Living with the Gods: On Beliefs and Peoples

This book is great for expanding your philosophical viewpoints. Easy to read, but challenging your existing ideas. If you are interested in learning more about development of humanity, this book is for you.

This lavishly—and I do mean lavishly—illustrated book explores how different people worship, pray, and sing; incorporate elements of water and fire into their religious rituals; live with their dead, employ images in their faith, grapple with polytheism vs. monotheism, and much, much more. There was not a disappointing chapter in the entire book and each one taught me something I didn't know before. My only criticism is that it wasn't long enough; I longed for more. Until recently, the author was Director of the British Museum, and he draws upon that institution's extraordinary collections, as well as the resources of other galleries, to enhance our understanding of numerous religions and make us see how so much of our worship experience today, regardless of your faith tradition, has its origins in the varied practices of others. Well worth the investment.

The author begins with earliest human history and the rituals developed to celebrate nature and spiritual values throughout various cultures. His final plea is that we preserve rituals and community building that help us share our humanity and feed our Spirits.

I am always reluctant to review a book on a topic that is a bit outside my knowledge base, but in this case I feel confident in my assessment--this book cleverly uses objects and places to tell a much larger, and compelling, story. Tackling the essence of peoples' religious beliefs over time and space, and how those beliefs impact society as a whole, is no small task. Mr. MacGregor's take on the topic is both insightful and captivating.

Great!

As an art historian who teaches at Yale I welcomed this book. We usually are confronted by an endless procession of cynical secular writers who dismiss belief. I loved the book and have placed it on may class reading list. Ann McCoy YSD

Neil MacGregor invites the reader to wander through the realm of religious expressions, not based on a strict categorical schedule, but rather by playfully meandering among diverse religious exhibits in the British Museum in London, of which he was the director. It is an entertaining odyssey from one item to the next, eruditely written and pleasant to read. You hear about the Lyon Man created some 40 000 years ago and admire the temple-like structures in Tőbleki Tepe in Turkey erected perhaps 11 000 years ago. You learn about Utnapishtim who built an ark to survive a Mesopotamian flood a long time before Noah did the same. Had Martin Luther not introduced chorale singing by his parishioners, his new protestantism might not have prospered at all and hundreds of years later Amazing Grace might not have been composed. The story goes on with Our Lady of Guadalupe as an Aztec Virgin Mary; six million believers visiting Lourdes every year; why Haile Selassie, a Christian African emperor of Ethiopia, survived Mussolini’s assault; and after stories about Japan and China, the bathing in India’s Ganges River and mummies in Egypt and Peru, we finally get to the god-deniers who twice declared God dead, once in the French Revolution and then by the Soviets, with both failing utterly. Always maintaining a nonpartisan attitude, the author does indeed mention the decline of religious adherence in Europe and suggests that this may have contributed to the loss of the sense of community and social embeddedness for the “atomized consumer”. Still, to this day, the mysteries of human existence on this earth are still being wondered about.

I had read MacGregor’s earlier book on 100 Objects. This one exceeds it by leaps and bounds. I highly recommend it to anyone, scholar or lay reader, humanities or science oriented, of any cultural background. MacGregor’s equanimity in discussing cultures across time and geography is superlative. He juxtaposes and connects threads of common humanity in ways many of us might not have considered. He delves into depth while keeping the broader picture always at the forefront. Each chapter was a gem that left me inspired to learn more and to be able to write better myself. The only sad part was coming to the end of the book and longing to hear more. I sincerely hope this man will continue to share his perceptions with all of us for some time to come.

Kitap oldukça yıpranmış ve yer yer yırtılmış olarak iletildi.

Though I dont have much expectation from a person who spent much of his time watching the loot of an empire that was in every sense of the term a genocidal empire (killed around 8 million Indians during its 150 years of loot) and even when left responsible for the migration of 17 millions and killing of over a million people ,yet my expectation was to have a semblance of balanced view or opinions of evens that happened in the past 30-40 years .When he is not giving platitudes of abstract political philosophies (ostensibly in a religious theme book) his inclusion of those opinions from individuals who are till yesterday cheer leaders of gulags and want to convert India into a mass grave that it was for over 700 years . I am disappointed with the treatment of certain issues which I know are false and fabrication of them will only support a particular imperial ideology be it economic or religious or ideological

The author has a way of taking the reader / listener on an expansive journey, turning the most quotidian into something truly profound.

The hardcover edition looks super nice with high quality pictures. The topics are interesting and described in an easy to follow yet very informative way. It is a pleasure to read it.

This is a beautiful book, with hundreds of full colour illustrations of the objects and places described in the narrative. At over 470 pages this is a big book, but so fascinating that the pages fly by. The writing style is accessible, and enjoyable, and the stories illuminating and often thought provoking. I loved this book and would recommend to anyone with an interest in history, religion around the world, or just in what it is to be human