Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding historical and philosophical perspective.
Review: I had been looking for information that traced the history of not only the creation and growth of the three Western religions, but also information that would help the reader understand the changing point of view expressed within each of the religions, especially toward God. I was pleased to find in one book everything that I had been seeking. I intend to reread it, using it as a study guide to better understand how our relationship with God and our concept of God's will has led us to where we find ourselves today. The references throughout give the serious student of religion sources of additional information.
Rating: 
Summary: Overview of the great variety of monotheistic God concepts
Review: This is a wonderful book especially for people disatisfied with conventional modern thinking about God as either the Big Stern Daddy in the White Robe or An Obsolete Escapist Fairy Tale. The hardcover edition I originally purchased showed favorable reviews from relatively iconoclastic authors like A.N. Wilson (Armstrong, btw, never, so far as I know, refers to the quest for God as a "Wild Goose Chase" as Wilson did) and from more traditional figures like Sister Wendy Beckett (the smiling English nun who always appears in full habit and writes about Art History). The book takes a historical approach to the development of God concepts in Judaism, Christianity and Islam and is especially good at explaining Islam, exploring mysticism and less personal concepts of God cross-culturally, reviewing how different things have been considered "traditional" at different times, and examining how and why God-concepts change according to a cultures needs and experiences. It also reviews the different Hebraic concepts of God in the Jewish scriptures in fascinating and provocative detail. Needless to say, the Bible offers several different ways of looking at God. (Armstrong offers very little, however, that I recall on different ways of looking at Christ- for that go to Yaroslav Pelikan's JESUS THROUGH THE CENTURIES or for more radical contemporay views New Testament commentators like John Dominic Crosson, Robert Funk or Marcus Borg. For a better and kinder treatment of the Deuteronomistic writings try Anthony R. Ceresko's INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT: A LIBERATION PERSPECTIVE). Armstrong has also edited an anthology of Medieval English mystical writers called VISIONS OF GOD. I found that there was so much to take in when reading A HISTORY OF GOD that I could only read the book about 5 pages at a time. The reason I am only awarding 4 stars is because, like many books of this ambitious scope, it can fall down occasionally on the details. However, it remains a good starting point for your own reseach and for identifying your own interests. This book can changes lives both by vastly expanding knowledge of the issues involved in this field and by offering alternatives to what we have come to think of as "traditional".
Rating:
Summary: Great Book To Read
Review: Very good book for the Bible student. It gives you a little bit of knowledge of the Christian, Judaism, and the Islam religions. Very well written. I'll promise you that you will enjoy reading it. It will deepen your spiritual knowledge. Read it and enjoy it!!! Highly recommend!!!
Rating:
Summary: Very exciting book
Review: Living in an islamic country like Pakistan it was very interesting to read the book. I am surprized to find out that in Middle East and other parts of the islamic world they are fighting for the same symbols with common heritage, and same mythlogical references. Reading this book with an open mind will bring all three great monothesitic religion even closer.
Rating:
Summary: A "Must-Read"
Review: Karen Armstrong's A History of God is a fascinating historical survey into the roots of monotheism as seen from the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic perspectives. I learned so much I don't know where to start. Did you know, for example, that the Romans thought the Jews to be atheist because they only believed in one god? Did you know that the Muslims wanted to align themselves with the Jews, but were repeatedly rejected? I found the larger issues of God, however, to be the most insightful aspects of her book. These larger issues refer to how God has changed over the centuries, how different cultures have used God to their own purposes, and how God becomes a reflection of a particular culture at a particular time. To me her most gripping prose introduces the Eastern thought of God as beyond all (transcendant), yet right in the hearts of all of us (immanent). This book is a must-read. She will say things that you have been thinking, but have never articulated.
Rating:
Summary: A stunning history of humankind's descriptions of the Divine
Review: Ms. Armstrong brings her enormous intellect and spiritual insight to the exploration of how the three major monotheistic religions have understood God throughout the centuries. She tracks how similar descriptions of the Divine have arisen within each of the three religions, and discusses how the different understandings of God have affected believers' sense of themselves and their compassion for others. Ms. Armstrong continues to combine superb scholarship with spiritual sensitivity in this stunning book.
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Summary: The story of the greatest wild goose chase in history.
Review: My one line summary (the greatest wild goose chase in history)is actually a quote from the front cover of the UK paperback edition, and continues "Karen Armstrong is a genius". I completely agree with both statements(by A.N.Wilson). This book is a 'must read' for anyone who wants to understand the phenomenon of monotheistic religion in the West. Her explication of the development of Islam would have earned her the Fatwah but for the fact that she is not a Muslim .Like everything else in the book it is superbly well researched and lucidly expressed. I am not sure why she has not been excommunicated from the Catholic Church in one of whose convents she spent 7 years (See "Through the narrow gate" her brilliant book about that experience). Perhaps that is because she just tells it like it was without taking sides. As a religious writer she comes close to George Orwell's ideal of good writing being like looking through a clear window. Fundamentalists of! all stripes will hate this book, as they have much to fear from having the origin of their beliefs spelt out and put in broad historical perspective. Read it soon,unless your mind is totally closed, your world view will never be the same again. 5 stars isn't enough!
Rating: 
Summary: A dismissive view of the God of the Universe
Review: Armstrong's book is typical of its genre. The Author dismisses the God of the Bible, His strength, His majesty and His glory. She focuses on the god made in her image and how that god might have dealt with things. All miracles are, of course. fantasy, and she rejects any conservative scholarship regarding authorship of the Bible and makes the various gods of various religions all equal and presents Yahweh as a "tribal god", confined to Canaan. It's an awful book for anyone with sense.
Rating: 
Summary: Great begining but it looses it's purpose
Review: This is a wonderful book for those people, such as myself, who have always wondered how the God of the Old Testament came to be. I was awe-struck at the detail that Ms. Armstrong presents and the masterful way in which she weaves the tale of the birth and coming of age of the God of Abraham. Then, at the half-way point, it becomes a book on Islam, which is her specific area of expertise and interest. As the chapters went by, I lost interest because we were no longer discussing God but Muslim theology.
Rating:
Summary: Illuminating study of the evolution of the idea of God
Review: Armstrong describes the fascinating story of the evolution of the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These faiths have more in common than their modern day addherents might suspect. All three were heavily influenced by Greek thinking. This book is a must for any reader who wonders how the traditions of our ancestors reached the forms we inherited. Also, those who are perplexed by the paradoxical nature of God will discover that they share this struggle with other seekers over the last 4,000 years.
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