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The law of God: these words conjure an image of Moses breaking the tablets at Mount Sinai, but the history of the alliance between law and divinity is so much longer, and its scope so much broader, than a single Judeo-Christian scene can possibly suggest. In his stunningly ambitious new history, Rmi Brague goes back three thousand years to trace this idea of divine law in the West from prehistoric religions to modern timesgiving new depth to todays discussions about the role of God in worldly affairs.Brague masterfully describes the differing conceptions of divine law in Judaic, Islamic, and Christian traditions and illuminates these ideas with a wide range of philosophical, political, and religious sources. In conclusion, he addresses the recent break in the alliance between law and divinitywhen modern societies, far from connecting the two, started to think of law simply as the rule human community gives itself. Exploring what this disconnection means for the contemporary world, Braguepowerfully expanding on the project he began with re-engages readers in a millennia-long intellectual tradition, ultimately arriving at a better comprehension of our own modernity.Bragues sense of intellectual adventure is what makes his work genuinely exciting to read. offers a challenge that anyone concerned with todays religious struggles ought to take up.Adam Kirsch, Scholars and students of contemporary world events, to the extent that these may be viewed as a clash of rival fundamentalisms, will have much to gain from Bragues study. Ideally, in that case, the book seems to be both an obvious primer and launching pad for further scholarship.