Reza Aslan

Reza Aslan is an Iranian-born American writer, scholar of religions and professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside. His academic background spans religious studies, the history of religions, sociology and creative writing. He has also worked in television, hosting and executive-producing CNN’s documentary series Believer.

Aslan writes narrative nonfiction about how religions develop, acquire authority and interact with politics. His books are designed for general readers, pairing historical argument with a brisk, accessible style. No god but God traces the origins and evolution of Islam, while God: A Human History considers humanity’s long habit of imagining the divine in human terms.

Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, published in 2013, became a number-one New York Times bestseller. It separates the historical Jesus from later Christian doctrine and places him amid Roman occupation, Jewish resistance and competing claims to messianic authority. Aslan later turned to biography in An American Martyr in Persia, about Howard Baskerville, an American teacher who joined Iran’s Constitutional Revolution.

Start with Zealot. It is the clearest introduction to Aslan’s method: reconstructing a familiar religious figure through social history, political conflict and close attention to the gap between historical evidence and sacred tradition. Readers drawn to his treatment of faith and power can continue with No god but God.