Synopsis
A history of religious thought arguing that faith was traditionally a practice of transcendence, not a set of literal factual claims.
Core passage idea
Paraphrase · Modern copyrighted workFor most of history God was approached as a practice and mystery beyond words, not a being whose existence one simply asserts.
It reframes the modern faith-versus-reason debate as resting on a mistaken, literalist idea of belief.
To avoid a bubble
Pair with Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion.
Reading note
Read it as a sweeping interpretive history, weighing its apologetic aim against its scholarly survey.
Best paired with
Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion