The Case for God

By: Karen Armstrong

Narrated by: Karen Armstrong

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.”

Excellent work and narrator

Truly a beautiful work worth listening and sharing. Worth the time to sit and enjoy and learn.

Not what I expected, but so much better!

What did you love best about The Case for God?

[TLDR: This is a good book on religion and religious history. It's not threatening to anyone (except for maybe fundamentalists) and I think everyone could find something interesting within it.]

I'm not much of a book reviewer, (I'm not much of a book READER to be honest) but every now and then I come across a book that so piques my interest that I have to share it with others. In this case, it's Karen Armstrong's A Case For God. I pick up a religious book every now and then just to get the perspectives of educated persons on the subject, and what I was expecting was an opinionated attempt to prove or disprove God's existence like I've come across before.
This book, however, went in an entirely different direction. The author instead uses a massive amount of historical data to illustrate the progression and evolution of religion, the historical interactions between religious and non-religious organizations and philosophies, and to illustrate how the modern perspective of God may be fundamentally flawed.
I had honestly always had trouble floundering in the sea between my own perspectives on my personal views on faith and my frustration with modern American Christian organizations, but this book definitely done well to clear the water for me.
I would recommend this book to anyone who has even the remotest interest in the subject of God or religion in general. It approaches said subject from a very Agnostic angle that allows anyone to pick it up and find something interesting within its pages.

A humbling synopsis and history of the interpretation of GOD.

Helps one realize the importance of understanding the meaning of other people’s definitions and understandings if different terms.

Brings ways of understanding and finding peace with other views without judgement.

Focuses on practice of good living vs beliefs in absolutes and doctrines. Myths present possible learning opportunities vs absolute truths.

Avoids debate on a definition of the undefinable. Avoids the need to know the unknowable.

Brings greater insight and tolerance for “other” faiths. Explains why the only faiths that are “real” are those that are practiced.

Excellent

Karen Armstrong is wonderful! This provides so much knowledge and holds your attention the whole time. I feel like a better human being after reading this.

A change of perspective

A lot of these reviews have stated what Armstrong said in the epilogue, this book is long and complicated because it’s supposed to be. This is a book that will not stop until we understand how shallow and normal it is that we approach big questions. I love how she approaches theology and philosophy to help focus not on a view that has to conform, but with a hope to our better selves to see that we just might not know… and that’s ok… but that’s NOT excuse to stop… It’s a hope for us continue asking big questions and trying to find the answers. Please read this book, and then the ENTIRE bibliography, because this is worth it.