“T. M. Luhrmann has a rare gift and this book is a rare achievement—beautifully accessible, intellectually humble, genuinely objective.”—Mark Noll, author of A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada
"This is a brave, subtle book. Luhrmann draws on her rich career of fieldwork in a range of religious communities around the world to reveal the basic scaffolding of spiritual experience—the combination of habits, practices, relationships, sensations, and stories that enable humans to experience God as real. She delves into the differences across faiths and cultures while also offering a bold, persuasive case for all we share in common."—Molly Worthen, author of Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism
“How God Becomes Real is bold, thought-provoking, and very accessible.”—Amira Mittermaier, author of Giving to God: Islamic Charity in Revolutionary Times
“This is a brilliant book that tackles an issue of great importance: How do our minds apprehend religion, how do we work to fashion our religious ideas and emotions, and how does that work change us? How God Becomes Real is profound—and also a great read.”—Pascal Boyer, author of Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought
"N/A"---Marie Masagutova, Antropologicheskij Forum
"A cause for celebration."---Brian Collins, Religious Studies Review
"This insightful, challenging study, to be commended for its richly researched scholarship, throws fascinating light on how people fasion and express their faith practice and experience."---Rev. Brian Cooper, The Gandhi Way
"Tanya Marie Luhrmann is brave to have written such a daring book but it is a book which needed writing, it is a subject which needed addressing, and—amazingly I think—in the process of writing, she has given us a challenging, thought-provoking work. . . . What we have in the end is a fascinating and accessible book, taking us far out of our comfort zones to discover how what we do, and how what people in different cultures to our own do, can enable each person to grow in awareness of the invisible other, how each one of us can make the invisible other real."---Luke Penkett, Heythrop Journal
"A generous and erudite study of how people believe."
"An immensely enjoyable read."
"A serious work of anthropological research, yet its conversational tone and fascinating anecdotes will hold the attention of even nonspecialists, especially those troubled by the elusiveness of an intimate relationship with God."
"Brilliant . . . destined to become a classic."---Timothy Larsen, Marginalia
"Drawing voraciously on her own and others’ research into faiths as far-flung as Messianic Judaism, the Goddess movement, Indigenous spirituality and Santeria, Luhrmann seeks to map how modern believers make their gods real."---Ariel Sabar, New York Times
"Luhrmann has brilliantly illuminated the magical attunement that constitutes a great deal of evangelical charismatic belief."---James Wood, New Yorker
"Fascinating. . . . Provocatively orchestrated, meticulously argued, and lucidly written."---Sarah Iles Johnston, Los Angeles Review of Books
"Winner of the J.I Staley Prize, School for Advanced Research"
"One of The New York Times' Three Books That Gaze Upward to Heaven and Inward to the Heart"
"Winner of the PROSE Award in Theology & Religious Studies, Association of American Publishers"