A History of God

A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Karen Armstrong
Copyright: 1993
Gramercy Books

3 Bookmarks out of 5

This was another one of those books that ended up on my bookshelf because every year for Christmas my mom plays a little game when buying me presents called: 'Buy Every Book on the Bargain Shelf.' I'm not complaining - I love a good bargain book because I'm convinced that every book has some form of value and the joy of literacy should not be hogged by only those who can afford to read. Nevertheless, I finally got around to reading it in an effort to make sure my mind stays sharp. I was accepted into my grad program through University of Maryland in Library Science, and since I took a year off before grad school I want to make sure that my critical reading skills stay strong. This book was a good test of my patience and ability to understand minute differences in philosophy and theology. I went into this book expecting a history of God - what I came out with was a theological and philosophical understanding of how God has changed over time.

I should begin by saying that the reviews over the cover boast about how Armstrong has the ability to "simplify complex ideas" (New York Times Book Review) and how "she can take a long and complex subject and reduce it to its fundamentals" (Sunday Times - London). I expected a complex discussion of how to concept of God has changed throughout history. However, I found myself re-reading many passages of the book in order to grasp what was being explained. Normally I can read laying down without any interruption of understanding, but with this book I found myself needing to sit completely upright and in a completely silent place. This book is not intended for a reader who is beginning the study of theology. The long passages make finding a stopping point difficult and the long chapters make for an arduous struggle to understand the amount of information being written about.

The book could have been more understandable with more historical background of different time periods. Since the title boasts of a 'history' - I expected Armstrong to explain how events in history impacted the human understanding of God. In some places, Armstrong does this with amazing ability. However, in other parts she spends a long time explaining what different philosophers and thinkers came up with in regards to the theory of God and the reader can be lost in the semantic game that many early leaders of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam came up against. These painstaking details are what aids to the wealth of knowledge that is contained in the book and what becomes frustrating for the reader to comprehend.

Armstrong's Western bias comes in to play in the book. As a child of the West, it is hard for Armstrong to break her cultural heritage when examining religious history. In my opinion, Armstrong could have spent more time on the subject of Judaism and Islam after their initial conception and the mysticism phase. Once she hits the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, Armstrong spends nearly all her time explaining the development of God in a strictly Christian sense. I've read some other reviews and I would agree with the fact that Armstrong does seem a bit harsh on Christianity. It's a shame that the book was written before the rise of religious fundamentalism in world politics. Additional printings of this book would benefit from an afterword with Armstrong explaining how the concept of God is continuing to evolve.

All in all, I A History of God is a book that is bountiful in information. The reader should be warned that some background of each religion will make this read go by much easier than by choosing this as their first book of religious study. I found myself struggling to keep different names right when Armstrong discussed the chronology of different thinkers. The book loses points, in my opinion, from its lack of user-friendliness. While the concepts labeled under each chapter make sense, the editor of the book could have made use of page breaks for readers to take a breather while traveling through 4,000 years of history. Armstrong could have been more inclusive of other Godly religions - but the book only focuses on the Abrahamic faiths and maybe the title could have reflected more of that as well.