{"product_id":"god-an-anatomy","title":"God : An Anatomy","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA fascinating, surprising and often controversial examination of the real God of the Bible, in all his bodily, uncensored, scandalous forms. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThree thousand years ago, in the lands we now call Israel and Palestine, a group of people worshipped a complex pantheon of deities, led by a father god called El. El had seventy children, who were gods in their own right. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOne of them was a minor storm deity, known as Yahweh. Yahweh had a body, a wife, offspring and colleagues. He fought monsters and mortals. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHe gorged on food and wine, wrote books, and took walks and naps. But he would become something far larger and far more abstract: the God of the great monotheistic religions. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBut as Professor Francesca Stavrakopoulou reveals, God’s cultural DNA stretches back centuries before the Bible was written, and persists in the tics and twitches of our own society, whether we are believers or not.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Bible has shaped ideas about God and religion, but also cultural preferences about human existence and experience; our concept of life and death; attitude to sex and gender; habits of eating and drinking; the understanding of history. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eExamining God’s body, from his head to his hands, feet and genitals, she shows how the Western idea of God developed. She explores the places and artefacts that shaped our view of this singular God and the ancient religions and societies of the biblical world.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAnd in doing so she analyses not only the origins of our oldest monotheistic religions, but also the origins of Western culture. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBeautifully written, passionately argued and frequently controversial, \u003cem\u003eGod: An Anatomy\u003c\/em\u003e is cultural history on a grand scale.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWinner of The PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize, shortlisted for The Wolfson History Prize, a The Times Books of the Year.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Francesca Stavrakopoulou","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57704553021827,"sku":"9781509867370","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/8600\/8738\/files\/websitecovertemplate-2002.png?v=1774959919","url":"https:\/\/rarebirdsbooks.com\/products\/god-an-anatomy","provider":"Rare Birds Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}