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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
A good, but very detailed and dry read. Lots of info on the big three religions, including a good section on Islam. Mohammed being a prophet of God and capturing the Koran.
I heart Karen Armstrong. And, in the spirit of transparency, I listened to this book, which is why I finished it so quickly...lest anyone credit me with genius I didn't properly earn :)
excellent. Really learned a lot about the other major religons and things fit so much better for me now.
This book has so many details it's hard to follow along sometimes. That being said it's a comprehensive overview on the three main world religions and how they think about God (which in general is so similar!)--very interesting read.
A History of God review: God is, and has been, a necessity…
By: Karen Armstrong
Genre: Religion/ History
Published: 1993 (pages 460)
I have always felt a distance, both within my own practices of Islam as a Muslim and of those I see around me, between the practices themselves and the faith and believe in the God whom we are worshipping. Religion, in my case Islam, emphasizes very less on the idea of God than it does on His prophet, the holy book Quran, and many rituals performed throughout the year. As a Muslim then, we are judged more on our practices and historical knowledge about our prophet and his times, than on our curiosity or desire to know about the God Himself.
In the History of God, Armstrong writes about a 4000 years long history of the one God of the monotheist religions; the Only God of the Jews, Christians and Muslims. From the Islamic point of view, Allah, the God of Islam, is the same as those of Judaism and Christianity, connected through the lineage of many prophets (124,000 to be exact). Starting from Abraham (Prophet Ibrahim is Islam) the first prophet of Judaism, the lines of prophet then continued, including Jesus (Prophet Eesa is Islam), and ended at the last prophet, the prophet of Islam, Muhammad pbuh. It was this desire to get to know a little about this common God, that I turned to this book.
Even though Allah in the Quran states that acquiring knowledge is must for both women and men, there seems to be a lack of enthusiasm in the contemporary Muslim societies to self-study about their religion and God. However, when it comes to learning about the God Himself, there’s always a risk of leaning towards blasphemy; a risk not many would want to take. Since God is beyond our comprehension and intellect, speculating about His nature would bring Him disrespect and weaken and astray us from our faith. Yet from the historical perspective only, and with the faith in God intact, the quest for knowing the mono God of the theists throughout its long history, should move us closer to God rather than away.
The book begins in the pre-historic times where existed the God of Sky, a single God that the people of those times looked up to, since He was a higher Being and lived above them. But soon, He became too distant to remain relevant to people. The mythical gods were then invented, which came in pairs and had their own special power and tasks, like the god of water, the god of war, the god famine etc. These gods were more like human, since they were invented by humans and had the same traits as them, but only much more powerful. However, then the God of Israel came with His first revelation on Abraham; He made his power effective in the real world and became Elohim, the only God. With the following prophets of Israel, Isaac and Jacob and their revelations, this God became known as Yahweh: the only worthy of worship and one who promised protection of the (chosen) people of Israel.
Judaism then became the first monotheistic religion with Yahweh as their One God, worthy of worship. The old gods were ‘elilim’ (nothing) before Yahweh, and their worshipper’s ‘goyim’ were fools. The gods of Greek, on the other hand, which were discovered by human reason were quite different to the God of Judaism, who made Himself known through revelations. And this dichotomy between reason and revelation would remain throughout the history in the quest for the search of God.
The God of gentiles (non-Jewish) was born next with the spectacle baptism of Jesus of Nazareth, and the second monotheist Christianity was born; now, the biggest religion in the world. For Christians, God was unfathomable, therefore the doctrine of Trinity emerged, which stated that we can only know God through His three manifestations: Father, Son and Spirit. The idea of Trinity, incarnation, as seeing Jesus as the son of God, would not only become a confusion for Christians, but would also be considered blasphemous by both Judaism and Islam. Yet Jesus, the God-Man, would resemble the enlightened Gautama (The Buddha) from the emerging Buddhism of those times, as the example of truly glorified and fulfilled human.
Muhammad’s pbuh religion would come at a time when the Arab people of the Quraysh were on a dangerous course, being lost in their new wealth and needed to fine a new ideology. The revelations by Angel Gabriel upon Muhammad pbuh, which later would become the holy book of Muslims, Quran, were extraordinarily sophisticated and poetically inviting. Armstrong writes about the accounts of Umar’s, the 2nd caliph, conversion to Islam when he heard the recitation of these verses. Islam, as this religion would come to be known, would only be a continuation and completion of the monotheist religions of the past, thus having the same God as Prophets Abraham and Jesus.
After the historical study of these three religions, Armstrong then explores God of the philosophers, mystics, and the reformers. The Arab Muslims, towards the 10th century, studied astronomy, alchemy, medicine and mathematics which led to more scientific discoveries than any previous period. Falsafah (philosophy) also emerged which sought the existence of God through reason, and philosopher were thought to be true worshippers alongside the prophets who were blessed with revelations. But since Falsafah required higher knowledge, it didn’t appeal to most of the people of faith. The chapter includes multiple philosophers from all three religions and their ideas and arguments for the existence of God; Al-Ghazali’s idea that existence of God (wujud) means that which is findable, while Anselm put faith in God first saying: ‘I do not seek to understand to have faith, but I have faith to understand’.
But there seemed to be no proof to back up the philosophical ideas about the existence of God, whether it was Aristotle’s Unmoved Being, who didn’t interfere in the world at all, or the God of the monotheists, who spoke to them through revelations. So, the focus shifted from Philosophy to Mysticism: searching God within oneself (accomplishing union) rather than looking for Him out there. Mysticism relied on imagination and symbolism, the only ways through which we can ascend towards God. ‘Mawlawiyyah’, the whirling dance, became the famous practice among Sufis, started by Maulana Rumi, the famous 13th century poet. The concept of ‘fana’ to become no-thing was also a practice of Sufis; since God was Nothing, we had to be so as well to become one with Him. Jews came up with Sefiroth, the ten names of God and means whereby which he created the world; the Sefiroth tells the story of how God descended from his lonely inaccessibility to the mundane world.
By fifteenth century, the world was reforming, and so were the religions. The Sunni Muslim ulema closed the doors of independent reasoning and introduced taqlid (emulation) of the great luminaries. However, the Shias had their own system of Imamat, which believed that Muhammad had imparted a secret knowledge to Ali, the first Imam, from whom it was passed down to designated Imams. Islam, in this era, had three strong empires, and Prince Akbar of the Moghul empire showed great spirit of tolerance and co-operation with other religions in united India; but Aurangzeb, the next king was quite opposed these policies and destroyed all Hindu temples. Jews were forced to either exile from their homelands by Christians or were forced to covert. Since all three religions were a product of their civilizations and cities, this great shift and crusades made the God of Bible a cruel tyrant. It was then that people turned towards ‘atheism’, rejecting the imaginative God of mystics, and sought Him in reason.
In the chapter Enlightenment, we see the rise of a terribly powerful belief of men and women in their control over their own affairs. With the technical advancement of 16th and 17th centuries, the idea of mystical God became obsolete and western scientists and philosophers didn’t hesitate to challenge and reject the God of history all together. We read about some great thinkers in this chapter: Pascal, Galilee, Newton Descartes, Spinoza, and all their different yet science-based, literal, studies and ideas about God. Newton came up with a Supreme Mechanick, finding him in the coherent system of the planets with gravity; Descartes said our experience of doubt tells us that there must be a supreme Being; while Pascal was rather sad at the ‘wretched, godless state of people that would drive them to despair’. We also read about some blasphemous cult movements, such as the John Robbin’s claim that he was a god and that his wife would shortly give birth to a Savior of the World. And the interesting story of Shabbetai Zevi’s movement among Jews who later during his trial converts to Islam under the captivity of Ottoman Empire.
The closing chapters talks about the infamous ‘death of God’ by radical rationalism which saw God as an impossible perfection against the frailties of man. Not only philosophers, such as Nietzsche, but many other nominal figures like Voltaire and Freud, enforced, through their rational arguments, in the light of their contemporary times that the God of history is either dead, or should be killed. Nietzsche’s madman claiming ‘God is dead’ and is replaced by a Superman, and the horrifying holocaust of the second world war, where God was put on trial in Auschwitz, ultimately led to downfall of the God that was no more relevant to western world.
Armstrong tries to end this historical account of the monotheist God with some optimism, saying ‘if we are to create a vibrant new faith for the twenty-first century, we should ponder the history of God for some lessons and warnings.’ What could be held true in this long history of God is that we need Him; we’ve always looked up to Him in order to give meaning and hope to our own despairing lives. While fundamentalism is a dangerous substitute for the God of compassion and love, atheism too is equally depriving and dark. People might say that they believe in God, but there’s not enough faith in those beliefs to bring God back into our lives. Literalism and rationalism might have given us rapid progress in race of technology, but it has also created an unbearable void where God once lived.
What this book does well is build a comprehensive study of God in all three monotheist religions and from various ways people tired to seek Him, whether through philosophy, mysticism or scientific reason. Although there’s a consent amongst the people of faith about the Oneness of God, His existence and form has never been revealed, found, or understood by every and anyone who has quested on this journey. The almost exhausting number of different figures from all three religions, their works in the study of God, and the changing opinions about God throughout this book is undoubtedly an overwhelming amount to read, but it nonetheless helps build an overall context about the God, and His origins, whose presence, at least for the believers, is always ubiquitous.
“Effectiveness (and relevancy) rather than philosophical or historical demonstration has been the hallmark of a successful religion”, says Armstrong early on in the book, and not only does it stay true throughout the book as the times and ideas about God changes, but it also points towards the needed formation of a new religions which would identify and answer the spiritual needs of our generation.
My praise for the book:
Comprehensive, easy to read, and informative;
An instant classic for the study of monotheist God.
Ratings: 4/5 ****
By: Karen Armstrong
Genre: Religion/ History
Published: 1993 (pages 460)
I have always felt a distance, both within my own practices of Islam as a Muslim and of those I see around me, between the practices themselves and the faith and believe in the God whom we are worshipping. Religion, in my case Islam, emphasizes very less on the idea of God than it does on His prophet, the holy book Quran, and many rituals performed throughout the year. As a Muslim then, we are judged more on our practices and historical knowledge about our prophet and his times, than on our curiosity or desire to know about the God Himself.
In the History of God, Armstrong writes about a 4000 years long history of the one God of the monotheist religions; the Only God of the Jews, Christians and Muslims. From the Islamic point of view, Allah, the God of Islam, is the same as those of Judaism and Christianity, connected through the lineage of many prophets (124,000 to be exact). Starting from Abraham (Prophet Ibrahim is Islam) the first prophet of Judaism, the lines of prophet then continued, including Jesus (Prophet Eesa is Islam), and ended at the last prophet, the prophet of Islam, Muhammad pbuh. It was this desire to get to know a little about this common God, that I turned to this book.
Even though Allah in the Quran states that acquiring knowledge is must for both women and men, there seems to be a lack of enthusiasm in the contemporary Muslim societies to self-study about their religion and God. However, when it comes to learning about the God Himself, there’s always a risk of leaning towards blasphemy; a risk not many would want to take. Since God is beyond our comprehension and intellect, speculating about His nature would bring Him disrespect and weaken and astray us from our faith. Yet from the historical perspective only, and with the faith in God intact, the quest for knowing the mono God of the theists throughout its long history, should move us closer to God rather than away.
The book begins in the pre-historic times where existed the God of Sky, a single God that the people of those times looked up to, since He was a higher Being and lived above them. But soon, He became too distant to remain relevant to people. The mythical gods were then invented, which came in pairs and had their own special power and tasks, like the god of water, the god of war, the god famine etc. These gods were more like human, since they were invented by humans and had the same traits as them, but only much more powerful. However, then the God of Israel came with His first revelation on Abraham; He made his power effective in the real world and became Elohim, the only God. With the following prophets of Israel, Isaac and Jacob and their revelations, this God became known as Yahweh: the only worthy of worship and one who promised protection of the (chosen) people of Israel.
Judaism then became the first monotheistic religion with Yahweh as their One God, worthy of worship. The old gods were ‘elilim’ (nothing) before Yahweh, and their worshipper’s ‘goyim’ were fools. The gods of Greek, on the other hand, which were discovered by human reason were quite different to the God of Judaism, who made Himself known through revelations. And this dichotomy between reason and revelation would remain throughout the history in the quest for the search of God.
The God of gentiles (non-Jewish) was born next with the spectacle baptism of Jesus of Nazareth, and the second monotheist Christianity was born; now, the biggest religion in the world. For Christians, God was unfathomable, therefore the doctrine of Trinity emerged, which stated that we can only know God through His three manifestations: Father, Son and Spirit. The idea of Trinity, incarnation, as seeing Jesus as the son of God, would not only become a confusion for Christians, but would also be considered blasphemous by both Judaism and Islam. Yet Jesus, the God-Man, would resemble the enlightened Gautama (The Buddha) from the emerging Buddhism of those times, as the example of truly glorified and fulfilled human.
Muhammad’s pbuh religion would come at a time when the Arab people of the Quraysh were on a dangerous course, being lost in their new wealth and needed to fine a new ideology. The revelations by Angel Gabriel upon Muhammad pbuh, which later would become the holy book of Muslims, Quran, were extraordinarily sophisticated and poetically inviting. Armstrong writes about the accounts of Umar’s, the 2nd caliph, conversion to Islam when he heard the recitation of these verses. Islam, as this religion would come to be known, would only be a continuation and completion of the monotheist religions of the past, thus having the same God as Prophets Abraham and Jesus.
After the historical study of these three religions, Armstrong then explores God of the philosophers, mystics, and the reformers. The Arab Muslims, towards the 10th century, studied astronomy, alchemy, medicine and mathematics which led to more scientific discoveries than any previous period. Falsafah (philosophy) also emerged which sought the existence of God through reason, and philosopher were thought to be true worshippers alongside the prophets who were blessed with revelations. But since Falsafah required higher knowledge, it didn’t appeal to most of the people of faith. The chapter includes multiple philosophers from all three religions and their ideas and arguments for the existence of God; Al-Ghazali’s idea that existence of God (wujud) means that which is findable, while Anselm put faith in God first saying: ‘I do not seek to understand to have faith, but I have faith to understand’.
But there seemed to be no proof to back up the philosophical ideas about the existence of God, whether it was Aristotle’s Unmoved Being, who didn’t interfere in the world at all, or the God of the monotheists, who spoke to them through revelations. So, the focus shifted from Philosophy to Mysticism: searching God within oneself (accomplishing union) rather than looking for Him out there. Mysticism relied on imagination and symbolism, the only ways through which we can ascend towards God. ‘Mawlawiyyah’, the whirling dance, became the famous practice among Sufis, started by Maulana Rumi, the famous 13th century poet. The concept of ‘fana’ to become no-thing was also a practice of Sufis; since God was Nothing, we had to be so as well to become one with Him. Jews came up with Sefiroth, the ten names of God and means whereby which he created the world; the Sefiroth tells the story of how God descended from his lonely inaccessibility to the mundane world.
By fifteenth century, the world was reforming, and so were the religions. The Sunni Muslim ulema closed the doors of independent reasoning and introduced taqlid (emulation) of the great luminaries. However, the Shias had their own system of Imamat, which believed that Muhammad had imparted a secret knowledge to Ali, the first Imam, from whom it was passed down to designated Imams. Islam, in this era, had three strong empires, and Prince Akbar of the Moghul empire showed great spirit of tolerance and co-operation with other religions in united India; but Aurangzeb, the next king was quite opposed these policies and destroyed all Hindu temples. Jews were forced to either exile from their homelands by Christians or were forced to covert. Since all three religions were a product of their civilizations and cities, this great shift and crusades made the God of Bible a cruel tyrant. It was then that people turned towards ‘atheism’, rejecting the imaginative God of mystics, and sought Him in reason.
In the chapter Enlightenment, we see the rise of a terribly powerful belief of men and women in their control over their own affairs. With the technical advancement of 16th and 17th centuries, the idea of mystical God became obsolete and western scientists and philosophers didn’t hesitate to challenge and reject the God of history all together. We read about some great thinkers in this chapter: Pascal, Galilee, Newton Descartes, Spinoza, and all their different yet science-based, literal, studies and ideas about God. Newton came up with a Supreme Mechanick, finding him in the coherent system of the planets with gravity; Descartes said our experience of doubt tells us that there must be a supreme Being; while Pascal was rather sad at the ‘wretched, godless state of people that would drive them to despair’. We also read about some blasphemous cult movements, such as the John Robbin’s claim that he was a god and that his wife would shortly give birth to a Savior of the World. And the interesting story of Shabbetai Zevi’s movement among Jews who later during his trial converts to Islam under the captivity of Ottoman Empire.
The closing chapters talks about the infamous ‘death of God’ by radical rationalism which saw God as an impossible perfection against the frailties of man. Not only philosophers, such as Nietzsche, but many other nominal figures like Voltaire and Freud, enforced, through their rational arguments, in the light of their contemporary times that the God of history is either dead, or should be killed. Nietzsche’s madman claiming ‘God is dead’ and is replaced by a Superman, and the horrifying holocaust of the second world war, where God was put on trial in Auschwitz, ultimately led to downfall of the God that was no more relevant to western world.
Armstrong tries to end this historical account of the monotheist God with some optimism, saying ‘if we are to create a vibrant new faith for the twenty-first century, we should ponder the history of God for some lessons and warnings.’ What could be held true in this long history of God is that we need Him; we’ve always looked up to Him in order to give meaning and hope to our own despairing lives. While fundamentalism is a dangerous substitute for the God of compassion and love, atheism too is equally depriving and dark. People might say that they believe in God, but there’s not enough faith in those beliefs to bring God back into our lives. Literalism and rationalism might have given us rapid progress in race of technology, but it has also created an unbearable void where God once lived.
What this book does well is build a comprehensive study of God in all three monotheist religions and from various ways people tired to seek Him, whether through philosophy, mysticism or scientific reason. Although there’s a consent amongst the people of faith about the Oneness of God, His existence and form has never been revealed, found, or understood by every and anyone who has quested on this journey. The almost exhausting number of different figures from all three religions, their works in the study of God, and the changing opinions about God throughout this book is undoubtedly an overwhelming amount to read, but it nonetheless helps build an overall context about the God, and His origins, whose presence, at least for the believers, is always ubiquitous.
“Effectiveness (and relevancy) rather than philosophical or historical demonstration has been the hallmark of a successful religion”, says Armstrong early on in the book, and not only does it stay true throughout the book as the times and ideas about God changes, but it also points towards the needed formation of a new religions which would identify and answer the spiritual needs of our generation.
My praise for the book:
Comprehensive, easy to read, and informative;
An instant classic for the study of monotheist God.
Ratings: 4/5 ****
Interesting view of a former nun studying the evolution of God throughout time.
The evolution of God from the mystics to the god of the rationalist and mechanical viewpoint. Our modern God is one Newton invented.
The book itself is a tab bit too short in my opinion. Karen Armstrong's writing isn't the best I found.
There is a huge interplay between muslims, jews and Christian, I learned. Religion comes and goes and returns. Credere means believing, but also trusting.
Overall, this book has further increased my curiosity to other places.
The evolution of God from the mystics to the god of the rationalist and mechanical viewpoint. Our modern God is one Newton invented.
The book itself is a tab bit too short in my opinion. Karen Armstrong's writing isn't the best I found.
There is a huge interplay between muslims, jews and Christian, I learned. Religion comes and goes and returns. Credere means believing, but also trusting.
Overall, this book has further increased my curiosity to other places.
I've been reading this complex yet informative book for about Five months. I finally managed to finish it. I first think the book is mistitled, it supposed to be The History of Idea of God. A quick google research shows that there are about 4,300 religions in the world. This confirms that, religion and the idea of God is a man made.
Homo sapiens is also Homo religiosus. Men and women started to worship gods as soon as they became recognisably human; they created religions at the same time as they created works of art. This was not simply because they wanted to propitiate powerful forces but these early faiths expressed the wonder and mystery that seems always to have been an essential component of the human experience of this beautiful yet terrifying world. Like art, religion has been an attempt to find meaning and value in life, despite the suffering that flesh is heir to. Like any other human actitivity, religion can be abused but it seems to have been something that we have always done. It was not tacked on to a primordially secular nature by manipulative kings and priests but was natural to humanity. Indeed, our current secularism is an entirely new experiment, unprecedented in human history. We have yet to see how it will work. It is also true to say that our Western liberal humanism is not something that comes naturally to us; like an appreciation of art or poetry, it has to be cultivated. Humanism is itself a religion without God - not all religions, of course, are theistic. Our ethical secular ideal has its own disciplines of mind and heart and gives people the means of finding faith in the ultimate meaning of human life that were once provided by the more conventional religions.
Homo sapiens is also Homo religiosus. Men and women started to worship gods as soon as they became recognisably human; they created religions at the same time as they created works of art. This was not simply because they wanted to propitiate powerful forces but these early faiths expressed the wonder and mystery that seems always to have been an essential component of the human experience of this beautiful yet terrifying world. Like art, religion has been an attempt to find meaning and value in life, despite the suffering that flesh is heir to. Like any other human actitivity, religion can be abused but it seems to have been something that we have always done. It was not tacked on to a primordially secular nature by manipulative kings and priests but was natural to humanity. Indeed, our current secularism is an entirely new experiment, unprecedented in human history. We have yet to see how it will work. It is also true to say that our Western liberal humanism is not something that comes naturally to us; like an appreciation of art or poetry, it has to be cultivated. Humanism is itself a religion without God - not all religions, of course, are theistic. Our ethical secular ideal has its own disciplines of mind and heart and gives people the means of finding faith in the ultimate meaning of human life that were once provided by the more conventional religions.
I made a halfhearted attempt to get though this but it was really full of facts of a dull and boring nature. I think I managed to glean some of the more interestinger parts though. It's a great book, well researched and thorough- just maybe a little too thorough if, like me, you're not all THAT interested in the history of religion- just kinda interested. Definitely some good skimming material though.
Lots of great information, but rather dry. Some chapters took several re-starts to finish.
A comprehensive, digestible overview of the history of religious thinking in the three major monotheistic faiths. Armstrong makes many complex ideas people have had about God—the nature of God, how to come close to God, how to serve God, and so on—easy to understand. However, this can at times read like a series of encyclopedia entries for dozens of thinkers and writers, and Armstrong’s ability to make that engaging to read can be uneven. I’d still say this would be a good read for those who want an introduction to religious thinking in the West and Near East.