Compares early Christian beliefs about God with the religious beliefs of others in the Roman Empire and traces the development of Christian theology

This book is the precipitate of a conference convened in 1997 to explore concepts of divinity as both one and many in ancient Assyria, Egypt, Greece, and Israel. The five original and provocative essays that resulted engage issues as diverse as the advantages and disadvantages of polytheism; different concepts of deity held by these closely related societies; the possibility that plural nouns may denote singular beings and vice versa; the many definitions of monotheism; and how to decide whether an ancient author in referring to a god as one was characterizing that god as numerically singular, best in quality, or simply first to appear on the cosmic stage.

As A Million and One Gods shows, polytheism is considered a scandalous presence in societies oriented to Jewish, Christian, and Muslim beliefs. Yet it persists, even in the West, perhaps because polytheism corresponds to unconscious needs and deeply held values of tolerance, diversity, and equality that are central to civilized societies.

Presents brief descriptions of over one hundred world religions, secular worldviews, cults, and occult practices from a Christian point-of-view, covering the basic beliefs, a short history, and examples in pop culture.

Everyone has questions about God and Religion and how they currently work in the modern fast paced world we live in. Is there only One True God or are there many gods? Which is the true God? Which religion is the true Religion: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Mormonism, Gnosticism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Jainism? Is there really One God, who has many faces? Can knowing the exact right answer make your life work better for you and for your family. We offer the construct that there is One and Only One True God and that God has come to us over and over again, since the beginning of Mankind showing the face and speaking the language of the people of each time and period, so that the stories of "many different Gods" are always only describing One God? One God - Many Faces answers your most important and difficult questions and this construct now allows us to understand what One God with Many Faces can mean to you: Prehistoric Man and God - The Origins of God Man and God - How Man Sees God Today Religion and God The Universe Is Everything. The Universe Is Intelligent. God Is the Universe. The Intelligence of the Universe Is God Science and God My Personal Experience - Understanding the Nature of Our Intelligent Universe God = The Laws of the Universe Evolving God What You believe Believing in God Is Good for You Recognizing that there is only One True God and that God has purposes, goals, and a plan that will, once you understand it, make sense to you, answers many of the most important questions you or anyone else has, about believing in God and the Religion you chose.

Recent archaeological and biblical research challenges the traditional view of the history of ancient Israel. This book presents the latest findings of both academic disciplines regarding the United Monarchy of David and Solomon (‛One Nation’) and the cult reform under Josiah (‛One Cult’), raising the issue of fact versus fiction. The political and cultural interrelations in the Near East are illustrated on the example of the ancient city of Beth She'an/Scythopolis and are discussed as to their significance for the transformation in the conception of God (‛One God’). The volume contains 17 contributions by internationally eminent scholars from Israel, Finland and Germany.

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