Faith and doubt

A life story told as a long prayer, as Augustine recalls his wild youth and turn to God. As a boy he stole pears he did not even want, just for the thrill of it.

7h 42m reading time

A huge work of history and faith, written after Rome was sacked in 410, compares earthly power with heaven. Augustine answers pagans who blamed Christians for the fall of the city.

15h 7m reading time

A collection of notes on faith, doubt, and the human condition, left unfinished when Pascal died. Here he calls humans thinking reeds, and writes that the heart has reasons that reason does not know.

7h 11m reading time

A study of religion that looks for its roots in the beliefs and ceremonies of Aboriginal Australian clans. Durkheim argues that when people worship their gods, they are also honoring their own society.

11h 16m reading time

Folly speaks in her own defense in a comic speech about human foolishness. She claims credit for the happiness of everyone from lovers to scholars and church leaders.

2h 47m reading time

Three speakers debate what nature can tell us about God in a series of philosophical conversations. Cleanthes compares the world to a machine, while Philo questions whether that comparison proves a divine designer.

2h 31m reading time

This treatise opens by examining biblical prophecy through close readings of scripture. Spinoza asks why prophets pictured God differently, comparing their visions and temperaments.

6h 47m reading time

This short treatise and letter to Pope Leo X explain Luther's understanding of Christian faith and freedom. Luther opens with a striking contrast: a Christian is both free from everyone and a servant to everyone.

1h 17m reading time

Three essays trace how ideas of good and evil developed through conflict and changing social values. One essay links guilt to debt, drawing on an old connection between the German words.

3h 32m reading time

This short essay examines religious belief through human wishes and fears. Freud debates an imagined opponent who challenges his hope that people can live without religion.

1h 15m reading time

A short dialogue follows Socrates and Euthyphro as they question what makes an action holy. Outside an Athenian court, Euthyphro explains why he is bringing a murder charge against his own father.

38 min reading time

A departing prophet answers townspeople's questions about love, work, and death in short, poetic speeches. Before his ship leaves Orphalese, Almustafa speaks of children as arrows sent from a bow.

53 min reading time

A wandering teacher named Zarathustra questions human values through speeches, stories, and songs. His first public speech unfolds before a crowd waiting to watch a tightrope walker.

8h 4m reading time