A review by lynitab
The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism by Karen Armstrong

5.0

Even though I rated this book amazing, I think a lot of readers will find it somewhat ponderous. This is a historian's book, especially a historian interested in the roots of much of unsettling conflict of values that is rocking our world today. In one way it was relieving and others depressing. Armstrong meticulously traces the rise and fall of fundamentalist thinking over the centuries. In this book she is focusing on the Big Three in the western world, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but I suspect that we could find similar cycles in Far eastern religions, as well. It is fascinating to learn about how all of the big three religions were founded in similar ideas about peace, taking care of the poor, and a sense that the spiritual life and the political life served mankind in different ways. All three became politicized and came under the thrall of those that "reformed" their religions in ways that turned their backs on those founding principals and instead cast religious faith in a fight for survival. All three have significant adherents that live in fear of annihilation by ungodly , relativist, and diverse forces. At the same time, those who are morally offended by the "us and them" slant of fundamentalism have also become entrenched. They see racism, homophobia, misogyny hate and violence when they look at the religious right, and fighting this has become their religion.

Armstrong wrote this book in 2000, but even then she didn't see any resolution to this on-going battle. The only bright side I found was that this battle has been going on for 1,500 years( and she tracks it meticulously) and neither side looks like they will give up. There are some from both sides who are beginning to recognize that the best we can hope for is that we find a way to co-exist, rather than destroy each other.