Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris's recent bestseller, The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity,... (more)

The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason

The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason

by Sam Harris

Natalie Angier wrote in The New York Times: " The End of Faith articulates the dangers and absurdities of organized religion so fiercely and so fearlessly that I felt relieved as I read it, vindicated....Harris writes what a sizable number of us think, but few are willing to say." This important and timely book delivers a startling analysis of the clash of faith and reason in today's world. Harris offers a... (more)

American Fascists

by Chris Hedges

Twenty-five years ago, when Pat Robertson and other radio and televangelists first spoke of the United States becoming a Christian nation that would build a global Christian empire, it was hard to take such hyperbolic rhetoric seriously. Today, such language no longer sounds like hyperbole but poses, instead, a very real threat to our freedom and our way of life. In American Fascists, Chris Hedges, veteran... (more)

Letter to a Christian Nation

by Sam Harris

“Thousands of people have written to tell me that I am wrong not to believe in God. The most hostile of these communications have come from Christians. This is ironic, as Christians generally imagine that no faith imparts the virtues of love and forgiveness more effectively than their own. The truth is that many who claim to be transformed by Christ’s love are deeply, even murderously, intolerant of criticism.... (more)

The Gnostic Gospels: A Startling Account of the Meaning of Jesus and the Origin of Christianity Based on Gnostic Gospels and Other Secret Texts

The Gnostic Gospels: A Startling Account of the Meaning of Jesus and the Origin of Christianity Based on Gnostic Gospels and Other Secret Texts

by Elaine Pagels

A provocative study of the gnostic gospels and the world of early Christianity as revealed through the Nag Hammadi texts. From the Trade Paperback edition.

The Book of J

by David Rosenberg, Harold Bloom

A controversial national best seller upon its initial publication, The Book of J is an audacious work of literary restoration revealing one of the great narratives of all time and unveiling its mysterious author. J is the title that scholars ascribe to the nameless writer they believe is responsible for the text, written between 950 and 900 BCE, on which Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers is based. In The Book of J,... (more)

Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects

Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects

by Bertrand Russell

Dedicated as few men have been to the life of reason, Bertrand Russell has always been concerned with the basic questions to which religion also addresses itself -- questions about man's place in the universe and the nature of the good life, questions that involve life after death, morality, freedom, education, and sexual ethics. He brings to his treatment of these questions the same courage, scrupulous logic, and... (more)

Critique of Religion and Philosophy

by Walter A. Kaufmann

It would be hard to find a better example of modern atheistic philosophy's love affair with religion, or a more poignant one of the effort of a modern intellectual to keep the faith while eschewing belief. -- Review

The Selfish Gene

by Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins' brilliant reformulation of the theory of natural selection has the rare distinction of having provoked as much excitement and interest outside the scientific community as within it. His theories have helped change the whole nature of the study of social biology, and have forced thousands of readers to rethink their beliefs about life. In his internationally bestselling, now classic volume,... (more)

Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon

Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon

by Daniel C. Dennett

An innovative thinker tackles the controversial question of why we believe in God and how religion shapes our lives and our future For a growing number of people, there is nothing more important than religion. It is an integral part of their marriage, child rearing, and community. In this daring new book, distinguished philosopher Daniel C. Dennett takes a hard look at this phenomenon and asks why.... (more)

His Dark Materials: Book 1

The Golden Compass (Northern Lights)

by Philip Pullman

"SUPERB . . . WONDER-FILLED." --The Washington Post Book World It was no ordinary life for a young girl: living among scholars in the hallowed halls of Jordan College and tearing unsupervised through Oxford's motley streets on mad quests for adventure. But Lyra's greatest adventure would begin closer to home, the day she heard hushed talk of an extraordinary particle. Microscopic in size, the magical dust--found... (more)

Omens of the Millennium

by Harold Bloom

In an acclaimed work, one of America's foremost literary and cultural critics examines some of society's "New Age" obsessions. "An awesomely learned and, at times, touchingly personal discussion of the ancient origins of such New Age marvels as angels, prophetic dreams and near-death experiences." Newsday.

The Jesus Mysteries: Was the "Original Jesus" a Pagan God?

The Jesus Mysteries: Was the "Original Jesus" a Pagan God?

by Peter Gandy, Timothy Freke

“Whether you conclude that this book is the most alarming heresy of the millennium or the mother of all revelations, The Jesus Mysteries deserves to be read.” -- Fort Worth Star -Telegram What if . . . * there were absolutely no evidence for the existence of a historical Jesus? * for thousands of years Pagans had also followed a Son of God? * this Pagan savior was also born of a virgin on the twenty-fifth of... (more)

The American Religion

by Harold Bloom

In this fascinating work of religious criticism, Harold Bloom examines a number of American-born faiths: Pentecostalism, Mormonism, Seventh-day Adventism, Christian Science, Jehovah's Witnesses, Southern Baptism and Fundamentalism, and African American spirituality. He traces the distinctive features of American religion while asking provocative questions about the role religion plays in American culture and in... (more)

Secrets of the Code: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind the Davinci Code

Secrets of the Code: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind the Davinci Code

How to satisfy the endless hunger for information among the millions of readers caught up in The Da Vinci Code mania? Secrets of the Code: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind The Da Vinci Code is the most comprehensive, literate guide available for interpreting the intellectual intricacies of Dan Brown's bestselling novel. This unprecedented volume provides a wealth of fresh insight from the... (more)

The American Religion: The Eemergence of The Post-Christian Nation

The American Religion: The Eemergence of The Post-Christian Nation

by Harold Bloom

The author of The Book of J analyzes the American religious imagination to produce this brilliant examination of a national soul. His consensus: America is a nation of Gnostics, believers in a pre-Christian tradition of individual divinity.

Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God

by Jack Miles

Five years after his everywhere–acclaimed, brilliantly successful, Pulitzer Prize–winning book about God as portrayed in the Old Testament— God: A Biography —Jack Miles gives us his striking consideration of Christ. He presents Christ as a hero of literature based only in part on the historical Jesus, asking us to take the idea of Christ as God Incarnate not as a dogma of religion but as the premise of a work of... (more)

Jesus

by A. N. Wilson

"Extraordinarily entertaining....Learned, witty....Wilson <is> a gifted novelist and diligent biographer."— Newsday What are the facts about the life of Jesus, as opposed to the myths, or unprovable tenets of faith surrounding the miracles, death, and resurrection? How and when did Christianity become a separate religion from the Judaism into which Jesus was born? To what extent was his power over... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: religious criticism

How Religion Poisons Everything

by Christopher Hitchens

by Sam Harris

by Chris Hedges

by Sam Harris

by Elaine Pagels

by David Rosenberg, Harold Bloom

by Bertrand Russell

by Walter A. Kaufmann

by Richard Dawkins

by Daniel C. Dennett

by Philip Pullman

by Harold Bloom

by Peter Gandy, Timothy Freke

by Harold Bloom

by Harold Bloom

by Jack Miles

by A. N. Wilson

by Jeffrey Burton Russell

by Jeffrey Burton Russell