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 Mystics,” “The Death of God?,” and concluding with “Does God Have a Future?” Unsurprisingly, in this age of historicism, Armstrong’s thesis is that each generation remakes its vision of the deity in its own image so that God will “work for them” and that a fresh reworking is due. A History of God does not quite live up to its racy title; but it is, quite simply, one of the most obnoxious books to cross my desk in a very long time.
I am put in mind of a recent conversation with one of my academic colleagues. In response to persistent questioning about the value theory underlying his work, he doggedly repeated,
