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A review by brennanaphone
A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by Karen Armstrong
5.0
Whew! Armstrong did not name this book lightly--it really does cover the salient movements, debates, beliefs, schisms, and offshoots of 4,000 years of monotheism. I will say that this is not a primer. Each page is densely packed with information to the point that a lot of it can run together, as major historical figures often get only a paragraph or two before they have to make way for the next thought. It can be a little dizzying.
It's really helpful if you have some education in the literary-historical background of Judaism, Christianity, and/or Islam. I found that I followed it best in the areas that I minored in, and with the other stuff I often had to reread a page multiple times to retain the information. Armstrong is an amazing writer--confident, succinct, and incredibly well-informed (the sheer amount of stuff she was able to quote or reference across millennia was staggering). She is for the most part very straightforward and focused on the facts, so it's kind of tantalizing and a bit scandalous when she makes her personal feelings about a movement or spiritual leader known (she does not like Martin Luther, damn!). I appreciated her take at the end on what the future of our concept of God might be and the way that even our most modern ideas of religion, atheism, and God have been echoed throughout history in a multitude of faiths.
It's really helpful if you have some education in the literary-historical background of Judaism, Christianity, and/or Islam. I found that I followed it best in the areas that I minored in, and with the other stuff I often had to reread a page multiple times to retain the information. Armstrong is an amazing writer--confident, succinct, and incredibly well-informed (the sheer amount of stuff she was able to quote or reference across millennia was staggering). She is for the most part very straightforward and focused on the facts, so it's kind of tantalizing and a bit scandalous when she makes her personal feelings about a movement or spiritual leader known (she does not like Martin Luther, damn!). I appreciated her take at the end on what the future of our concept of God might be and the way that even our most modern ideas of religion, atheism, and God have been echoed throughout history in a multitude of faiths.