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Reviews
A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by Karen Armstrong
sinaghaffari's review against another edition
5.0
کتاب بسیار خوبی است و به دانستن این که فهم امروز ما از خدا از کجا آمدهاست و به کجا میرود بسیار کمک میکند.
judyward's review against another edition
5.0
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 to the modern age. Armstrong includes the philosophes and mysticism that has been present in all three monotheistic religions over the centuries and clearly places the evolution in religious thought into its historical context. Armstrong traces the development in all three religious traditions of the idea of a personal God, but cautions that the idea of a personal God leads some believers in all three faiths to condemn and judge those who do not conform to their beliefs. She sees the fundamentalism that has emerged in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as dangerous, aggressive, and as a "retreat from God". While not an easy rad, this history of the development of monotheism is worth the effort. This is definitely a "read and discuss" book.
sapphicpenguin's review against another edition
5.0
A very thoughtful and necessary history of the idea of "God" in monotheism! Not without bias (but I appreciated the obviousness of the bias, so it was easier to analyze/disagree with), and sometimes simplifying very complicated movements (usually necessarily for the sake of time), but a very enjoyable and enlightening read.
Content Warnings
Addresses religious movements that have caused harm, mostly very generally without graphic content. The only truly hard moment was a short detail of an event during the Holocaust which involved a child, but it passes very quickly.
ana_vl's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
4.0
Very informative book on how the three main monotheistic religions have changed over time in response to each other / world events / social change etc.
Formal, academic writing style makes it a little harder / slower to get through but worth the effort
Formal, academic writing style makes it a little harder / slower to get through but worth the effort
hatswood's review against another edition
Very dry and I found it hard to concentrate. While it seems well written the subject matter didn't really grab me.
misfittorah's review against another edition
3.0
Came into it expecting a informative intellectual history of theology. Came away with the impression that it was more of a well researched editorial about the author's ideals of religion. Which is not bad, but not ideal. Also, as an Orthodox Jew, I noticed her assessments of Jewish Theology, while accurate to a point, often painted an overly simplistic picture. For example, her picture of the Rabbis of the Talmud as tolerant aesthetes ignores strands of asceticism that do exist scattered through the Talmud, as well as various condemnations of heretical beliefs. While that is to be expected in a book that does not claim to be exhaustive, I remain worried that the other belief systems I am unfamiliar with (hence my reading of the book) were portrayed in a similar, overly simplistic light. However, she does a good job at making hard concepts easily understood, and for those looking for a very surface view of the history of theology, I would recommend this as the best I've read so far.
bexjaunes's review against another edition
Did not have the baseline level of knowledge required to understand a lot of what was being said — found what I understood interesting though
wojoy's review against another edition
5.0
Oh, this was a great book! It was very informative on the development of the idea of god and religions. It addresses the human condition and need to religion with compassion and consider spirituality part of humanity such as art. This soft approach to faith without the approval of any fundamentalism helped me to understand how I suppressed my needs and feelings on spirituality in the name of logic with a very literal understanding of religions.