Rent The History of God: The 4,000 Year Quest

Synopsis

This erudite and thought-provoking book is an excellent introduction to three major religious faiths--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam--and their differing views of God, as well as the way these views have shaped the world. Karen Armstrong's personal history includes time spent as a nun in her homeland of England; this fact makes her comparative religious study resonate with a passion that testifies to her own quest for understanding. Far from being a dry, academic tome, A HISTORY OF GOD is written in a lucid conversational style that engages readers and takes them on a ride through humanity's often convoluted relationship with the divine. Armstrong's basic idea is that successful religions and sects have always relied on effectiveness and pragmatism rather than philosophy or historical tradition. This is key to her theory that, while the major religions are in sharp contrast to each other in ritual and practice, they collaborate in their mystical traditions--traditions, she asserts, that have developed from an abstract, collective unconscious that does not rely on symbols and liturgy. A HISTORY OF GOD is a fascinating book that reverently questions the existence of God while championing the existence of the soul.

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