The Case for God: What religion really means
by Karen Armstrong

* The enormous popularity of books by Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and others shows that despite the religious revival that is under way in many parts of the world, there is widespread confusion about the nature of religious truth. For the first time in history, a significantly large number of people want nothing to do with God. In the past people went to great lengths to experience a sacred reality that they called God, Brahman, Nirvana or Dao; indeed religion could be said to be the distinguishing characteristic of homo sapiens. But now militant atheists preach a gospel of godlessness with the zeal of Christian missionaries in the age of faith and find an eager audience. What has happened?* Karen Armstrong argues that historically atheism has rarely been a denial of the sacred itself but has nearly always rejected a particular conception of God. During the modern period, the Christians of the West developed a theology that was radically different from that of the pre-modern age. Tracing the history of faith from the Palaeolithic Age to the present, Armstrong shows that until recently there was no warfare between science and religion. But science has changed the conversation. The meaning of words such as belief, faith, and mystery has been entirely altered, so that atheists and theists alike now think and speak about God - and, indeed, reason itself - in a way that our ancestors would have found astonishing.* Why has the modern God become incredible? Has God a future in this age of aggressive scientific rationalism? Karen Armstrong suggests that if we draw creatively on the insights of the past, we can build a faith that speaks to the needs of our troubled and dangerously polarized world.

Reviews

One of our best living writers on religion….prodigiously sourced, passionately written
John Cornwell (FT)

Karen Armstrong invites us on a journey through religion that helps us to rescue what remains wise from so much that to many in Britain today no longer seems true….Armstrong is one of the the handful of wise and supremely intelligent commentators on religion
Alain de Botton (Observer)

Comprehensive and measured
Paul Vallely (The Independent)

This is a stunned appreciation of an ‘otherness’ beyond the reach of language, and for Armstrong, constitutes the heart of every religion
Sholto Byrnes (New Statesmen)

It isn’t an easy read – why should it be? – and at times her expertise in theology and its technical terms get in the way of layman’s understanding. But at her best, she is wonderfully clear and insightful – and not out to convert anyone
Peter Lewis (Daily Mail)

Impressive new book…great eloquence
Richard Holloway (The Scotsman)

The Case for God is a tour de force of learning. A hefty history of theology, philosophy and science, and how they converge, it knocks Dawkins and Hitchens into an intellectual cocked hat.
Chris Dolan (The Sunday Herald)

Dense and brilliant, chastening and consoling. Whether or not it sells as well as the latest Hitchens or Dawkins will be a measure of us, not the book
Christopher Hart (Sunday Times)

Watch video Podcasts
Introducing the book

Atheists

Personal influences

Practising of religion