Product Description

Moving from the Paleolithic age to the present, Karen Armstrong details the great lengths to which humankind has gone in order to experience a sacred reality that it called by many names, such as God, Brahman, Nirvana, Allah, or Dao. Focusing especially on Christianity but including Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Chinese spiritualities, Armstrong examines the diminished impulse toward religion in our own time, when a significant number of people either want nothing to do with God or question the efficacy of faith. Why has God become unbelievable? Why is it that atheists and theists alike now think and speak about God in a way that veers so profoundly from the thinking of our ancestors?

Answering these questions with the same depth of knowledge and profound insight that have marked all her acclaimed books, Armstrong makes clear how the changing face of the world has necessarily changed the importance of religion at both the societal and the individual level. And she makes a powerful, convincing argument for drawing on the insights of the past in order to build a faith that speaks to the needs of our dangerously polarized age. Yet she cautions us that religion was never supposed to provide answers that lie within the competence of human reason; that, she says, is the role of logos. The task of religion is “to help us live creatively, peacefully, and even joyously with realities for which there are no easy explanations.” She emphasizes, too, that religion will not work automatically. It is, she says, a practical discipline: its insights are derived not from abstract speculation but from “dedicated intellectual endeavor” and a “compassionate lifestyle that enables us to break out of the prism of selfhood.”

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #506 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-22
• Released on: 2009-09-22
• Format: Deckle Edge
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 432 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780307269188
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
Praise for Karen Armstrong's The Case for God

"The time is ripe for a book like The Case for God, which wraps a rebuke to the more militant sort of atheism in an engaging survey of Western religious thought."
—Ross Douthat, The New York Times Book Review
 
"Armstrong's argument is prescient, for it reflects the most important shifts occurring in the religious landscape."
—Lisa Miller, Newsweek
 
"A thoughtful explanation, well-sourced and impressively rooted in the writings of theologians, philosophers, scholars and religious figures through the ages. . . . If Armstrong is out to bring respect to both reason and faith in the search of that transcendent meaning, she has done well."
—Repps Hudson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
 
"The Case for God is Armstrong's most concise and practical-minded book yet: a historical survey of hwo rather than what we believe, where we lost the "knack" of religion and what we need to do to get it back."
—Michael Brunton, Ode
 
"In over a dozen books [Armstrong] has delivered something people badly want: a way to acknowledge that faith can be taken seriously as a response to deep human yearnings without needing to subscribe to the formality of organized belief."
—The Economist
 
"The Case for God should be read slowly, and savored."
—Karen R. Long, Cleveland Plain Dealer
 
"Armstrong's thesis is provocative, and her book illuminates a side of Christianity that has recently been overshadowed."
—Margaret Quamme, Columbus Dispatch
 
"Armstrong is ambitious. The Case for God is an entire semester at college packed into a single book—a voluminous, dizzying intellectual history. . . . Reading The Case for God, I felt smarter. . . . A stimulating, hopeful work.  After I finished it, I felt inspired, I ...

Review
Praise for Karen Armstrong's The Case for God

"The time is ripe for a book like The Case for God, which wraps a rebuke to the more militant sort of atheism in an engaging survey of Western religious thought."
—Ross Douthat, The New York Times Book Review
 
"Armstrong's argument is prescient, for it reflects the most important shifts occurring in the religious landscape."
—Lisa Miller, Newsweek
 
"A thoughtful explanation, well-sourced and impressively rooted in the writings of theologians, philosophers, scholars and religious figures through the ages. . . . If Armstrong is out to bring respect to both reason and faith in the search of that transcendent meaning, she has done well."
—Repps Hudson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
 
"The Case for God is Armstrong's most concise and practical-minded book yet: a historical survey of hwo rather than what we believe, where we lost the "knack" of religion and what we need to do to get it back."
—Michael Brunton, Ode
 
"In over a dozen books [Armstrong] has delivered something people badly want: a way to acknowledge that faith can be taken seriously as a response to deep human yearnings without needing to subscribe to the formality of organized belief."
—The Economist
 
"The Case for God should be read slowly, and savored."
—Karen R. Long, Cleveland Plain Dealer
 
"Armstrong's thesis is provocative, and her book illuminates a side of Christianity that has recently been overshadowed."
—Margaret Quamme, Columbus Dispatch
 
"Armstrong is ambitious. The Case for God is an entire semester at college packed into a single book—a voluminous, dizzying intellectual history. . . . Reading The Case for God, I felt smarter. . . . A stimulating, hopeful work.  After I finished it, I felt inspired, I stopped, and I looked up at the stars again.  And I wondered what could be."
—Susan Jane Gilman, NPR's "All Things Considered"
 
"Karen Armstrong's book is simply superb. Wide-ranging, detailed, well researched meticulously argued and beautifully written, it is a definitive analysis of the role of religious belief and transcendence in our history and our life."
—Dr Robert Buckman, author of Can We Be Good without God?
 
"Karen Armstrong, in writing The Case for God, provides the reader with one of the very best theological works of our time. It brings a new understanding to the complex relationship between human existence and the transcendent nature of God. This is a book that is so well researched and so deep with insight and soaring scholarship that only Karen Armstrong could have written it. The Case for God should be required reading for anyone who claims to be a believer, an agnostic or an atheist."
—The Right Reverend John Bryson Chane, D.D., Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Washington, D.C. 
 
"No one is better qualified or more needed than Karen Armstrong to enter the hot public debate between believers and non-believers over the existence of God.  Her latest book, eagerly awaited and received, rings out with the qualities she brings to all of her work—The Case for God is lucid, learned, provocative, and illuminating.  Indeed, Armstrong once again does what she always does best by shining a clear light on the deepest mysteries of the religious imagination."
—Jonathan Kirsch, author of The Harlot by the Side of the Road
 
"Challenging, intelligent, and illuminating—especially for anyone reflecting on current discussions of atheism, often characterized as conflict between religion and science."
—Elaine Pagels, co-author of Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity
 
"With characteristic command of subject and crispness, the prolific and redoubtable independent British scholar and former nun takes yet another run at the world's religious history. . . . She's conceptual, humanistic and exceedingly well-read. . . . [An] articulate and accessible sweep through intellectual history. The "unknowing" of the mystics has its virtues and its place, but being well-read and knowledgeable makes one powerful and persuasive book.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
 
"Celebrated religion scholar Armstrong creates more than a history of religion; she effectively demonstrates how the West (broadly speaking) has grappled with the existence of deity and captured the concept in words, art and ideas. . . . A brilliant examination. . . . [An] accessible, intriguing study of how we see God."
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
 
"The new book by premier contemporary historian of religion is a history of God. . . . Presenting difficult ideas with utter lucidity, this registers at once as a classic of religious and world history."
—Ray Olson, Booklist (starred review)
 
"Armstrong offers a tour de force. . . . Highly recommended for readers willing to grapple with difficult but clearly articulated concepts and challenges to the 'received' ways of perceiving religion.  A classic."
—Carolyn M. Craft, Library Journal
 
"One of our best living writers on religion. . . . Prodigiously sourced, passionately written."
—John Cornwell, Financial Times
 
"Karen Armstrong is one of [a] handful of wise and supremely intelligent commentators on religion. . . . As in so much of the rest of her hugely impressive body of work, Karen Armstrong invites us on a journey through religion that helps us to rescue what remains wise from so much that to so many . . . no longer seems true."
—Alain de Botton, The Observer
 
 
Critical Acclaim for Karen Armstrong's The Great Transformation
 
"Armstrong at her best—translating and distilling complex history into lucid prose that will delight scholars and armchair historians alike."
—Lauren F. Winner, The Washington Post Book World
 
"Her conviction, passion and intelligence radiate throughout the book, making us feel the urgency of the ideas it seeks to convey."
—Charles Matthews, Baltimore Sun
 
"A tour de force. . . . She has dedicated herself to understanding the most prominent world faiths and explaining them to a secular/postsecular society."
—Jane Lampman, The Christian Science Monitor
 
"Perhaps her most ambitious work. . . . Without overlooking the differences between religions, Armstrong emphasizes their common call for compassion."
—Lisa Montanarelli, San Francisco Chronicle
 
"A lucid, highly readable account of complex developments occurring over many centuries. . . . A splendid book."
—William Grimes, The New York Times
 
"An utterly enthralling reading experience. . . . It ranks with A History of God as one of her finest achievements.
—Booklist
 
"In her typical magisterial fashion, she chronicles these tales in dazzling prose with remarkable depth and judicious breadth."
—Publishers Weekly
 
"Armstrong's erudition is truly impressive. . . . Few people are better qualified to explain that what so often divides us ought to unite us instead."
—Cleveland Plain Dealer
 
"Broad, eloquent storytelling."
—The Wall Street Journal
 
"Her conviction, passion and intelligence radiate throughout the book, making us feel the urgency of the ideas it seeks to convey."
—New York Sun
 
"This could very possibly be one of the greatest intellectual histories ever written."
—Library Journal (starred review)
 
"On prominent display in this book are Armstrong's usual virtues—wide knowledge, meticulous research, a superb appreciation for the beauty and power of religious and philosophical ideasls, and general readability."
—Shambhala Sun
 
"This magisterial work, continuing Karen Armstrong's mission to explore the place and purposes of religions in the modern world, follows in the stream of her books on Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddaism."
—Spirituality & Health
 
 
Critical Acclaim for Karen Armstrong's The Spiral Staircase
 
"Enjoyable and deeply interesting. . . . Very rewarding." –San Francisco Chronicle
 
"A story about becoming human, being recognized, finally recognizing oneself. . . . It fills the reader with hope." –The Washington Post Book World
 
"Riveting. . . . It's a pleasure to read simply because it's honest and hopeful. . . . Armstrong is such an evocative writer." –Newsday
 
"I loved this powerful and moving account, and read it nonstop." –Elaine Pagels, author of Beyond Belief
 
"In . . . Armstrong's memoir there lurks wisdom about the making and remaking of a life . . . from which all of us could learn." –The New York Times Book Review
 
"A powerful memoir. . . . Buoyed by keen intelligence and unflinching self-awareness and honesty. . . . Armstrong is an engaging, energetic writer." –The Christian Science Monitor
 
"A minor masterpiece." –Elle
 
"Exceptionally impressive. . . . Karen Armstrong's account of her spiralling journey provokes thought and inspires respect." –Daily Telegraph
 
"The story of the making of a writer. . . . It manages to dramatize the writer's process of intellectual development and to find in it genuine interest, and, indeed, suspense. . . . As an account of the intellectual journey of an intelligent and unique individual, the book is often gripping." –Sa...

About the Author
Karen Armstrong is the author of numerous other books on religious affairs—including A History of God, The Battle for God, Holy War, Islam, Buddha, and The Great Transformation—and two memoirs, Through the Narrow Gate and The Spiral Staircase. Her work has been translated into forty-five languages. She has addressed members of the U.S. Congress on three occasions; lectured to policy makers at the U.S. State Department; participated in the World Economic Forum in New York, Jordan, and Davos; addressed the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington and New York; is increasingly invited to speak in Muslim countries; and is now an ambassador for the UN Alliance of Civilizations. In February 2008 she was awarded the TED Prize and is currently working with TED on a major international project to launch and propagate a Charter for Compassion, created online by the general public and crafted by leading thinkers in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, to be signed in the fall of 2009 by a thousand religious and secular leaders. She lives in London.

Customer Reviews

Remarkable, fascinating, mindshifting,
Karen Armstrong is able to do two things which are individually remarkable, and in combination perhaps unique.
- provide a credible, erudite, historical overview of all the main religions in a way that shows how they fit together. ie. the key ideas they have borrowed from each other
- do so in a way which is vivid, accessible and often inspiring.

Some religious readers will be shocked to discover that "their" religion is based on ideas that are far more widespread than they may have realized. And they may be uncomfortable that the God Armstrong is arguing for is not one actively involved in day-to-day human concerns, checking off prayer requests or directing the weather, but deeper, mysterious, perhaps ineffable. Some non-religious readers will be shocked by how compelling a case Armstrong makes for a religious mindset based, not so much on "belief" or "faith" but on spirituality and compassion. But all, if they approach this book with an open mind, are likely to emerge with a richer understanding of life's most important questions.

A Stimulating Read, An Important Book
Enter the caverns of Lascaux and step back into the world of our early hunter ancestors of the Paleolithic era. We find record of a people who took life and the taking of the life they hunted very seriously and recorded on the stone walls of the caverns their rites performed to return the animals they killed for sustenance to a second life. Enter another cave where Plato paints a picture of humanity groping in darkness until some are able to step out into the light, seeing the world for the first time are faint able to make those still in the darkness of the caves comprehend their new vision. Humanity has a history, a long encounter with the sacred. It is expressed in different ways such as God, Brahman, Nirvana, Allah, and Dao among others. With all the diverse manners of approaching it humanity has a long, intimate relationship with the transcendent and it is important for anyone to understand the religious impulse in order to understand a vital element of what it means to be human. Karen Armstrong provides a thorough and compelling resource toward this kind of understanding in her book "The Case for God".

It is useful to know before reading this book that it is not a tract attempting to prove the existence of God. It is rather a case for God, not the existence of God. Amid the arguments made by New Atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens, Armstrong makes the case that the religious life can be valuable and healthy. While Logos describes the objective reality that is essential for living, Religion or Mythos, helps us "to live creatively, peacefully, and even joyously with realitites for which there [are] no easy explanations and problems that we could not solve: morality, pain, grief, despair, and outrage at the injustice and cruelty of life" (318).

I recommend this book for two reasons. The first is that it gives a very thorough exposition of the history and development of religion and philosophy that is by all accounts very valuable to know. You will be more educated after reading this book and that is useful in itself. Both religious and nonreligious people can benefit from a background in the ideas, traditions, and world-views that have shaped and continued to shape the world. Armstrong also gives a summary of many of the major scientific developments of history. With my professional background in science I particularly enjoyed these passages and was impressed by her knowledge in these subjects.

The second reason I recommend this book is because she brings an interesting argument to the discussion over God and it would benefit anyone to be exposed to it. It is not necessary to agree with her positions to enjoy the book. I have always enjoyed the scientific writing of Richard Dawkins and I think "The Selfish Gene" is one of the best popular science books ever written. Dawkins also makes some important points and criticisms of religion that people of faith must confront. On the same note, atheists and agnostics ought to consider the ideas Armstrong presents in "The Case for God". Religious people should consider arguments as well. She proposes that many modern discussions of God are too careless and that the concept of God is much more complex and uncertain then is often recognized.

This book recalled to me William James' "The Varieties of Religious Experience". Both distinguished the existential judgment from the proposition of value. In other words, while the veracity of supernatural claims may be significant it may be more meaningful to evaluate the effects of a world-view on those who hold it. Armstrong contends that religion has much to offer in a world of complexity and at times suffering. Says Armstrong: "We have seen too much evil in recent years to indulge in a facile theology... A modern theology must look unflinchingly into the heart of a great darkness and be prepared, perhaps, to enter into the cloud of unknowing" (278).

An Intellectual Feast But in the End Very Little Help to the World's Problems
In this astounding book, prolific author Karen Armstrong has written an intellectual history of the notion of God down through the centuries, focusing on our western Christian conceptions. In many ways her book covers much of the same territory that Robert Wright did in The Evolution of God, which I reviewed on Amazon. But whereas Wright focuses on the evolution of morality in conceptions of the divine, Armstrong focuses on the practice of religion itself.

I was astonished as time after time she got so many things right in those areas I knew something about. This is an amply documented massive book which cannot be rehearsed in any detail in this short review. But it is an intellectual feast. If you want to be brought up to speed to today's world on the subject of religion in the western world, this book may be the only one you need. From Paleolithic times to postmodern thinking it's all here for the most part. From the Hebrew God Yahweh, to the Greek "logos," to the rise of Christianity, the era of Constantine, the rise of Science, the Enlightenment down to the present day, she covers it all masterfully.

Her main concern throughout the book seems to be the rise of the religious fundamentalist phenomenon and the atheist backlash seen best in the so-called New Atheists like Harris, Dawkins, Dennett, and Hitchens. Against both sides she claims religion is not a set of doctrines to be believed but rather something practiced in ritual and experienced through introspection, art, and music. As such, the New Atheists have not adequately debunked religion at all when they debunk the Bible, creationism, and/or religious ideas of the divine.

Christian fundamentalism according to her, "is in fact a defiantly unorthodox form of faith that frequently misrepresents the tradition it is trying to defend" (p. xvi). She argues: "Religion was a matter of doing rather than thinking" (p. 25). "Religious discourse was not intended to be understood literally because it was only possible to speak about a reality that transcended language in symbolic terms. The story of the lost paradise was a myth, not a factual account of a historical event" (p. 15). "Like any myth, its purpose is to help us to contemplate the human predicament" (p. 28). As such, the creation account "was emphatically not intended as a literal account of the physical origins of life" (p. 44). When it comes to Yahweh she argues, "There was no clear, consistent image of God in Genesis" (p. 35). Moreover, "Yahweh was simply one of the 'holy ones' in El's retinue" (p. 34). She challenges fundamentalists to therefore "face up to the implications of the Darwinian vision of nature `red in tooth and claw'" (p. 324). She argues that "if a biblical text appeared to contradict current scientific discoveries the exegete must interpret it differently" (p. 324).

With this understanding of fundamentalism she claims the New Atheist's "analysis is disappointingly shallow, because it is based on such poor theology" (p. xvi). "Religion," she says, "was never supposed to provide answers to questions that lay within the reach of human reason...Religion's task, closely allied to that of art, was to help us to live creatively, peacefully, and even joyously with realities for which there were no easy explanations and problems that we could not solve; morality, pain, grief, despair, and outrage at the injustice and cruelty of life....Religion is a practical discipline" (p. 318). Just like the fundamentalists whom they argue against, Armstrong claims that "the new atheists believe that they alone are in possession of truth...they read scripture in an entirely literal manner and seem never to have heard of the long tradition of allegoric interpretation or indeed of Higher Criticism" (p. 303). Thus, Dawkins is "not correct to assume that fundamentalist belief either represents or is even typical of either Christianity or religion as a whole" (p. 304). And he "is also wrong to claim that God is a scientific hypothesis, that is, a conceptual framework for bringing intelligibility to a series of experiments and observations" (p. 305). All told, she shares the same kinds of criticisms of the New Atheists as liberal theologian John F. Haught does in his book God and the New Atheism: A Critical Response to Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens, which I also reviewed on Amazon.

But her analysis is problematic on a number of fronts. When it comes to religion, Armstrong is placing her liberal theological grid on it backward through time. She's right about primitive religion. Their religion was in the rituals, the dances, the human/child/animal sacrifices, the chants, and the drum music. But somewhere along the evolutionary line, especially within Christianity, religious believers developed doctrinal beliefs too. We see them in the historic creeds of the church, a few of which are in the New Testament itself. If they hadn't done so then what can account for such things as the Inquisition, or the Thirty Years War between the Catholics and Protestants and between the Protestants themselves? This creedal development happened long before Christian fundamentalism arrived on the scene, by her own account! What she seems to misunderstand is that there is no "one size fits all" when it comes to religion. And so she cannot fault the New Atheists for attacking the fundamentalist religion of today's world since that's what religion is for many many people.

Furthermore, her book uses the results of Higher Criticism, which is little more than the scientific method applied to historical texts like the Bible. She faults the New Atheists for treating God and religion as a scientific hypothesis but then turns around and uses that the same scientific method when deconstructing the Biblical texts. Can she really have it both ways? Even if she doesn't think the scientific method should be used to examine one's religion or concepts of the divine, she needs to articulate and defend an alternative method that can deliver the same kinds of results. What's the alternative for her? Introspection? Art? Music? What kind of method is that? Such a method would never have allowed her to come to the conclusions she's reached about religion in general, and of Christian fundamentalism in particular.

Suffice it for me to say that I find her religion-as-psychology metaphysically unfulfilling and deeply inadequate. Her god is a distant god and as such her god can be safely ignored as having no relevance for one's life at all. She's practically an atheist. So rather than targeting the New Atheists who are promoting scientific thinking, denouncing religious violence, and proclaiming the follies of authoritarian fundamentalist faith, why doesn't she stand up with them against the fundamentalists who are the source of much, if not most, of the problems in this world?

Think of it this way. What does Armstrong fault the New Atheists for in comparison to the religious fundamentalists? Misunderstanding, at best? That's nothing in comparison to the problems that authoritarian fundamentalist faith produces in the world, and she knows this. She's nitpicking when there's a world that needs her help. After all, who really cares if the New Atheists are attacking what she doesn't consider representative of true religion or true Christianity? They are attacking a real threat to world peace regardless! And who really cares if religion doesn't poison everything as Hitchens proclaims? Religion causes a great deal of suffering.

I highly recommend Victor Stenger's latest book in response to criticims like hers, The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason, which I also reviewed on Amazon. This is one of the New Atheists that Armstrong failed to mention.

--------
I'm the author of "Why I Became an Atheist," and the forthcoming edited book, "The Christian Delusion."