Books like Religious Literacy by Stephen Prothero

Christopher Hitchens: The ultimate case against religion and the case for a more secular life based on science and reason.

Garry Wills’s complete Penguin Classics translation of Augustine of Hippo’s spiritual classic, capturing the original’s philosophical depth and poetic power in clear, contemporary language.

A satirical dictionary compiling witty and biting definitions of English words, first published in a newspaper in 1881 and later revised into book form.

Robert Wright traces the evolution of monotheistic faiths from the Stone Age to the Information Age, revealing a hidden pattern that reshapes our understanding of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and suggests a future of religious harmony.

Exploring the origins and spread of world religions from the Stone Age to the Axial Age.

A journey through Abraham's life, exploring the origins of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Eboo PatelActs of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a GenerationA young Muslim activist explains our critical need to counter the recruitment of youth by religious fundamentalistsThe lessons we learn when we are young, Eboo Patel writes, determine the commitments we carry the rest of our lives. Even so, many organizations only pay lip service to the importance of youth programs; few devote substantial time and effort to them.But there is a segment of our world that fully understands that young people are a combustible combination of power and fragility. Preachers in the bigotry-driven Christian Identity movement pay special attention to young people. Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin was a twenty-five-year-old observant Jew. Muslim extremists run madrasas with the clear-cut goal of teaching youth that violence is the answer. Youth programs are the focus of the institutions created by these religious totalitarians and at the center of their strategies. All too often, young people are the perpetrators of the devastating acts of violence that define these groups.Acts of Faith interweaves accounts of how religious totalitarian groups engage youth with Patel’s own story of growing up Muslim and angry in America. His unique understanding of the importance of positively engaging religious youth led him to found the Interfaith Youth Core, an energetic organization that seeks to counter religious totalitarianism by building an interfaith, pluralistic youth movement. Addressing the key questions of this emerging movement, Patel shows us how to engage religious conservatives and, most importantly, how to positively focus the fires of youth.

Stephen Prothero explains why the world’s major religions are not merely different paths to a single God, offering concise, clear insights into each tradition and their distinct answers to humanity’s core problems.