In the interests of full disclosure, I should say that any book whose first chapter prominently features the words “holistic” and “empowerment” has a heavy burden to surmount with this reviewer. This is particularly the case when the subject under discussion is Semitic religion before the eighth century B.C. Karen Armstrong’s new book, A History of God, both incurs and utterly fails to overcome that burden.

Subtitled “The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam,” A History of God is billed as a comparative study of how adherents of these religions have described their experience of the divine over the course of history. It seeks to accomplish this end largely through seriatim sketches of the writings of major religious figures, grouped under headings such as “The God of the Philosophers,” “The God of the...

 
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