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Summary: And what a history it is...
Review: "Human beings cannot endure emptiness and desolation; they will fill the vacuum by creating a new focus of meaning. . . .we should, perhaps, ponder the history of God for some lessons and warnings." --- last paragraph of Armstrong's book.The jacket points out that Armstrong teaches at the Leo Baeck College for the Study of Judaism and the Training of Rabbis and Teachers (as well as having spent seven years as a nun). Her academic knowledge more than shows--which is why I don't understand the reviews that claimed she was terribly biased. The book seemed to take a step back and objectively review the HISTORY of God, rather than pass judgement on one religion or another. Armstrong demonstrates that through time, humanity has always sought to fill the void of unknowing by seeking a higher power. Thus, God will always exist, even in our increasingly godless society. She follows Man's God through history--from the dawn of time until now, and examines the reasons for the different concepts of God between the Monotheists (and even modern atheists and skeptics). The book is complete. It's a tough read though--with a scholarly tone and complex sentence structures. It's not a beach book or even an airplane read. But it's worth your time and money if you're interested in the histories of both our most enduring concept/being (God) and of the interplay between religion and man.
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Summary: An okay book
Review: This is not a serious book. The author is clearly biased and has her own interpretations of the Gods of every religion. I don't recommend buying this book if your are a serious reader of the History of religions.
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Summary: Provides a Full Picture
Review: This book is one of most comprehensive religious history books that I have read yet. I've come to many of the same conclusions as the author but I have never had the historical account to back up these ideas. This book provides a lot of ammunition for those, like me, who can't accept the God of Christianity, but aren't sure why. The hypocrisy and self-serving interpretation of scripture that has been inherent in the history of religion is well chronicled in this book. Some of the information presented is repetitious, but it is necessary to show the theological hair-splitting that has caused so many Christian sects to be created.
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Summary: A Good Survey of the History of an Idea
Review: This book undertakes an examination of the growth of the God concept from its earliest days in the ancient, and pagan, Middle East, through the development of the idea of the Lord in early biblical Israel and later in the Judaism which grew from that, then on into the blossoming of Christianity (from the ground of Judaism in hellenistic/Roman times), and thence into Islam which arose in the shadow of these two older religions and somewhat off their more mainstream tracks. Along the way, the author, Karen Armstrong, offers us a glimpse of the parallel developments in the farther east where Buddhism and then Hinduism were arising out of a distinct, though perhaps not quite so different, pagan tradition. Nor does she scruple to look at the philosophical tradition evolving in the Greek world at around this same time as it progressed from a world view rooted in the concrete and the knowable to a system of inquiry fascinated with and focused on the metaphysical and the unknowable. All these strains, Ms. Armstrong asserts, went into the idea of God as it developed in the traditional western monotheistic religions and she takes her search right up through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and into our own modern times. Ms. Armstrong sees similarities throughout and ably articluates them, offering us a thorough analysis and then a synthesis of the God idea, in the process. For Ms. Armstrong, God is an unknowable and yet a real paradox in that mankind inevitably longs to know "him". The result is a spiralling of concepts over thousands of years with frequent circling back by various thinkers and the inevitable echoes of earlier ideas. Although she carefully disects the various God concepts she finds, in the end Ms. Armstrong is plainly an advocate for mysticism, with the understanding that God is not an objective being, merely greater than all other beings, but completely "other", finally a subjective experience of the transcendental "ground of being" which lies beneath and behind all that is. For Ms. Armstrong God is not known through language in the way things of this world are known, but rather through a highly subjective experience akin to the way we experience art, where language and the rituals of religion serve as a kind of symbolism designed to invoke and evoke the experience of the absolute. In this sense, religions fail Ms. Armstrong and only the spiritual experience of the mystic survives and sustains. And yet she does not denounce religion but rather treats it with full respect and intellectual civility, deeming it as worthy of inquiry as any other field of human endeavor. Where she differs from the straight religionists (those who believe in one dogma or another) is in her refusal to embrace any particular orthodoxy and her adamant insistence on offering intellectual sanctuary to them all. She is, however, rather hard on western Christianity, the tradition out of which she herself came, suggesting that it fell victim, early on in its history, to a naive confusion of the idea of God as a transcendent absolute (a numinous Being behind all beings) with God as a Supreme Being, first among all beings, "himself" knowable in human terms but infinitely greater than any mere human. She very convincingly shows the logical flaws inherent in this kind of thinking and takes western Christianity to task for losing the sense of mystery which Eastern Christianity managed to retain. She shows how the western world lost its sense of God's mystery for this mistake and how this opened the West up to a loss of the sense of the religious and a growth of atheism, the belief in the non-existence of God. But in the end she shows, as well, that true mysticism and true spirituality affirms God's non-existence no less than the atheist, for God cannot be subsumed under any concept, cannot be described or grasped, and is, in the end, no more than "Nothing" where this is defined not as the absence of something where something might be, but rather as the absence of anything since the true idea of God does not allow of any interpretation or discussion. In other words, this idea is not subject to any ordinary linguistic categories (a very Buddhist view, by the way) and so is not really anything at all since it cannot be spoken of. In the end what is it but just Nothing? Hers is a mystical view finally, and many who are strongly attached to their faiths may find what she has to say somewhat offensive. Still she makes sense if you give her the chance and what she offers does little damage to the God idea, a concept which does not lend itself to easy explication, to say the least, but rather genuinely enhances it. I did have a bone or two to pick with her in that I thought her overview rather more superficial as she advanced into modern times and, after awhile, I started to feel that her personal view was perilously close to pure subjectivity which, in the end, must undermine the more substantial metaphysical insight she seems to be saying religion offers us. But this is tough stuff to talk about and I think she did an admirable job of it, all things considered. An excellent book and well worth reading.
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Summary: Rewarding, challenging, neither atheist nor anti-Christian
Review: How can I review this book? I absolutely loved it. A History of God is for those who seek understanding of what this God thing is all about, and are willing to work for that understanding. If you're expecting a book that will blindly echo the writings of religious figures of the past, you'll hate this book - as did some of the other reviewers. Unfortunately, some people feel that examining and analyzing the messages of these figures is unwarranted criticism. I am a little surprised that some reviewers came away feeling that Ms. Armstrong is atheist or anti-Christian, as I came to the opposite conclusion. She treats nearly all the beliefs of the major religions with a refreshing level of sensitivity - particularly when compared with treatment by other writers. Although the evaluation of my own faith was not my viewpoint, it was honest and well reasoned. Had I not made the effort to understand her reasoning, but instead chosen to be offended, I would have missed the entire point of the book. Don't pick up this book if you don't want to think about faith or God. If you are a bit more brave, curious or confident, then go for it. Unless you've studied history, philosophy and religionS (emphasis on the plural), read it - you're bound to learn some things. Make no mistake: this is not an easy read. Her sentence structure and word choice are sometimes confusing. The amount of detail makes the book slow going. It is a book that invites re-reading, and rewards the effort.
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Summary: Can't imagine being any better if done in the first person
Review: A rare combination of extensive research and a capitivating narration by the author. Audiotape listeners are often put off by the quality of the narration. The author, Karen Armstrong, is a former Roman Catholic nun, with a British accent comparable to Julie Andrews. I have put off reading her book for several years and consumed the tape in a week. I'm now inspired to read the book to fill in the gaps. This is the finest historical audiotape both for content and narration.
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Summary: Missing Chapter?
Review: The author has so much minutiae, yet has left out out all discussion of the evolution and nature of the three branches into which Judaism has evolved and the implications of this. (Reformed Judaism gets about half a sentence.) Did a chapter fall out on the way to the editor?
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Summary: A History of God.......
Review: .....or - How The Lesser War God of the Jews Came To Be CEO of Deities'R'Us. Because that, essentially is the history of the god that has come to be the one and only god worshipped by the three great monotheistic traditions of today. Armstrong traces the development of this god, Yahweh, who started out as one amongst many gods worshipped by the Jews and in time supplanted them all. She details how Yahweh was decided by mere mortals to be one and the same as El Shaddai, the god of Abraham, then later El, the high god of the Canaanites, then was incarnated in Jesus Christ and even later became Al-lah, the supreme god of the Arab pantheon by a certain Muhammed. She points out how it was men who decided that Yahweh was the only god and forbade worship of other deities, burning down their temples and smashing their altars. Once Yahweh had absorbed or conquered the other gods and only he remained Armstrong then takes us onward in history and shows how it emerged that two distinct viewpoints of God arose and oscillated in popularity through history. These she terms The God of the Philosopher's - who is deemed to be a separate supreme being 'out there' and can be reasoned about and The God of the Mystics - who is not 'out there' but everywhere and defies reason and logic. What becomes apparent is that these viewpoints are adopted in response to political events. When things are good, God is on your side and reasonable, when things are bad, God is then nebulous (ie conspicuous by his absence) and you must rely on yourself for salvation. In discussing these points Armstrong addresses such concepts as the Trinity and messianic fervour, pointing out why they disappoint. There is an awful lot of commentary on the positions of various Islamic and Christian theologians in the centre of the book which may deter people from reading this, since it's difficult to have the foggiest notion of the concepts they discuss, wreathed as they are in doublespeak and contradiction. This culminates in a quote from Nicholas of Cusa who said "the Christian must leave everything behind when he sought to approach God and even transcend one's intellect going beyond all sense and reason" which I think translates as "only the truly stupid can find God". Many theologians also define God as "nothing" which is ironic given the theistic argument "How can you get something from nothing ?" to which we can now answer "Precisely". But on Armstrong forges into the enlightenment and the bombshells planted under God by various theologians and philosophers. These include the idea that if God was everything then sin was nothing, being merely another aspect of God and something to be done as part of worship. The views of Diderot are also worth mentioning since he pointed out "once God has ceased to be a passionatley subjective experience, He does not exist" and "Whether God exists or does not exist, He has come to rank amongst the most sublime and useless truths". She touches only briefly upon the biggest bombshell to God, that of Darwin's Theory of Evolution which has done the most to damage faith than all the philosophers she touches upon. But it's interesting to note that since science and philosophy have killed The God of the Philosopher's beyond hope of revival that has left the faithful with only the God of the Mystics in modern times to turn to, and He must compete with other forms of mysticism and New Age beliefs in a competitive market. Will God survive ? The answer would appear to be yes since this book demonstartes quite clearly to any reader that God is entirely a product of human imagination and as long as people can imagine God, He wil continue to exist for them, whether he should continue to do so or not.
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Summary: Not Quite What It Seems
Review: The book does actually begin with a rather secular account of the origins of all three religions - something that can be disturbing reading in its own right if you're a true believer. After that, it recounts the attempts by scholars in each religion to use reason to derive the principles upon which their respective faiths were founded. It tells of the uniform failure of all such attempts, and how some lost their faith, but others discovered that faith endured - even in the face of all rational arguments. The book is primarily concerned with the different ways those people squared the conflict between Reason and Faith and even thrived on it. Various technical problems prevent this from being a truly great book. For one, it repeats itself too much, and it uses too many phrases in Latin and French without bothering to translate them. More seriously, it sometimes speculates on peripheral topics - Buddhism or Hinduism, for example - but without a single footnote to substantiate those statements, leaving the reader wondering how seriously to take them. Contrast this to her treatment of the central topics, which are always well substantiated. Worst of all, Armstrong has a bad habit of alternating between speaking for the ancient scholars she's reporting on and then speaking for herself, leaving you confused as to which opinions are which. Still, this is an important book for anyone in a world where science seems to have done away with the supernatural entirely and where the Holy Scriptures can't be taken literally, but who finds that Faith survives nevertheless and ponders the problem of where to go from here. It's very comforting to know that others have been there before, and helpful to learn how they dealt with it.
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Summary: A not The
Review: Karen Armstrong's book, while an ambitious project and no doubt a popular one, reveals her hand in providing a universalist critique of the major monotheistic religions. Many devout followers of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam would obviously be offended by the suggestion that their faith is merely the product of generations of human speculation. However, scholarly approaches usually assume such an objective stance when they attempt to discuss religion. Armstrong is particularly harsh in her criticism of Western Christianity, which is really not surprising considering that she is a disaffected Catholic nun. While her scholarship is admirable and she is certainly well read, her narrative does contain some rather dubious scholarship. She spends a great deal of her time discussing the textual criticism of the "JEDP" scholars, a theory that recently has fallen under heavy criticism as has been dismissed in many theological circles. Surprisingly, Armstrong spends little time on the historical narrative of Jesus Christ, instead assuming that most information concerning his life are "unknown". It is baffling that, given their importance to Christian faith and practice, the author does not even touch upon the controversy surrounding the event of Jesus's death and resurrection. Choosing to focus on Paul and the Gospel writers, Armstrong critques their own historical biases dismissing their works as a product of early Christian theology. Ironic that while Armstrong implies that 70 years between event and written records suggests historical inaccuracy, she attempts to write a book in which a bulk of the events occured thousands of years before. While a somewhat useful as a historical document, A History of God is more of a testament to modern critical scholarship than an accurate portrayal of religious history. I will admit that my own beliefs play a part in this review, however, I think it arrogant for any scholar to assume that religious events are mere products of a community situation. Certainly this approach to scholarship is outdated and such methods need to be reevaluated. The Elightenment has been over for centuries yet the ignorance and arrogance of its scholarship still lives on.
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