My first review for WETA.org's The Book Studio is now up. Managing Editor Bethanne Patrick (better known online as The Book Maven) has been putting together an outstanding online home for book reviews and fascinating video interviews with authors of all stripes. I'm thrilled that I'll be reviewing regularly at The Book Studio, though I may have bit off more than I could chew with my first title: The Case for God, Karen Armstrong's sweeping history of man and God. Here's my take:
Religion poisons everything… God is a delusion… the end of faith... these are phrases lately found among the burgeoning supply of books by "new atheists" who take arms against a sea of holy rollers and jihadis. In an age of faith-based politics, resurgent creationism, and religious terrorism, aggressive atheists like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens have become bestselling authors.
A new book attempts to take a stand against both the religious fundamentalists and their militant atheist foes. The Case for God is a landmark work of intellectual and theological history by the renowned scholar of religion Karen Armstrong.
The book is nothing less than a comprehensive history of human religion in just over three hundred pages. From painted traces of Paleolithic hunter-shamans on the Lascaux Cave walls to hip postmodernist theology, Armstrong offers a lucid narrative of humanity’s relationship with the divine. In her telling, the story of God and man unrolls like an ancient tapestry richly embroidered with scholarly insights and references from the world's many religious traditions.
It is a compelling story, but it isn’t clear that many people—secularists or religionists—will find it persuasive.
Read the thrilling conclusion of my review of The Case for God at The Book Studio.
