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Rating: 
Summary: Impressing
Review: Amazing research alone -combined in the 568 pages- makes this book worth every penny.
For those who want to know the truth that is stranger than fiction (like Da Vinci Code).
Rating: 
Summary: Peter McMahon
Review: From the first page of this well researched and extensively referenced work, I was gripped.
The author demonstrates the common roots of three of the major belief systems through material that anyone with the inclination, can cross reference. That,to me, is what seperates this work from others. I would heartily reccomend it to anyone who has an interest in history or religion.
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Summary: Truly Awesome
Review: I have seldom read a better or more interesting book. Hopefully, it will catch on, as it contains such important information that could really benefit the world. We are in the midst of a global battle over religion in which much of the planet could be destroyed. Now, more than ever works like this one are needed. Although, they're arent any works like this one! I wholeheartedly recommend that this book be read by every thinking person as quickly as possible. There are few books that will change the world for the better--this is certainly one of them.
The author uses numerous sciences to show that not only are the gods of a wide variety of cultures essentially the same but that they almost invariably represent the sun or aspects thereof. She delves into history, archeology, languages, astronomy and other fields in order to prove each and every important point.
Without going into detail about this long work, I would have to say that overall her work in Suns of God is simply superb. I also very much enjoyed her editorializing in calling for a more refined, loving world. We are at a critical time in history, folks, and most people really need to wake up to the information found in this book and Acharya's other work, "The Christ Conspiracy."
I've seen much of the badgering Acharya takes over her work--almost all of it stems from the fact that she is not a believer in the literal, divine Jesus Christ. In other words, scorn and abuse are heaped on her and her work not because she or it is "wrong" factually but merely because she does not believe the fable presented in the gospel story. Millions of other people also do not believe that tale, but they usually do not go so far as to suggest that "Jesus Christ" never existed and is a fictional character. They do not go that far because They have not studied the subject in depth to find out that there is no evidence of his existence. Actually, the evidence points to the other direction: That Jesus Christ is a compilaton of the many older gods reworked as a "Jewish" man and placed into history. This conclusion not only quite understandable but makes quite good sense.
Another conclusion is that Acharya S is one of the world's experts on comparative religion and mythology, having few peers in her perspective or erudition. Anyone interested would do well to study her works, as well as her numerous citations. (Suns of God possesses a dozen or more pages of bibliography.)
Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS EVER
Review: If you like the works of Tom Harpur, Earl Doherty and the other great book by Acharya S, "The Christ Conspiracy," you will love this book, "Suns of God." Acharya has managed to squeeze in an incredible amount of information in this fantastic compendium of the history of religion. I do believe it is one of the best books on the subject of religion ever written.Anyone who wishes to know and/or discuss the issue of religion from a solid background will truly want to study this book. Like Christ Con, I couldn't put this one down!
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Summary: Suns of God--Acharya S brings some light to the world
Review: Suns of God is a tour de force regarding the links between mankinds' search for the sublime religous experience and the need for later anthropomorphic depictions of God. This solidly referenced book cover all the links between Near and Far Eastern
religions and their eventual development into Christianity. This book is a thorough read about the most neccessary part of our lives, and how we got to be where we are now. Nearly all religious development has stopped in the last 1500 years, and after reading Suns of God, it's easy to see why. A must read for all to see where our religious past originated.
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Summary: Outstanding Scholarship!
Review: Suns of God is an amazing work. Very long and scholarly, but her writing style is never a plod to get through. The amount of information gathered is astounding. The facts are clear after reading this book. All these one true Gods have only been remakes of other older Gods, who have been named for the Sun. Get this book and find out what the real truth is!
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Summary: ancient origins merge with significant current events
Review: The first thought I have when pondering the author's latest published work is her feature on a recent radio interview when she asserted that more objective and mythicist oriented studies on world religion, especially Christianity, thinned out after World War II. This would comport with sociological inquiry that concludes that after the deprivations of the great depression and the horrors of a violent global conflagration, Americans were of a mind to settle into traditional and pseudo-nostalgic norms and behaviors: all the conveniences of urban accessibility blended with the pristine simplicities of rural endeavors to create our current suburban artifices; the aspiration for independence via transportation-on-demand realized by 2 cars in the garage; a strict definition of a nuclear family within a house and property self owned, surrounded by the proverbial white-picket fence; and, of course, worship in an unassuming local church or synagogue, supervised unquestioningly by a pastor or rabbi of scrupulous theological training.
When cracks in the facade of social perfection were first pointed out in the late 50s, all the glaring contradictions and hypocrisies were a jolt of adrenaline to the civil rights movement. The xenophobic tribal inclination to fear the ubiquitous "other", from both within and without, manifested in the post-war "red scare", led to an examination of the species-threatening technological advancements of war-making and the hubristic consolidation of power by the military-industrial complex. These critical reexaminations were an inspiration to the anti-nuclear and an anti-war movements of political dissent. A conspicuously absent component of social and political dissent from the late 50s through the 70s was a critique of mainstream established religion as well as spreading evangelical offshoots. Rather, the beat generation intellectuals embraced a home-grown version of Buddhism and eastern mysticism compatible with their counter cultural milieu, much as Hon. Elijah Muhammad fashioned a form of Muslim worship that bolstered African-American pride and self sufficiency. In fact, as alienation and institutional dissatisfaction among American youth proliferated, the ranks of Protestant evangelicals actually increased. Northwestern University professor Gary Wills laments in a recent New York Times column that more Americans believe in the virgin birth than evolution. The UK's leading zoologist, Richard Dawkins declares "among things that science does know, evolution is about as certain as anything." And yet, a recent survey demonstrates 55% of Americans accept "intelligent design" over evolution. If universal critique of institutional religion and its populist outgrowths surfaced at the time of the other developments of social alternatives, we can only speculate whether there would now be wider acceptance of conclusions based on scientific inquiry than the mythic supernatural staples of organized religion.
Better late than never. The nearly simultaneous events of the Jim Jones Christian community mass suicide in Guyana and the hostage crisis in Iran, prompted by Islamist zealots, jolted western civilization from its complacency about the potential dangers fostered by the closed minds of religious exclusivist dogmatists. The intellectual and civic advancement of free thinking, objective, and unintimidated pursuits are desperately needed to counter the theocratic and autocratic aims of American Christian Dominionist (or reconstructionist) movements so meticulously noted by Katherine Yurica, Maureen Farrell, Rick Perlstein, and other eminent writers. The neocons, from a generally secular power-aggrandizing standpoint seek to politically mobilize religious absolutists to advance their ambitious and aggressive geo-political strategic aims. The neocons' mentor is a late University of Chicago professor in political science. According to Shadia Drury in her book "Leo Strauss and the American Right", she asserts that Strauss believed that a leader had to perpetually deceive the citizens he ruled. "Secular society...is the worst possible thing," because it leads to individualism, liberalism, and relativism, all of which encourage dissent and rebellion. As Drury sums it up: "You want a crowd that you can manipulate like putty." And so it seems we should accede and even be party to a constantly escalating and spiraling cycle of international violence between two major insistently absolutist global religionist bulwarks, in part to advance the ulterior motives of a powerful Machiavellian elite.
How do we, as readers, do our part to break through our latest threat to species survival under the guise of "war on terror" and foment a rejuvenated effort for peace and international understanding? For starters, we can educate ourselves on the ageless and anthropological foundations of our current predicament. To this effort, the recent publication of the latest book by Acharya S arrives not a moment too soon. She is criticized for an editorializing tone as she was for her prior book, "the Christ Conspiracy". This scholastic fault can be transformed into an informative plus in light of the dire international situation I outline in this review. Her scope of research into the commonality of religious tradition from India to Ireland and beyond is engrossing, heavily documented, and utterly convincing. This is perhaps the most significant as well as popularly accessible tome on the origins of comparative religion and mythology dating back to at least the early work of Joseph Campbell. Partly as a response to the criticisms of her earlier work, the author cuts through the theological elitism that has for decades sought to emphasize the differences in world religions, enabling her to weave a fabric that displays a mutually syncretized interrelationship.
This is must reading for those among us who are curious about the doctrines based on supernatural mythological paradigms that so absorb and captivate a large measure of world humanity. So much of what she reveals to us needs to be inculcated into education at all levels to counter the theocratic dogmas Dominionists and other evangelical absolutists who would insistently indoctrinate the general population. Objective inquiry into the social criticism of religious institutions and behavior is now in ascendancy. If the proponents of theocracy and enemies of constitutional tradition are to be stalemated, the efforts of these truth seekers among a variety of backgrounds and educations will be necessary. Count Acharya S as a player.
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Summary: Add this book to your library- I did.
Review: This a big book. Make no mistake. The materials covered are also big. Big in ideologies. Acharya S. takes apart the age old dogma's piece by piece and not only states what's erroneous, but how it came to be so mistaken. These issues, from creation to judgments did not all occur in the flash of an eye, but across countless several generations of writers seeking to establish a basis for social control. You may not like what she says in Suns, but that does not make it any less factual. Those seeking not only answers, but a basis for those answers would do well to get a copy of this book. Those, however, who have made up their minds, on either side of the fence, will find very little to dispute. Acharya S. has done her work well, and has, I believe, covered the topics exceptionally well. After reaching the last page, the reader will have covered not only the history of the son of god ideology, but the reason so many religions, that may on the surface seem dissimilar, start from the very same mythology. This is a book the serious mythologist or spiritual seeker should have at their disposal.
Rating:
Summary: Christ and Krishna--similar solar deities
Review: This is a superb book. There are books on the mythical nature of Jesus, particularly "The Jesus Mysteries" and its sequel "Jesus and the Lost Goddess" by Timothy Freke. Freke goes in-depth into the very nature of mystery myth deity worship, whereas Acharya S tends to focus her scholarship on the nature of these solar deities: Christ, Krishna, and Buddha. Enough scholarship to have been awarded a Ph.D., though unfortunately, in the American academic world, to question the historicity of Jesus is to ask for trouble and indeed not ever attain the status of professor of religion. Hopefully things will change.
Raja Bhat
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