When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome

Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths

Karen Armstrong · 476 pages

"Jerusalem has been venerated for centuries as a Holy City by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. How this came to be and what it means both to the people of Jerusalem and to millions around the world is now richly told by the author of the best-selling and widely acclaimed A History of God.". "In every major religion, a "holy place" has helped men and women define their own place, indeed their own im

The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

Rodney Stark · 506 pages

Celebrated religious and social historian Rodney Starktraces the extraordinary rise of Christianity through its most pivotal andcontroversial moments to offer fresh perspective on the history of the world's largest religion. In The Triumph of Christianity, the author of God's Battalions and The Rise of Christianity gathers and refines decades of powerful research and discovery into one concentrate

Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code: A Historian Reveals What We Really Know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene & Constantine

Bart D. Ehrman · 207 pages

Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus

Thomas Cahill · 368 pages

A fresh look at the impact of Jesus & early Christianity on the shaping of Western civilization.

The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant

John Dominic Crossan · 507 pages

Reveals the historical Jesus by combining peasant anthropology, ancient history, and textual analysis.

Asimov's Guide to the Bible: The Old and New Testaments, 2 Vols

Isaac Asimov · 1,295 pages

A fantastic read for anyone interested in organised religion and history. He takes the reader on a journey of the bible through the eyes of the authors and readers. By providing historical backgrounds to the times and the peoples for whom the bible was writtten, he helps explain why this book should NEVER be taken literally. I'm sure parts are outdated by new research by now but it is still a legi

The Historical Figure of Jesus

E.P. Sanders · 337 pages

In this influential historical study, E.P Sanders examines Jesus of Nazareth within the social, political, and religious world of first-century Judaism. Drawing on biblical scholarship, historical sources, and the latest academic research, reconstructs what can be reliably known about Jesus' life, teachings, actions, and the movement that formed around him. Rather than focusing on doctrine or late

The Early Church

Henry Chadwick · 304 pages

Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 Years

Philip Jenkins · 328 pages

Jesus Wars reveals how official, orthodox teaching about Jesus was the product of political maneuvers by a handful of key characters in the fifth century. Jenkins argues that were it not for these controversies, the papacy as we know it would never have come into existence and that today's church could be teaching some-thing very different about Jesus. It is only an accident of history that one gr

The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity

Peter R.L. Brown · 204 pages

The early Christians in Rome

H. D. M. Spence-Jones · 409 pages

A History of the Jews

Paul Johnson · 573 pages

(Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum) The Sealed Nectar: Biography of the Noble Prophet (SAW)

Safiy al-Rahman al-Mubarakfuri · 588 pages

God Against the Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism

Jonathan Kirsch · 336 pages

As conflicts over religious extremism dominate our front pages, the bestselling author of The Harlot by the Side of the Road presents a work of history that could not be more timely: a surprising look back at the origins of religious intolerance during the tumultuous fourth century.This is the epic story of how classical paganism, with its tolerance for many deities and beliefs, lost a centuries-l

Who Wrote the New Testament? The Making of the Christian Myth

Burton L. Mack · 336 pages

The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future

Riane Eisler · 261 pages

"In prehistorical times, Eisler argues, women and men lived together in egalitarian communities devoted to nurturance; with the imposition of male domination, female values gave way to creeds of hierarchy, aggression, power, obedience. Eisler, a futurist, posits a new society based on the recovery of more humane values."--Library journal (6/1/85).

The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family and the Birth of Christianity

James D. Tabor · 363 pages

Based on a careful analysis of the earliest Christian documents and recent archaeological discoveries, The Jesus Dynasty offers a bold new interpretation of the life of Jesus and the origins of Christianity. Biblical scholar Tabor brings us closer than ever to the historical Jesus. He sheds new light on Jesus' relationship with John the Baptizer, the role played by his brother James, and how Paul'

Killing Jesus: A History

Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard · 293 pages

The anchor of The O'Reilly Factor details the events leading up to the murder of the most influential man in history: Jesus of Nazareth. Nearly two thousand years after this beloved and controversial young revolutionary was brutally killed by Roman soldiers, more than 2.2 billion human beings attempt to follow his teachings and believe he is God. Killing Jesus will take readers inside Jesus's life

A History of Religious Ideas 1: From the Stone Age to the Eleusinian Mysteries

Mircea Eliade · 489 pages

Jews, God and History

Max I. Dimont · 472 pages

The author tells us that twenty years of reading went into the creation of Jews, God and History. Conscientious scholarship is evident in this informative record of Jewish history from its inception 4000 years ago to the present. Mr. Dimont traces the nomadic Jewish tribes from their settlement in the ""Promised Land"" to their ultimate dispersion. He describes the Jewish ""age of reason"" under t

No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam

Reza Aslan · 310 pages

Though it is the fastest growing religion in the world, Islam remains shrouded by ignorance and fear. What is the essence of this ancient faith? Is it a religion of peace or war? How does Allah differ from the God of Jews and Christians? Can an Islamic state be founded on democratic values such as pluralism and human rights? A writer and scholar of comparative religions, Reza Aslan has earned inte

The Origin of Satan: How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans and Heretics

Elaine Pagels · 214 pages

Who is Satan in the New Testament, and what is the evil that he represents? In this groundbreaking book, Elaine Pagels, Princeton's distinguished historian of religion, traces the evolution of Satan from its origins in the Hebrew Bible, where Satan is at first merely obstructive, to the New Testament, where Satan becomes the Prince of Darkness, the bitter enemy of God and man, evil incarnate. In

The Christian Tradition 1: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition 100-600

Jaroslav Pelikan · 442 pages

The Bible as History

Werner Keller · 413 pages