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Creating God

The birth and growth of major religions
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Creating God by Robin Derricourt explores the origins and spread of major monotheistic religions through history and archaeology. Tracing from Mormonism back through Islam, Christianity, Judaism to Zoroastrianism, the book examines the social and historical contexts that fostered the emergence and growth of these faiths. It investigates why some prophets and religious movements gained lasting followings while others vanished.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$7999
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Ideal for readers interested in religion, history, archaeology, and spirituality seeking a thoughtful and well-researched examination of how major religions began and evolved.

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This book uses history and archaeology to examine the origins of major monotheistic religions: describing the contexts of times, places and societies where Mormonism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism began. It strips away myths and later traditions to provide a secular account of how these faiths first took root.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

What do we really know about how and where religions began, and how they spread?

In this bold new book, award-winning author Robin Derricourt takes us on a journey through the birth and growth of several major religions, using history and archaeology to recreate the times, places and societies that witnessed the rise of significant monotheistic faiths. Beginning with Mormonism and working backwards through Islam, Christianity and Judaism to Zoroastrianism, Creating God opens up the conditions that allowed religious movements to emerge, attract their first followers and grow.

Throughout history there have been many prophets: individuals who believed they were in direct contact with the divine, with instructions to spread a religious message. While many disappeared without trace, some gained millions of followers and established a lasting religion. In Creating God, Robin Derricourt has produced a brilliant, panoramic book that offers new insights on the origins of major religions and raises essential questions about why some succeeded where others failed.

An intriguing and sensitively presented survey of the often surprising links and continuities between some of the world's great religions over three millennia. - Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church, University of Oxford

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781526161925

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 17 May 2021

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Manchester University Press

Illustration: 15 maps

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 16.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 426g

Pages: 304

About the Author

Robin Derricourt is an Honorary Professor of History in the School of Humanities at the University of New South Wales and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He holds a PhD in archaeology from the University of Cambridge. His previous books include Inventing Africa: History, Archaeology and Ideas (2011), Antiquity Imagined: The Remarkable Legacy of Egypt and the Ancient Near East (2015) and Unearthing Childhood: Young Lives in Prehistory (2018), which received the PROSE Award for Archaeology and Ancient History.

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