Rating: 
Summary: Superb overview and a wonderful distillation of monotheism.
Review: Karen Armstrong has put together an impressive work that examines in depth the evolution of God and our perceptions of the transcendent. It's a wonderful starting point, however a dedicated reader should certainly explore other books to round out topics that the author touched lightly upon (Paul) or even omitted entirely (the influence of Eastern religions).I think some of the criticisms levied at this book are misplaced. There seems to be a theme in these reviews that the author tends to slam Western Christianity and goes easy on Islam. This seems true to a certain extent, yet deliberate. The book is obviously aimed at Western readers; Christianity is so deeply imbued in so much of our culture that it bears a fearless scrutiny. While no doubt painful for some (Christian) readers, it's illuminating and honest. The author is obviously learned in Muslim history, yet she may have covered it in more depth than many Western readers might want. Also as one reviewer noted, "by failing to extend to Islam the razor of her sarcasm, she invites distrust". True, yet again there is so little positive perception of Islam in the West, that this appears intentional. This is the most notable flaw in the book, but not a fatal one. What she did explain *very* well: 1. How pagan idol worship evolved into Jewish monotheism. 2. How the Trinity concept came about and grew. 3. The intellectual rift between and differences in Western and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. 4. Mysticism and it's ramifications. One reviewer called this a modern "dead end". I couldn't disagree more. Overall, quite excellent and probably the best starting point for someone who wants to explore this fascinating topic. She has struck the best balance I've seen so far between depth, complexity and readability. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent Book on God and Monotheism.
Review: A MUST READ! I had no idea that Islam was such a beautifully deep religion until I read this book. An excellent book for any intelligent person - especially intelligent Christians. It puts into perspective the history of the Christian Church and the rest of the world's history. The author is a Catholic and a former nun. To her great credit, she is able to express to the western Christian reader the complexities of Judaism and Islam as well. This book shatters prejudices which most western people have about Islam. I highly recommend this book!
Rating:
Summary: Still good... even with its shortcomings
Review: This is a very thorough look at the changing idea of what these 3 monotheistic religions consider God. It ventures very little outside the 3 religions and does seem rather heavily weighted toward mysticism and Islam. Perhaps Ms. Armstrong does focus more on lesser known historical figures or aspects of the religions, but I think it is with a purpose. There are plenty of other books out there about Thomas Aquinas... Going to be a dry read for the casual reader, but in my opinion a "must read" for someone who really wants to delve into the history of any one of these religions. Follow it up by reading other histories though to temper this books biases.
Rating: 
Summary: Not all that bad
Review: The book is rather a narrow examination of the philosophical conception of god. This is something which over time has altered with the change in the way that people think. The book is thus somewhat remote and rarified rather than being a history of religion or of the various churches. The book is not nearly as much fun for atheists as other works such as the Barbarian Conversion by Fletcher which describe the changing nuts and bolts of how the church works as a very human institution. The looking at doctrine tends to limit the mechanics of how a religion works in day to day life or how it affects people. I would also imagine that the book although clearly written by may seen as a bit academic for some.
Rating:
Summary: Thorough and objective study of the history of God
Review: "A History of God" is an informative and complete account of the "idea" of God throughout the changing religions of today. Ms. Armstrong does a terrific job objectively and respectfully informing the readers about the history of God. It answers many questions we have about our image of God and how that came about.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and fascinating
Review: This is one of the few audiobooks that stimulated me to buy the print version. Even abridged to four cassettes, Armstrong's treatment is a cornucopia of historical facts and theological concepts. This is the first book on religion I have ever read that was not contaminated by either sectarian presumption or turgid academisms.
Rating:
Summary: Erudite But Ultimately Flawed
Review: While Karen Armstrong certainly displays adeptly her familiarity with the philosophy of religion, if you will, this book is ultimately flawed for several reasons. First, the unstated assumption of an "evolution" in the "idea" of God flies in the face of the religious experience of each of these three faiths; this results from her method of approaching religion as an "idea" rather than as a living reality for the believers who espouse each of these faiths. This flaw in particular is humorously ironic, in light of her stated but cryptic preference for the mystical traditions in each of these faiths ... traditions which themselves completely eschew the notion that God can be treated as an "idea" in favor of a personal experience of God that cannot be reduced to an "idea". Second, Armstrong has an unmistakeable if yet unstated bias against what she considers to be 'organized' religion, in general, and Western organized religion in particular. This slants her analysis considerably in favor of mysticism, first, and more significantly, against Christianity in general, as it has been, for much of its history, considerably more 'organized' than Judaism and Islam. Third, Islam fares much better in this book, as it does in Armstrong's other books, than a realistic look at that faith reveals -- again, at the expense of Christianity in general and Western Christianity in particular. This book is well-researched and erudite -- but make no mistake: it is pure opinion, and is ultimately and principally a reflection of the author's own skepticism and lack of faith, and a yearning for the "religion withouty doctrines" or a "spirituality without religion", the great Holy Grail Myth of the contemporary popular "spirituality" of our times.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but I had problems
Review: Armstrong presents some interesting ideas but she's sloppy with her facts. I'm not qualified to judge on Christianity and Judaism, but she made several factual errors concerning Muslim beliefs. She also should have refrained from using Arabic terms because she spelled them wrong as often as she spelled them right. This made me doubt her credibility with the rest of the book.
Rating:
Summary: great book.
Review: This is a beautifully written book, a real pleasure to read. Try this sentence:' Unlike the pagan deities, Yahweh was not in any of the forces of nature but in a realm apart. He is experienced in the scarcely perceptible timbre of a tiny breeze in the paradox of a voiced silence.' I don't think the book shows the bias towards Islam that other readers have noted. In fact, I think she more or less gives equal time to the three religions, and to tracing the historical links between them. The only bias that Armstrong clearly reveals is a feminist one. She talks about the axial age when societies all over the world became more patriarchal, and claims that this was when Israel made the crucial shift to monotheism from goddess-oriented cults like that of Ishtar.
Rating:
Summary: Profoundly disappointing and biased.
Review: Ms. Armstrong has brought together a great deal of historical and philisophical material. Her presentation is very reader friendly. Her open bias against, and even outright hostility to, Western Christianity runs as a thread through the book. I had hoped to find an even-handed account of the development of monotheism. Instead I discovered a book in which the thoughts of St. Paul in the development of Christianity are dismissed in a few short paragraphs. St. Thomas Aquinas is spared hardly a mention. She spends pages on minor figures, even as judged by Muslim scholars, in the development in Islam. She would have us believe that Islam would have developed as a pacifist, gentle and tolerant religion if it hadn't been for the interference of those nasty Western Christians. This position takes no account of Islamic imperialism and wars of aggression from the seventh through the eleventh centuries. It fails to deal with the Islamic introduction of the sub-Saharan slave trade. She ignores the anti-Christian, and anti-Jewish polemic contained in the Koran. Armstrong derides Western rationalism and Western Christianity's reaction to and incorporation of it. She points to the mystic traditions of Islam, Judaism, and Eastern Christianity as preferable. In doing so, however, she fails to even mention the great Spanish mystics of the sixteenth century. Again Armstrong spends considerable time with minor Muslim mystics while St. John of the Cross, St. Theresa of Avila, St. Francis of Assisi, are either not considered at all or quickly passed over. It would be easy for one not schooled in Western Christianity to arrive at the conclusion, after reading this book, that there has not been, and is not now, a Western mystical tradition. Armstrong rightly argues that the rationalism of Western Christian thought has failed many in the West, and is in decline. She attempts no explanation of how it is that only in places where Western Christianity has been the dominant religious force political structures have arisen that ascribe worth to the individual and incorporated same in constitutional liberties. It may be that Western Christianity in a sense has poured out its vitality so that others may live in relative peace, order and freedom. This notion of self giving even unto death is not a concept unknown to Christians.
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