FINISHED READING - A Little History of Religion by Richard Holloway

Published as part of Yale Press's ' A Little History' series of books. This one has Richard Holloway attempting a quick dash across a broad spectrum of religions and religious views. Taking in along the way what makes religions arise, how they have developed, changed and adapting in their emphasis over the millennia. Bringing you right up to present with final chapters on Scientology and Secular Humanism. Written in order to be suitable for people of faith and people with non, it treads very carefully.

The religions he has chosen are there because they highlight a particular era or newly emerging aspect of religious belief or practice. Each chapter is approximately five to six pages long, so it never goes into forensic detail. That said, he presents his a broad overview very fluently, for example, of how the Bahai faith emerged and its central beliefs. This brevity does prove a bit dissatisfying overall. There seems some apologetic humility hovering angelic like around the use of 'Little' in this series title. They are certainly brief.

Holloway's writing is informative and sticks to the fundamentals, and tip toes around making judgements concerning veracity. There are more chapters on the development of Christianity than any other, no doubt because that has been his own path, and he understands its evolution best. That Christian centric bias does, however, leave a feeling of it being unbalanced, and made the brief inclusion of some faiths appear tokenistic. The impartiality of his working stand point means the book seemed emotionally neutered, and unanchored. One felt he was trying so hard not to let his own views intrude. Which I assume may have been his commissioning brief.

That said there is some useful bits exploring what faith is. How much religions are used as a means to justify violence and control. And was this inherent to religious belief or simply a human propensity finding an outlet through it? I'm not sure, other than being the obvious skip across forms of religion, what the purpose of this book was, nor who they imagined it was for? It was religious light reading, for the moderately curious. A bit empty and lacking in narrative grit. If Holloway and his undoubted perceptiveness and analysis had felt a bit more available in the book, I may have found it more of a compelling read.

CARROT REVIEW - 4/8