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The Good Book
- Author
- A C Grayling
- Narrator
- Gordon Griffin
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publish Date
- 9 April 2026
- Run Time
- 31 hours 57 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
Drawing on the wisdom of 2,500 years of contemplative non-religious writing on all that it means to be human - from the origins of the universe to small matters of courtesy and kindness in everyday life - A. C. Grayling, Britain's most popular and widely read philosopher, has created a secular bible.
Designed to be read as narrative and also to be dipped into for inspiration, encouragement and consolation, The Good Book offers a thoughtful, non-religious alternative to the many people who do not follow one of the world's great religions. Instead, going back to traditions older than Christianity, and far richer and more various, including the non-theistic philosophical and literary schools of the great civilisations of both West and East, from the Greek philosophy of classical antiquity and its contemporaneous Confucian, Mencian and Mohist schools in China, down through classical Rome, the flourishing of Indian and Arab worlds, the European Renaissance and Enlightenment, the worldwide scientific discoveries of the 19th and 20th centuries to the present, Grayling collects, edits, rearranges and organises the collective secular wisdom of the world in one highly readable volume.
Critics Review
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Undeniably thought-provoking
Christopher Hart, Sunday Times
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Truly ... a good book, full of sage counsel, wise advice and comfort for the sorrowing
Richard Holloway, Observer
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There is an immense depth of human wisdom on display here, and five minutes with any passage will have you contemplating all day
Independent on Sunday
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There are many sentences, thoughts and sentiments in The Good Book that are illuminating, life-enhancing and revelatory on a personal level
Glasgow Herald
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I am glad he put this book together and it will occupy a valuable place in my library as a source for inspiration and wisdom. ****
Terry Waite, Sunday Express
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Grayling is ... a skilled writer of prose ... most impressively [he] demonstrates mastery of Greek history and culture in Histories and Acts
Rabbi Ariel Abel, Jewish News
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Professor Grayling himself neatly exemplifies the values of calm rationality which are at the heart of Stoicism, and which influenced early Christian thought
Church Times
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- A C Grayling
- Narrator
- Gordon Griffin
- Duration
- 31 hours 57 minutes
- Release Date
- 9 April 2026
- ISBN
- 9798260200889
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Genre
- Poetry / Poems, Comparative religion, Poetry / poems by individual poets, Philosophy, Humanist philosophy, Ethics and moral philosophy
Synopsis
Bloomsbury presents The Good Book by A. C. Grayling, read by Gordon Griffin Drawing on the wisdom of 2,500 years of contemplative non-religious writing on all that it means to be human - from the origins of the universe to small matters of courtesy and kindness in everyday life - A. C. Grayling, Britain's most popular and widely read philosopher, has created a secular bible.Designed to be read as narrative and also to be dipped into for inspiration, encouragement and consolation, The Good Book offers a thoughtful, non-religious alternative to the many people who do not follow one of the world's great religions. Instead, going back to traditions older than Christianity, and far richer and more various, including the non-theistic philosophical and literary schools of the great civilisations of both West and East, from the Greek philosophy of classical antiquity and its contemporaneous Confucian, Mencian and Mohist schools in China, down through classical Rome, the flourishing of Indian and Arab worlds, the European Renaissance and Enlightenment, the worldwide scientific discoveries of the 19th and 20th centuries to the present, Grayling collects, edits, rearranges and organises the collective secular wisdom of the world in one highly readable volume.
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