Itemize About Books A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
| Title | : | A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam |
| Author | : | Karen Armstrong |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 460 pages |
| Published | : | March 2nd 2004 by Gramercy Books (first published 1993) |
| Categories | : | Religion. History. Nonfiction. Philosophy. Islam. Spirituality |
Karen Armstrong
Hardcover | Pages: 460 pages Rating: 3.87 | 42282 Users | 1441 Reviews
Narrative As Books A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Over 700,000 copies of the original hardcover and paperback editions of this stunningly popular book have been sold. Karen Armstrong's superbly readable exploration of how the three dominant monotheistic religions of the world - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - have shaped and altered the conception of God is a tour de force. One of Britain's foremost commentators on religious affairs, Armstrong traces the history of how men and women have perceived and experienced God, from the time of Abraham to the present. From classical philosophy and medieval mysticism to the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the modern age of skepticism, Armstrong performs the near miracle of distilling the intellectual history of monotheism into one compelling volume.Present Books Conducive To A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
| Original Title: | A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam |
| ISBN: | 0517223120 (ISBN13: 9780517223123) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Rating About Books A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Ratings: 3.87 From 42282 Users | 1441 ReviewsRate About Books A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
I know I'm an atheist and all, but I still enjoy Armstrong. Wrote this review several years ago:Rarely does one come across a book that is recognized as erudite, essential, and readable simultaneously. Karen Armstrong's The History of God has brilliantly analyzed the rise of fundamentalism as a reaction to the emphasis on logos of the Enlightenment as opposed to mythos that had been essential to one's view of the world. "The economic changes over the last four hundred years have been accompaniedWhew. I thought I'd never finish this book. But two months later, I somehow managed to get to the end. Now, what to say about it?I started this book knowing a moderate amount about the history of Christianity, a small amount about Judaism, and much too little about Islam. I relied heavily on my previous knowledge of Christianity and Judaism to make sense of Armstrong's extremely dense, often repetitive, and (to use her favorite word) esoteric prose. I found it a real challenge to keep up with
Karen Armstrong is a former Catholic nun and studied at Oxford. Her book, The Spiral Staircase, is a good description of the struggles that led to her leaving the convent. There have been several good books written on the historic Jesus Christ, but very few on the historic God. As other reviewers have noted, this is a somewhat scholarly book, which it would have to be if one wanted to thoughtfully trace back mans evolving beliefs on God. And, yes, over a sweep of 4,000 years, evolving is
A MAJOR PROBLEM WITH RELIGION(You may have already thought of a few, but this is my current thing.)Religious thought is metaphorical and the constant danger is that the unlettered will take the metaphor literally. For instance, the Holy Trinity in Christianity - sorting out a satisfactory formula expressing the relationships between God the Father & Jesus the Son & the Holy Spirit presented hideous problems which took around 300 years to resolve and - it seems to me - the whole
I still can't decide if it's good or not. That's that problem with being kinda dumb.
The most comprehensive, exhaustive, and fascinating study of the Abrahamic religions and how they have changed over a few thousand years. Of definite interest to both religious and non-religious folks. Absolutely fascinating, but be warned: it is very dense, well-documented and cited, and reads much like a textbook (though a very engaging one). Over 100 pages of endnotes, a glossary, extensive bibliography with annotations for further reading, and fortunately, copious amounts of space in the
This is at once a very simple and a very complex book. Simple in its argument, complex in the array of detail marshalled to tell Armstrong's story.Her view, it seemed to me, was firstly that monotheism was wide spread - well beyond the limits of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam but that there was always a tension between two basic ideas within that belief across all these religions. On the one hand a faith in an objective reality of something like an old man with a beard out there somewhere who
0 Comments