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from: HarperAudio
List Price: $29.95Amazon.com's Price: $22.31 You Save: $7.64 (26%)Prices subject to change.
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Binding: Audio CD
Dewey Decimal Number: 202.11
EAN: 9780060591854
Edition: Abridged
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
ISBN: 0060591854
Label: HarperAudio
Manufacturer: HarperAudio
Number Of Items: 1
Publication Date: 2004-02
Publisher: HarperAudio
Release Date: February 17, 2004
Studio: HarperAudio
Alternate Versions: Click to Display
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com Review:
Armstrong, a British journalist and former nun, guides us along one of the most elusive and fascinating quests of all time--the search for God. Like all beloved historians, Armstrong entertains us with deft storytelling, astounding research, and makes us feel a greater appreciation for the present because we better understand our past. Be warned: A History of God is not a tidy linear history. Rather, we learn that the definition of God is constantly being repeated, altered, discarded, and resurrected through the ages, responding to its followers' practical concerns rather than to mystical mandates. Armstrong also shows us how Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have overlapped and influenced one another, gently challenging the secularist history of each of these religions. --Gail Hudson
Product Description:
"Strange as it may seem, the idea of 'God' developed in a market economy in a spirit of aggressive capitalism," Karen Armstrong asserts in her fascinating work A History of God. Armstrong considers herself a "historian of ideas," and with this broad view she gives a compelling account of the correspondences among Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and the historical, philosophical, intellectual, and social developments through the ages that both shaped them and were shaped by them.
Religion is "highly pragmatic," Armstrong finds. Any particular idea of God must work for the people who develop it. Consequently, as the times have changed, so have our ideas about God. "Understanding the ever-changing ideas of God in the past and their relevance and usefulness in their time," she says, "will help us to develop a new concept for the future."
Today an increasing number of people have difficulty with the idea of a God that behaves as a larger version of themselves. Armstrong sees this as inevitable, and welcomes believers to a notion of God that "works for us in the empirical age."
Average Rating: 
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This was my first used book order. It was in very good condition as promised. I would recommend this site to my friends.
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While Ms Armstrong is very well researched on Christian and Moslem beliefs and customs, her understanding of Judaism was not as strong and it was quite apparent in my read thru. Ms Armstrong presents an out dated view of Judaism with a revengeful and jealous G-d. She would be best served by visiting an Aish Hatorah web site the next time she chooses to write about this subject.
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Writing a single book on a topic so vast and clotted with controversy, it was never going to be possible to please everyone. For some this book is too dry and scholarly, for others it isn't nearly scholarly enough. But no fulltime scholar would touch such an ambitious, border-crossing project: you'd step on too many toes and, gulp, you might be Wrong sometimes!
I think Karen Armstrong is undoubtedly wrong about some things, but I found her book excellent, even gripping. She has an unteachable gift as a populariser: to turn the millennial tangled history of Monotheism into a clear compelling narrative without oversimplifying or overloading.
How could they know, those dusty Hebrew prophets who felt the Infinite One reach out and touch them from beyond history, that their offspring would be so curious and so various: observant Jews, Catholic saints with sympathetic wounds, Byzantine Light mysticism, Whirling Dervishes, Shi'ite scholars, convoluted Kabbalistic myths, ... Read More
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As a religious Christian, I wish to thank Karen Armstrong for this wonderful book that taught me about the depth and richness of my religion and its history, as well as of other religions that believe in God. This is not an easy book, of course, but then who ever said that theology is easy? Flipping through the first few pages I was at first appalled at what seemed like blasphemy: "people invented a god"? As I progressed in the reading, however, I understood a lot more about what the author means. While we do know stories about God from the collections in the Bible and other Holy texts, those stories are revealed and we therefore cannot collect more by our own scholarly means.
This is therefore not a history OF God itself, since the God Christians, Jews, and Muslims believe in is beyond time, beyond history. "History" itself is a human concept, and therefore the only history we humans can write about is HUMAN history. What Armstrong has delivered to us here is a very thorough ... Read More
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This scholarly book traces the cultural and philosophical evolution of the human conception of God surrounding the 3 major monotheistic faiths. Armstrong explains the common lineage, the similarities and the variance of the conceptual understandings of God that shape people's lives...for better or for worse. This book is best understood if you have a little bit of background in religious and world history and it does require concentration. I particularly enjoyed this audio version because I could listen to certain chapters a second time. However, the audio book is abridged. This book encourages people to understand that no single person, group, or religious tradition has a monopoly of truth. It also calls people to learn about history to avoid the tragic consequences of claiming human agendas as the will of God.
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