# Suggest a religious history text!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-religious-history-text/170430
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 22, 2003, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-religious-history-text/170430 "2003-04-22T21:07:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2003, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-religious-history-text/170430/1 "2003-04-22T21:07:38Z")
Hey all,
It looks like I might finally be getting a semi-professional writing project (yay me!) that deals with something I’m interrested in- comparative religion. Unfortunately, a lot of the project is going to deal with something I’m not real knowledgable about- religious history. Can anyone suggest some good, not-too-huge (as I have a feeling I’m going to be reading a lot of them) texts on western religious history? Thanks a ton!
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### Author:  [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2003, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-religious-history-text/170430/2 "2003-04-23T00:19:56Z")
This is a college standard:
[A Concise History of the Catholic Church](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385505841/qid=1051057142/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/103-9480483-7526226?v=glance&s=books)
Sure, it’s just the history of the Catholic Church, but the CC is the longest-lived and most dominant religious denomination of western civilization. This book will give you a reference point onto which you can hang the other books you read.
## Peace
Una Ecclessia
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### Author:  [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2003, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-religious-history-text/170430/3 "2003-04-23T00:35:22Z")
here i stand by roland bainton. short biography of luther and great overview of the reformation.
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### Author:  [@Atreyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atreyu)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2003, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-religious-history-text/170430/4 "2003-04-23T02:14:17Z")
A History of God by Karen Armstrong.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2003, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-religious-history-text/170430/5 "2003-04-23T04:20:57Z")
_The Faith: A History of Christianity_ by Brian Moynahan is a good work that’s fairly recent.
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### Author:  [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2003, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-religious-history-text/170430/6 "2003-04-23T06:28:46Z")
For a survey of many religions other than the Abrahamic (but still falling short in many areas–the author died before all planned volumes were complete), I recommend Mircea Eliade’s _A History of Religious Ideas_. I do caution that his work on shamanism, while excellent for shamanic religions _strictu sensu_ (the religious practices of Siberian tribes) is excellent, it should not be extended to cover other ecstatic religions as much as Eliade liked to do.
For a brief and good survey of non-classic shamanic practices (as “shamanism” is often popularly used), I recommend I.M. Lewis’s _Ecstatic Religion_.
Both of these works, espeically Lewis’s, are surprisingly readable, although Eliade does get into lots of detail.