Rating: 
Summary: And what a history it is...
Review: "Human beings cannot endure emptiness and desolation; they will fill the vacuum by creating a new focus of meaning. . . .we should, perhaps, ponder the history of God for some lessons and warnings." --- last paragraph of Armstrong's book.The jacket points out that Armstrong teaches at the Leo Baeck College for the Study of Judaism and the Training of Rabbis and Teachers (as well as having spent seven years as a nun). Her academic knowledge more than shows--which is why I don't understand the reviews that claimed she was terribly biased. The book seemed to take a step back and objectively review the HISTORY of God, rather than pass judgement on one religion or another. Armstrong demonstrates that through time, humanity has always sought to fill the void of unknowing by seeking a higher power. Thus, God will always exist, even in our increasingly godless society. She follows Man's God through history--from the dawn of time until now, and examines the reasons for the different concepts of God between the Monotheists (and even modern atheists and skeptics). The book is complete. It's a tough read though--with a scholarly tone and complex sentence structures. It's not a beach book or even an airplane read. But it's worth your time and money if you're interested in the histories of both our most enduring concept/being (God) and of the interplay between religion and man.
Rating: 
Summary: Good religious history
Review: A book that is sure to irritate many, A History of God is a history of Western theology, in particular the way the principal Western faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam have thought of God over time. For those who view their religion on a more dogmatic level, this book can provide some uncomfortable insights, especially the idea that God - or humanity's view of God - has changed over time, even within a particular faith. Armstrong definitely knows her material, sometimes too well for easy reading. This book is filled with a lot of historical and theological detail and cannot be read lightly if one is to grasp all that is contained within. Although generally readable, the subject matter makes for slow going at times, and Armstrong does get a bit pedantic at times. Also, while generally objective, she does editorialize every now and then, which interferes with her presentation of the subject. Overall, this is a good book, with some stylistic flaws but filled with plenty of insight into religious history. For those who want to learn more about the development of theology, this is a recommended read.
Rating:
Summary: If this won't shake your thinking, nothing will!
Review: A History of God was one of the most important books I've read. Karen Armstrong fearlessly, yet respectfully, traces the history of monotheistic thought from its earliest conception to the present day, all in a readable, lay-language book. It doesn't get much better, in my opinion. However, be cautioned. If you are inclined to cling to old dogma, or frightened by the possibility that God might not be exactly what you were taught in Sunday School, then don't bother picking up this book. It will haunt you. On the other hand, if you are seeking a more clear picture of who God might really be, if you are open to the possibility that our concept of Him has evolved enormously since the days of Abraham, then this might be an excellent read for you. Besides a good history lesson, it is insightful for the Western reader to gain an understanding of the "non-Christian" monotheistic traditions, i.e. Judaism and Islam. Armstrong does a wonderful (and contrary to some critics, I believe a FAIR) job of explaining how both Christianity and later Islam branched off of the Judaic traditions. Above all, it places the evolution of the God-concept into its cultural context, without which, our current God-concept is little more than a wholesale belief in so much mythology. Be prepared to think, to change your mind, and to emerge from the end of this book a changed person.
Rating:
Summary: A whirlwind Trip over 3000+ years
Review: Armstrong has created a whirlwind review of the 3000+ years of man's view of God. Each chapter could be a set of books by itself, because the book has a fast pace. It is a book that could be used as a introductory level textbook. If you want to really learn you need to take notes on the areas she addresses because of tremendous volume of facts she writes about. A great deal of emphasis in the book on the commonality of the 3 major religions. Excellent analysis of the difference between the "God" of Philosophy and the "God" of Theology.
Rating:
Summary: A Difficult, Fascinating Look at Ideas of God
Review: Armstrong's goal in this book is monumental, nothing less than to provide the history of monotheism from its beginnings in prehistory to the present. While she narrows it to the major religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, she also brings in other religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism. The result is a masterpiece of scholarly theology. One of the most important aspects is that it is comparative religion, and narrowing it to any one faith would have been a huge loss. Not all authors could have handled the comparison without one religion (their own) coming out "on top." But while Armstrong is a Christian, as her other books demonstrate she is enough of a scholar in each of the others that I felt no bias. At times there was a lack of information on Islam, but she was careful to note that there isn't yet enough research on Islam in the time period she is discussing.
I read this book years ago and found it so difficult that while I finished it, it did not stick. Over the last year, a group from my church took on the task of reading it a chapter a month. This is a hard way to read a book as complex as this, as one tends to lose continuity in the reading. And we dropped from about twenty at our first meeting to a core group of six who stuck it out to the end. But the six enjoyed it very much, and agreed that we'd learned some incredible things from it.
One of my insights from the book was the importance of her ongoing insistence that she is writing not about God but about the idea of God. We can't really know God. Judaism is the most clear and practical about this, even in the Hebrew Bible. When times change and the idea of God no longer fits what the people need from God, people change the idea of God. This is seen in the Reformation as well, and in the Enlightenment. This idea is of course the opposite of the fundamentalist idea (in any religion) that God always was and is and will be the same. I cannot see many fundamentalists reading her book in the first place. But if they did, these ideas that she is considering the idea of God, not God "Himself," and that that idea necessarily changes, would be very troubling to such a person.
While others have mentioned Armstrong's stress on a personal God in all three religions, what struck me was the extent to which all three had at least minority movements which found other ways of expressing God, even if the word used for God remained masculine. I have spent more than a decade trying to find a way of experiencing and understanding God that is not just man-on-a-throne-in-the-sky. I found many ways, some of them small, in her book, where some in all three faiths were on the same search.
I had two problems with the book. One was unavoidable. In several places, a single sentence would be so packed with information and implications that she could have written a whole chapter or even a book unpacking it. I wanted her to! But the book was already a long one.
The other problem she and her editors could have done something about. Each chapter was long, and had no breaks at all. With the complex material, it would have helped. She's very organized when she makes a major switch between the major faiths, but I didn't catch on for several chapters. My reading group agreed that it would have helped if she had made breaks within chapters for that or other major breaks in topic. And I don't think it would have made her book less scholarly to do so.
But these are minor problems in a major work by a theologian and scholar whose other books I now want to read.
Rating:
Summary: Heavy Going
Review: Everybody and their brother has reviewed this book, so I'll be brief: buy it for the first 3 chapters. I'm serious. This is a good book, but unless you know tons about the history of religious philosophy/theology, those last 300 pages are going to be tough. If, on the other hand, you are really well-versed in all aspects of mono-theistic religious thinking (from 4th C. Eastern orthodox mysticism to 8th C. Sufism to 14th C. Islamic rationalism and the Kabbalah), then this book will be a refreshing overview -- sort of a whirl-wind tour of Man's Search for Meaning Since the Dawn of Time. In other words, it's a tough read. That is actually to the author's credit -- it implies she didn't over-simplify and she tried to include all major thinkers in all major mono-theistic religions. But that's a tall order. Another criticism that I have of this book is sort of a personal beef with the author. Not that I don't like Karen Armstrong, she's a fine writer, but as is evident from some of her other writings, Ms. Armstrong is on a quest for God. One she can call her own. And as her biography (Through the Narrow Gate) makes clear, she felt like she passed up a truly profound religious experience while she was a nun. So, she's continued to look for it. This search has led her to read far and wide: Jewish Kabbalah, Augustine, Aquinus, Sufi mysticism, you name it. (Which is probably how she learned all the great stuff she put in this book.) But ultimately, since she is looking for her own God, she has a bad habit of being very reductionist with everybody else's God. The conclusion you will hear over and over again, from the pre-face to the conclusion, is that God is not "out there" -- but He is the invention of each individual. In other words, he's in your head. Those exact words: "God is not 'out there'" must show up 50 times in the text. I hate to say this, but it makes me think that she is reflecting what she wants to hear from the great religious thinkers of history. It feels like she was putting her words into other people's mouths. And in doing this, she may not be being entirely faithful to what *they* said or meant. It's obvious that, to some extent, she is trying for a peace-and-love message that says "At the base all religions are the same" and that's kind of a heart-warming message. But if the basic tenent which all religions share is the notion that God is "not out there", but is actually in your head, then I think Ms. Armstrong will not have difficulty getting someone to declare a fatwa on her. (I'm exaggerating slightly, but the whole God is "out there" theme does come up a lot.) Okay, so, basically, this is a good (albeit uneven) book. Buy it for the first 3 chapters, skim the rest and realize that the autor is not without a distinct point of view.
Rating: 
Summary: So-so
Review: I could not give this book anything below three stars because it is very well researched and articulated, but it does have its faults. There is a lot of opinion throughout the book, but this can be expected from a book that deals with religion and God. Ms. Armstrong comes to some strange conclusions at some points and chapters in the book, conclusions that do not seem to be backed up by adequate evidence. She also focuses on obscure doctrines and sects of the three faiths for pages at a time, becoming repetitive, when a page would suffice to describe the issue, sect or group. The task that this novel has, that of completing a 4,000 year history of one of the most influential, intriguing and often layered and veiled subjects, is enormous and for even attempting to undertake such a project, Ms. Armstrong must be applauded. However, I do feel that if one is serious about studying religion it would be best to study each religion seperately and in-depth in order to fully grasp the many conceptions of God. Though this book was by no means bad, I would urge anyone to take a different route in studying the history of religion or God.
Rating:
Summary: Good book but long read
Review: I learned a lot from this book and it is well worth the effort to read it. My major complaint with it is that it sent me to the glossary and dictionary too many times.
Here is an example of the language use: "The other countries of the Oikumene found it increasingly difficult to ignore the Western world." It could have been easily written: "The other countries of the civilized world found it increasingly difficult to ignore the Western world". The author does this constantly throughout the book. I think I would have got much more out of the book if was dumb down to a non-theologian level.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for beginners
Review: I selected this book in my first attempt to understand the major religions of the world and how they have captivated nearly the entire planet into practicing faith-based living. I am not a spiritual person but I have been curious about why so many people are and how our world came to be this way. This book is just entirly too detailed and overloaded with information for me. Some recommendations have praised the book as a must-have for the religious scholar and I could not agree more. Unfortunately, few of us are religious scholars. If one is looking for beginners level information, I cannot recommend this book. My wife is a life-long practicing catholic and can just keep up with the information regarding christianity but is lost on the rest. I plan to keep this book while I try to find some easier reading material and then probably go back to it in a couple of years.
Strengths - The author is unbiased and presents attractive and shameful aspects of all religions with equal proportion.
Critiques - I get the sense that the author is trying to show off ALL the information that she knows which makes the book impossible and cumbersome to follow for the novice.
Rating:
Summary: Must reading for anyone interested in religion
Review: If ever we establish a required reading list for mankind, this book must be included. Ms. Arnstrong gives us a panoramic view of religion that is honest, intelligent, and extremely thought provoking.
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