In the Name of God

O'Grady's work will fascinate anyone wishing to plunge into the histories of Western Christianity and Euro-proximate Islam... She treads the narrow path between being mired in minutiae and grandly sweeping through events, and instead provides enlightening, entertaining stories while including key events for both Christianity and Islam... fans of history, religion, or ideas will revel in the comparative study of these two faiths, long kept apart in history books, whose pasts are inextricably intertwined. * Booklist * A dazzling, lucid history of evolving, tenuous religious toleration... This perceptive, masterly history will change how many readers think about toleration and the supposed clash between Christian and Muslim worlds. * Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) * A tightly focused study of why various regimes have practised tolerance. * 'Books of the Year', Country Life * This is an important book written with an engaging zeal to try to improve our world. It encompasses a deep cultural hinterland, a vast geographical landscape and a narrative of 1,700 years... This is history with a clear mission for our own times. * The Oldie * This is a very important and highly illuminating book. Lucid, incisive and comprehensive, it raises one of the key questions of our time: in a world divided in so many ways, and most especially by religion, how are its peoples to find a way to live together? Through an examination of the history of tolerance and intolerance, and an analysis of the concept of tolerance itself, O'Grady asks whether 'tolerance' is even the right concept to use - and asks: if it is not, what is? * A. C. Grayling * In a wide-ranging study that has urgent contemporary relevance, Selina O'Grady casts a cool eye over the battlefields of power, fanaticism and faith that have caused so much devastation in a world of competing beliefs. -- Malise Ruthven * Financial Times * A timely history... Sweeps through the centuries with panache. -- Tom Holland * Sunday Times *