The Case for God

By: Karen Armstrong

Narrated by: Karen Armstrong

Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

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”.

©2009 Karen Armstrong (P)2009 Random House

Which God?

If you believe in the God of creation, the God that intervenes in history, the one and only God, be it Judaic, be it Muslin, be it Christian, Karen Armstrong’s case is weak. If your God lives with you, encompasses all your weaknesses, accepts your moral idiosyncrasies and relates to your history and desires, Karen Armstrong’s case is strong. The book examines the diverse ideas of God through history and gives special attention to the modern and postmodern concepts of a religious life and it opposite, the atheist self. Science and religion are confronted and reconciled, at least the author tries it. Meanwhile, she advances her ideas of a personal God, without dogmas, a God that gives meaning to our life. Her arguments seems compelling. Her book gives the reader a good and well researched overview of the development of the idea of God in the monotheistic religions.

excellent

taking Pride as the first and greatest sin, the common throughline of reverence for apophatic theology (specifically the inevitability of silence in the face of God) suggests a strong case for the practical and moral superiority of Humility in all things

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.

Slow going

Any additional comments?

I enjoy Karen Armstrong's work and have read several of her books in print form. This however has been a tough slog. I think it's the narration. The author reads the book, and I can't pinpoint what it is that I don't enjoy but I find myself reaching for the pause button soon after I start to listen.

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.

Complete, engaging and educational

I'm just finishing my second listen and enjoying it as much as the first. It is a dense book and presents thousands of years of human religious history in detail. Despite the tremendous amount of information Karen Armstrong packs into this book, the overall themes are easy to follow.

I particularly appreciated that she chose to write a book focusing on unknowing and the elements of religious and spiritual practice that take one beyond language itself. If you want a general overview of religious history, you might choose her History of God or The Great Transformation. However, if you want an in-depth look at 2000 years of faith and the interplay of human practitioners and ineffable religious experience in Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism, this is the book.

Wonderful book; very concise and penetrating

What made the experience of listening to The Case for God the most enjoyable?

Easy enough for the layperson yet profound and comprehensive.

What does Karen Armstrong bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Good pace and emphases seem to be in the right place.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No.

Worth the Effort

This is not a light topic, so Armstrong's systematic, exhaustively researched, thoroughly processed, and compassionately presented work is a welcome voice in our age of shrill and strident polarized religious expression. Clearly a culmination and synthesis of her own struggle to break free from a religious cocoon to experience the reality of human spirituality, this work takes the reader on an odyssey through the major religions as they all seek, across time, to articulate central truths about the nature of God, the role if religion, and how we as individuals can engage in the latter to connect with the former.

Not a quick read, but, as befits the subject, a rich experience. Well worth the effort.

Excelkent!!!!!

By the time you finish this audio, you find enlightment in your spiritual realm. This is a great book that must be read and audio multiple times and I bet you will find new inspiration every time again.

the case for god

Just the best. so much information, you'll have to listern many times if you want to talk about this subject.