A History of God by Karen Armstrong

A History of God by Karen Armstrong

What a masterwork Karen Armstrong has achieved in "A History of God." As audacious a title as could be, Armstrong rises to the task and delivers an incredibly well researched, respectful, reflective, expounding, and even-handed survey of sacred topics. We journey with her through time chronologically, examining different eras in the God concept.

We begin with the earliest Mesopotamian civilizations and their pagan rituals and see how similar the Babylonian creation myth is to that of Genesis. We continue with her in amazing depth and analysis through the emergence of YWH, the birth and life of Christ, the resulting debates on the nature of the trinity, and encounter the initial split that remains today between Eastern and Western Christianity. Then onto the Muhammad and the revelations of Islam, the philosophical interpretations of God through learned reasoning, the development of Mysticism as an ethos in monotheism, the reformers of the Middle Ages, and how the genius of the enlightenment changed the perspective of humanity toward God.

The second to last chapter is entitled "The Death of God?" and in it we encounter the strongest late-millenial arguments for the utter non-existence of God. In the final chapter, "Does God Have a Future?", Armstrong shares her sentiment that although the specificity of the God concept has changed again and again, there is remarkable consistency in the ongoing quest to discover our spirit and its relation to something more. Even in an examined, profane world, hope in a greater mystery remains. She appropriately ends her dense, academic treatise with a poem. Thomas Hardy's "A Darkling Thrush" is a deeply touching four-stanza ode to a birdsong for the hope it brings to a man brought down by the cold, dark, grey world around him.

What may sound heretical when here described does not feel that way through Armstrong's words. She addresses topics like a true scholar and attempts as best one could to synthesize complex theological issues so that they can be compared and contrasted. She returns to common themes, connecting them across the ages, and gives social and political context to powerful religious movements in history.

This is one of the finest books I have read, it makes the most of the medium on several fronts. It is a must read for anyone interested in Theology.

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