Over 700,000 copies of the original hardcover and paperback editions of this stunningly popular book have been sold. Karen Armstrong's superbly readable exploration of how the three dominant monotheistic religions of the world - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - have shaped and altered the conception of God is a tour de force. One of Britain's foremost commentators on rel Over 700,000 copies of the original hardcover and paperback editions of this stunningly popular book have been sold. Kare...
| Title | : | A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam |
| Author | : | Karen Armstrong |
| Rating | : | |
| Genres | : | Religion |
| ISBN | : | A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam ISBN |
| Edition Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 460 pages pages |
A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam Reviews
Objective but rather boring. ...
I still can't decide if it's good or not. That's that problem with being kinda dumb. ...
Whew. I thought I'd never finish this book. But two months later, I somehow managed to get to the end. Now, what to say about it? I started this book knowing a moderate amount about the history of Christianity, a small amount about Judaism, and much too little about Islam. I relied ...![[Name Redacted]](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1347082397p2/287915.jpg)
Karen Armstrong has no background in history nor in the academic study of religion, and it shows. This book's approach to the three Abrahamic religions is overly simplistic, presenting only Armstrong's often-erroneous views of these three prominent religions with almost no grounding in...
A MAJOR PROBLEM WITH RELIGION (You may have already thought of a few, but this is my current thing.) Religious thought is metaphorical and the constant danger is that the unlettered will take the metaphor literally. For instance, the Holy Trinity in Christianity - sorting out a s...
One of the most informative, relevant, and fascinating books I've ever read. It was by no means an easy read. But for the amount of education you get out of it, the read is well worth it. The author traces the history of monotheism (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) and shows not on...
This is one of those books that make me feel woefully deficient in a certain subject. Having never taken a comparative religion class, and in fact bordering on an antiestablishment stance when it comes to organized religion, I can only conclude that this book was not the place to star...
While this is an excellent summary of the history of the idea of God in Abrahamic religion, and I highly recommend it, I cannot give it five stars for third reasons. First, the author is overly generous in her assumptions concerning the literal interpretation of myth. For example, she ...
Armstrong, a former Catholic nun, traces the histories of Christ, Yahweh, and Allah from their common roots to the present, taking brief excursions along the way to explore some of the more interesting and eccentirc sects that have sprung up and usually been exterminated with extreme p...
Question: Can you distill a history of the way in which humans have understood and experienced God over the past 4,000 years into one volume? Answer: Apparently, yes. This is a fascinating look at the religious developments and traditions of Jews, Christians, and Muslims from Abraham t...
If I could give a book six stars, I would give them to this book. I feel like I learned something new on nearly every page. This book is truly a history book on a grand scale. It reminds me of the type of history Will Durrant wrote, where he would take a period of time and write ex...
This book by Karen Armstrong covers the development of the world's three major monotheistic faiths. Although I am incredibly interested in the subject, this book was a tough read for me. It is very dense with information and I probably ended up skimming the text more than I should have...
tough read esp the middle part but basically liked the end because: (1) for believers - you'll see how the conception of GOD changes through time and it's sort of inevitable ( however real GOD is and can be). We fit GOD into our needs (2) for atheists - that even at the end of...
The Tendencies of Religions A facebook conversation: Started with this post, with the following Ambedkar quote: "The Hindus criticise the Mahomedans for having spread their religion by the use of the sword. They also ridicule Christianity on the score of the Inquisition. Bu...
I know I'm an atheist and all, but I still enjoy Armstrong. Wrote this review several years ago: Rarely does one come across a book that is recognized as erudite, essential, and readable simultaneously. Karen Armstrong's The History of God has brilliantly analyzed the rise of fundam...
I cannot really recommend this book, only because the author struggles with the enormous weight of the subject and simply tries to cover too much and ends up short-changing most ideas ... there were parts that were illuminating and interesting, but most of the text was cumbersome .. ...
This book is an amazingly detailed history by one of the major religious scholars of our century. But it's not the final chapter for Armstrong and I was really captivated by her change in view in her subsequent book, The Case for God. I recommend starting with this one, but definitely ...
You are plagued with this feeling at times which can most aptly be described as nagging. At times of mental or physical idleness, there is this thought that slowly seeps into your mind and like an ink stain spreads all over you. I thought that once the review for this book was typed an...
First of all, this book's title is misleading. It is not a history of God. It is a historical retelling of many men's interpretations of the idea of the monotheistic God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Still, "The Idea of God: A History" would not have sold as many copies. Th...
This book would be difficult to process for anyone who didn't have at least some background in religious studies. It was recommended to me as a great way to "jump in" to the history of Abrahamic religions, but Armstrong's sources and references are obscure and complex. Beyond that, thi...
This is at once a very simple and a very complex book. Simple in its argument, complex in the array of detail marshalled to tell Armstrong's story. Her view, it seemed to me, was firstly that monotheism was wide spread - well beyond the limits of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam but...
I haven't finished reading the book. I still plan to though, but not in one sitting. The official blurb: 'Over 700,000 copies of the original hardcover and paperback editions of this stunningly popular book have been sold. Karen Armstrong's superbly readable exploration of how the...
Some people find Karen Armstrong's expository style "dense," or "difficult," but I've read a good bit of Joseph Campbell's works, so maybe it's easier for me. A History of God is one of the best books on the general history of the three monotheistic faiths -- Judaism, Christianity, ...
The most comprehensive, exhaustive, and fascinating study of the Abrahamic religions and how they have changed over a few thousand years. Of definite interest to both religious and non-religious folks. Absolutely fascinating, but be warned: it is very dense, well-documented and cited, ...
This is a phenomenal book. I've read this about 3 times. It has completely opened my mind about how religion works in the world. Karen Armstrong uses mind-numbing details to make her case as how the Bible became written and how we are to regard it. At the same time, we can have a perso...
As an orthodox, Evangelical Protestant, I was unnerved by Armstrong's treatment of Monotheism as a religion, which makes Judaism, Christianity and Islam something like its three major denominations. That offends the believers of all three religions! Nonetheless, it was a helpful way to...
A History of God by Karen Armstrong How Men interpreted Divinity for the Last Four Thousand Years A History of God unveils the quest of humans to understand the purpose of creation and the mastermind behind it since the ancient times of Abraham's Canaan until the birth of Atheism ...
Karen Armstrong is a former Catholic nun and studied at Oxford. Her book, The Spiral Staircase, is a good description of the struggles that led to her leaving the convent. There have been several good books written on the historic Jesus Christ, but very few on the historic God. As...
Nuances Of The Religious Tradition This was a great book that seriously, seriously bolstered my understanding of the history of God, and has ultimately ignited an interest in me to read further books on the more specific areas of religious practice (there is a massive 'further re...
Karen Armstrong does an outstanding job of describing the rise of the world's three most important religions besides Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. It is a daunting undertaking which she absolutely masters from end to end. I keep saying this in reviews, but with all the slander o...
