Strange Gods, Susan Jacoby
Strange Gods, Susan Jacoby
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Strange Gods
A Secular History of Conversion

Author: Susan Jacoby

Narrator: Elizabeth Wiley

Unabridged: 19 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/16/2016

Categories: Nonfiction, History, Religion


Synopsis

In this original and riveting exploration, Susan Jacoby argues that conversion—especially in the free American "religious marketplace"—is too often viewed only within the conventional and simplistic narrative of personal reinvention and divine grace. Instead, the author places conversions within a secular social context that has, at various times, included the force of a unified church and state, desire for upward economic mobility, and interreligious marriage.

Moving through time, continents, and cultures, Jacoby examines conversions to authoritarian secular ideologies. She also provides portraits of individual converts, including the Catholic Church father Augustine of Hippo; the German Jewish convert to Catholicism Edith Stein, murdered at Auschwitz and canonized by the church; boxing champion Muhammad Ali, who scandalized white Americans in the 1960s by becoming a Muslim; and even politicians such as George W. Bush. Finally, Jacoby takes on the question of why the freedom to choose a religion—or to reject religion altogether—is a fundamental human rights issue that remains a breeding ground for violence in areas of the world that never experienced an Enlightenment.

About Susan Jacoby

Susan Jacoby is the author of more than ten books, including the New York Times bestseller The Age of American Unreason. She is a frequent contributor to national publications, including the Times and the Washington Post.


Reviews

Goodreads review by George on April 28, 2016

ERUDITE, RECONDITE, INTERESTING AND INFORMATIVE. “Religious conversion is an irresistible subject for a secularist or an atheist precisely because so much human energy, throughout recorded history, has been expended on persuading or forcing large numbers of people to replace belief in one supernatura......more

Goodreads review by Ryan on February 24, 2016

Here is a link to my conversation with the author: [URL not allowed]-what-.........more

Goodreads review by Scout on May 06, 2024

Very cool, but VERY LONG, book, had no idea how much history has hated Jews since the very beginning (super gross)......more

Goodreads review by Derek on January 24, 2023

This book was a slow burn. The author offers a ponderous personal introduction to her interest in conversion and starts the book proper by taking us through a lot of very well-trod territory, including Augustine’s famous move to Christianity. I was bothered at first because I was hoping that the aut......more