John Bowker is a professor of religious studies who has taught at the universities of Cambridge, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina State University. He is an Honorary Canon of Canterbury Cathedral, a consultant for UNESCO, as well as a BBC broadcaster and author and editor of several books including: Beliefs That Changed the World (Quercus, 2007); World Religions (Dorling Kindersley, 2006); The Sacred Neuron: The Extraordinary New Discoveries Linking Science and Religion (Palgrave MacMillan, 2005); God: A Brief History; and The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (OUP, 1997).