b3d-8b71-768b461ddd7d&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
      • duration: 05:22:24
      • fileName: god-63704
      • partCount: 0
      • fileSize: 154754819
      • identifiers:
            • audience: retailer
            • type: 8
            • value: penguinrandomhouse_audio#9780525524656
            • audience: library
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780525524670
      • name: OverDrive Listen
      • isReadAlong: False
      • id: audiobook-overdrive
      • onSaleDate: 11/7/2017
      • samples:
            • source: Part 1
            • formatType: audiobook-mp3
            • url: https://excerpts.cdn.overdrive.com/FormatType-425/1191-1/3158072-God.mp3
            • source: From the book
            • formatType: audiobook-overdrive
            • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=0713dcf3-9056-4b3d-8b71-768b461ddd7d&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
creators
      • role: Author
      • fileAs: Aslan, Reza
      • bioText: Reza Aslan is an acclaimed writer and scholar of religions whose books include No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam and Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. He is also the author of How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization, and the End of the War on Terror (published in paperback as Beyond Fundamentalism), as well as the editor of Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three sons.
      • name: Reza Aslan
      • role: Narrator
      • fileAs: Aslan, Reza
      • bioText: Reza Aslan is an acclaimed writer and scholar of religions whose books include No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam and Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. He is also the author of How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization, and the End of the War on Terror (published in paperback as Beyond Fundamentalism), as well as the editor of Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three sons.
      • name: Reza Aslan
imprint
Random House Audio
publishDate
2017-11-07T00:00:00-05:00
edition
Unabridged
isOwnedByCollections
True
title
God
fullDescription
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The bestselling author of Zealot and host of Believer explores humanity’s quest to make sense of the divine in this concise and fascinating history of our understanding of God.
 
In Zealot, Reza Aslan replaced the staid, well-worn portrayal of Jesus of Nazareth with a startling new image of the man in all his contradictions. In his new book, Aslan takes on a subject even more immense: God, writ large.
 
In layered prose and with thoughtful, accessible scholarship, Aslan narrates the history of religion as a remarkably cohesive attempt to understand the divine by giving it human traits and emotions. According to Aslan, this innate desire to humanize God is hardwired in our brains, making it a central feature of nearly every religious tradition. As Aslan writes, “Whether we are aware of it or not, and regardless of whether we’re believers or not, what the vast majority of us think about when we think about God is a divine version of ourselves.”
 
But this projection is not without consequences. We bestow upon God not just all that is good in human nature—our compassion, our thirst for justice—but all that is bad in it: our greed, our bigotry, our penchant for violence. All these qualities inform our religions, cultures, and governments.
 
More than just a history of our understanding of God, this book is an attempt to get to the root of this humanizing impulse in order to develop a more universal spirituality. Whether you believe in one God, many gods, or no god at all, God: A Human History will challenge the way you think about the divine and its role in our everyday lives.
Praise for God
“Timely, riveting, enlightening and necessary.”HuffPost
“Tantalizing . . . Driven by [Reza] Aslan’s grace and curiosity, God . . . helps us pan out from our troubled times, while asking us to consider a more expansive view of the divine in contemporary life.”—The Seattle Times
“A fascinating exploration of the interaction of our humanity and God.”Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“[Aslan’s] slim, yet ambitious book [is] the story of how humans have created God with a capital G, and it’s thoroughly mind-blowing.”—Los Angeles Review of Books
“Aslan is a born storyteller, and there is much to enjoy in this intelligent survey.”San Francisco Chronicle
reviews
      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        October 9, 2017
        Aslan (Zealot) addresses ideas about the nature of deities in this wide-ranging work that traces the history of divine beings from the beliefs of humans’ earliest ancestors to contemporary assumptions. The book showcases Aslan’s signature style—verging on academic but always accessible—and his methodological agnosticism as he sets aside claims of truth about “God” in order to explore theories on how humans have come to believe in gods, humanize them, deify humanity, and conceive of gods across the ages. Aslan is adept at translating serious academic theory into lay-reader friendly prose, but he also shares his own perspective as a person of faith and advocates for a renewed pantheism—though he says it can be called by many names. In making his case for pantheism, he barely mentions the voices of Hindu traditions, lesser known pantheistic philosophies, or specific indigenous traditions that have long held beliefs similar to those he advocates. Despite these issues, any general reader interested in religion will find much to learn about how the idea of God or gods has evolved and changed according to geographical, economic, political, and social contexts. Agent: Elyse Cheney, Cheney Agency.

popularity
1202
links
    • self:
        • href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/v1L1BWwAAAA2I/products/0713dcf3-9056-4b3d-8b71-768b461ddd7d/metadata
        • type: application/vnd.overdrive.api+json
id
0713dcf3-9056-4b3d-8b71-768b461ddd7d
starRating
3.7
images
    • cover:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/1191-1/{0713DCF3-9056-4B3D-8B71-768B461DDD7D}Img100.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • thumbnail:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/1191-1/{0713DCF3-9056-4B3D-8B71-768B461DDD7D}Img200.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover150Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/1191-1/071/3DC/F3/{0713DCF3-9056-4B3D-8B71-768B461DDD7D}Img150.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover300Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/1191-1/071/3DC/F3/{0713DCF3-9056-4B3D-8B71-768B461DDD7D}Img400.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
isPublicPerformanceAllowed
False
languages
      • code: en
      • name: English
subjects
      • value: History
      • value: Religion & Spirituality
      • value: Nonfiction
publishDateText
11/07/2017
mediaType
Audiobook
shortDescription
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The bestselling author of Zealot and host of Believer explores humanity’s quest to make sense of the divine in this concise and fascinating history of our understanding of God.
 
In Zealot, Reza Aslan replaced the staid, well-worn portrayal of Jesus of Nazareth with a startling new image of the man in all his contradictions. In his new book, Aslan takes on a subject even more immense: God, writ large.
 
In layered prose and with thoughtful, accessible scholarship, Aslan narrates the history of religion as a remarkably cohesive attempt to understand the divine by giving it human traits and emotions. According to Aslan, this innate desire to humanize God is hardwired in our brains, making it a central feature of nearly every religious tradition. As Aslan writes, “Whether we are aware of it or not, and regardless of whether we’re believers or not, what the vast...
sortTitle
God A Human History
crossRefId
3158072
subtitle
A Human History
publisher
Books on Tape
bisacCodes
      • code: HIS037000
      • description: History / World
      • code: REL017000
      • description: Religion / Comparative Religion
      • code: REL033000
      • description: Religion / History