With half of the world's most dangerous terrorist groups claim religion as their motivation, today's most pressing concern has become how the word of God seems to sanction acts of terror and violence. Now, a thoughtful social history of the three great monotheistic religions seeks to offer an answer to this global debate. Wide-ranging and insightful, ONE GOD asks one of the most important and perplexing questions of our age by evaluating the political and moral theory contained within the sacred books of Judaism, Christianity and Islam to uncover what within monotheism supplies the ideology, motivation and organisational structure necessary to perpetrate violent acts. By presenting excerpts from the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Koran, Lorca shows with clarity and vigour how and why faith in one God can unite people in either great or terrible undertakings. A sweeping social history of religion, ONE GOD shows how the great monotheisms helped shape the past and create our modern world, offering a major contribution to the sociology of religion, while making a forceful argument regarding the consequences of religious beliefs.