The Bible remains the bestselling book of all time, believed by nearly two billion people (Christians and Jews) to be divinely inspired. But in this hard-hitting new book, author Robert J. Hutchinson argues that it is actually much more than this. The ideas enshrined in the Bible, he says, triggered a revolution in human thought and established the moral and philosophical foundation for Western civilization, from the recognition of basic human rights and belief in limited government to authentic feminism and the development of empirical science. He shows that it is more a “culture-war” book than a work of religious apologetics.

Robert J. Hutchinson is a religion and travel writer and the author of three previous books, including When in Rome, about the year he spent covering the Vatican. He earned an M.A. in the New Testament from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, and studied modern Hebrew while living in Israel. He lives in California with his wife and five children.