"An admirable and impressive work of synthesis that will give insight and satisfaction to thousands of lay readers."

-- The Washington Post Book World

In this stunningly intelligent book, Karen Armstrong, one of Britain's foremost commentators on religious affairs, 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, Karen Armstrong performs the near miracle of distilling the intellectual history of monotheism into one superbly readable volume, destined to take its place as a classic.

"Witty, informative and contemplative: Ms. Armstrong can simplify complex ideas but she is never simplistic."

-- New York Times

This fascinating account of the development of the idea of a single god in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam debates the centuries-old question of whether God created people, or people created God. This must-own audio will make you think about where we've been -- and where we're going.

As soon as they became recognizably human, men and women -- in their hunger to understand their own presence on earth and the mysteries within and around them -- began to worship gods. Karen Armstrong's masterly and illuminating book explores the ways in which the idea and experience of God evolved among the monotheists -- Jews, Christians and Muslims. Weaving a multicolored fabric of historical, philosophical, intellectual and social developments and insights, Armstrong shows how, at various times through the centuries, each of the monotheistic religions has held a subtly different concept of God. At the same time she draws our attention to the basic and profound similarities among them, making it clear that in all of them God has been and is experienced intensely, passionately and often -- especially in the West -- traumatically. Some monotheists have seen darkness, desolation and terror, where others have seen light and transfiguration; the reasons for these inherent differences are examined, and the people behind them are brought to life. We look first at the gradual move away from the pagan gods to the full-fledged monotheism of the Jews during the exile in Babylon. Next considered is the development of parallel, yet different, perceptions and beliefs among Christians and Muslims. The book then moves "generationally" through time to examine the God of the philosophers and mystics in all three traditions, the God of the Reformation, the God of the Enlightenment and finally the nineteenth- and twentieth-century challenges of skeptics and atheists, as well as the fiercely reductive faith of the fundamentalists of our own day. Armstrong suggests that any particular idea of God must -- if it is to survive -- work for the people who develop it, and that ideas of God change when they cease to be effective. She argues that the concept of a personal God who behaves like a larger version of ourselves was suited to mankind at a certain stage but no longer works for a different age.

"This fascinating account tackles the issue of the existence of God head-on, offering a "superb kaleidoscopic history of religion"

-- Kirkus Reviews

This is a study of ideas and experiences of God in Judaism, Christianity and Islam from Abraham to the twentieth century. Bibliography. Index.