I read most of this but it was a chore. I'm not a big non-fiction history reader so this may be more of a reader issue than writer issue. I don't feel like Aslan said anything new and was hoping to hear more about his point that we should not humanize God. This, I think, was the main point of the book and effort was made to discuss how this might be hard-wired into our brain but the examples were a bit of a reach for me.

There were a couple points that seemed like more conjecture than archeology-backed theories, but most of the included religious facts have reasonable evidence to support them (confirmed by a seminary-educated husband), and I thought Asian elaborated just enough to make it interesting but not so much it was bogged down.

Read this in one go. Really fascinating stuff. An argument against the humanizing of God and yet also a defense of faith.

Once I started reading it more as a thoroughly historically grounded apologetic of the author's own particular brand of religion (pantheism, basically), rather than an attempt at an unbiased history, I enjoyed it. It's a pretty good apologetic, and I enjoyed it as such. But the history is there to serve the apologetic, not the other way around.

I'll come back and write a better review once I get my hands on my very own copy. After picking this up from the library, I've decided this is a book I need to own. (it was great!)

Hmmm... different than I was expecting, and less impersonal than other Aslan books. But at the same time more thought-provoking. The history of human religions was interesting. I wish I’d flipped back and forth to the notes as I was reading because I feel like that would’ve given it much more depth.

Given that in interviews re: Zealot, Aslan touted his impartiality as a religious scholar, I was disheartened to see a slip in that impartiality when he wrote about Christianity in this book (regardless of how much I agree with those criticisms). I’d recommend it, but probably not to just anyone. Overall vibe: 🧐

Aslan studies the human development between of the relationship between God and man and it’s very fascinating. A non-scientific approach with an interesting analysis that actually made me want to learn more. I hope I find the chance to read on this later.