A review by janedoelish
A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by Karen Armstrong
3.0
Armstrong's History of God is a fascinating read about the evolution of an idea: well-researched, concise, and accessible.
And yet, I find that her bias is too keenly felt throughout the book. I'm actually sympathetic, sharing at least part of her POV, but I still think that this subtle partisanship damages the integrity of her study.
For example, I find that she does not differentiate sufficiently between the mythical history of monotheism and the factual historical evidence - even after pointing to the fact that events like the Exodus or the Conquest of the Holy Land are mostly mythological. A little less Biblical exegesis and a little more archaeology would have been appreciated in this context.
Likewise, she portrays the Israelites' worship of Baal and Ashera as deviations from an already existing mono- or henotheism - even after specifically pointing out that this retroactive portrayal of matters was a revisionist approach by the editors of the "OT"-canon. And again, one look at extra-biblical sources from the time would have made it abundantly clear that YHVH was one of the sons of El and the husband of Ashera from the beginning. He did not start out as an independent deity, but gradually became one.
Likewise, Armstrong glosses over the debt Christianity owes to the mystery religions of late antiquity: baptism, initiation, communion, a life-death-rebirth deity restoring cosmic order, even the very term mystery - all of that isn't originally Christian, nor can it be traced back to Jewish sources at all. Christianity is basically a mystery cult that traded universalism for exclusivism, and symbolism for claims to historicity.
All in all, however, I greatly enjoyed Armstrong's History of God. It's good to see that the bland anthropomorphism of religious fundamentalism is not the only kind of theism out there.
And yet, I find that her bias is too keenly felt throughout the book. I'm actually sympathetic, sharing at least part of her POV, but I still think that this subtle partisanship damages the integrity of her study.
For example, I find that she does not differentiate sufficiently between the mythical history of monotheism and the factual historical evidence - even after pointing to the fact that events like the Exodus or the Conquest of the Holy Land are mostly mythological. A little less Biblical exegesis and a little more archaeology would have been appreciated in this context.
Likewise, she portrays the Israelites' worship of Baal and Ashera as deviations from an already existing mono- or henotheism - even after specifically pointing out that this retroactive portrayal of matters was a revisionist approach by the editors of the "OT"-canon. And again, one look at extra-biblical sources from the time would have made it abundantly clear that YHVH was one of the sons of El and the husband of Ashera from the beginning. He did not start out as an independent deity, but gradually became one.
Likewise, Armstrong glosses over the debt Christianity owes to the mystery religions of late antiquity: baptism, initiation, communion, a life-death-rebirth deity restoring cosmic order, even the very term mystery - all of that isn't originally Christian, nor can it be traced back to Jewish sources at all. Christianity is basically a mystery cult that traded universalism for exclusivism, and symbolism for claims to historicity.
All in all, however, I greatly enjoyed Armstrong's History of God. It's good to see that the bland anthropomorphism of religious fundamentalism is not the only kind of theism out there.