Discovering God - by Rodney Stark (Paperback)

About the Book

A noted social historian answers the central historical question--did God create man, or did man create God? Stark argues that God was here all along, and that humankind discovered, rather than invented, God as man evolved intellectually and spiritually.

From the Back Cover

Winner of the 2008 Christianity Today Award of Merit in Theology/Ethics

The History of God

In Discovering God, award-winning sociologist Rodney Stark presents a monumental history of the origins of the great religions from the Stone Age to the Modern Age and wrestles with the central questions of religion and belief.

Review Quotes

"[A] wide-ranging investigation...serious students of religion will recognize this as an essential sourcebook." - Booklist
"Professor Stark's new book is a tour de force of scholarship, economy in presentation and shrewd observation. As a social scientist he brings out many contrasts that other scholars miss. His comparison of Islam with Christianity is especially penetrating." - Michael Novak, George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion, Philosophy, and Public Policy at the American Enterprise Institute
Stark's retelling of the origins of the world's great religions is fascinating and excellent. - Newsweek
"Writing with his accustomed clarity and sure command of his subject, Rodney Stark here offers the newest masterful book in his distinguished series on religion. Stark's views, supported firmly by the evidence, should bring about a profound reorientation in the study of religion. Discovering God is rich, deep, and enjoyably readable." - Jeffrey Burton Russell, author of A History of Heaven and of Paradise Mislaid
"A highly provocative book, proposing a model for interaction among the study of religions, theological methodologies, and the social and physical sciences. A daring departure from many of the traditional treatments of such matters." - Justo L. Gonzalez, author of The Story of Christianity and A History of Christian Thought
"In an intellectual marketplace full of crude, prejudiced and dogmatic speculations about the genetic basis of religion, for good or (mostly) for ill, a properly historical and cultural study is extremely welcome. Rodney Stark, as ever, writes clearly and with erudition for a lay as well as a learned public and explores the hypothesis that God is discovered, not merely projected or fabricated." - David Martin, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, London School of Economics