Karen's Book on God.

BOOK TITLE: "HISTORY OF GOD" 4-4-2006

4000 Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam By Karen Armstrong.

This book is too fascinating on the ideas and concepts of god thru the ages mainly among the three Semitic religions and people professing them. Historically Judaism followed pagan rites, then Christianity. The beginning is antithetical. The Islam was not an outgrowth from Christianity. But an independent one from the pagan and savage surrounding of the Arabia. Karen finds an Arial age in ancient history between 800 & 200 BCE when people inhabiting known civilizations formed an idea of god an all encompassing power, indescribable energy a god. That is not knowable and so on. Such ideas were developed in Vedic & Upanishad period in India. Buddhism is a clear manifestation of that idea. At last, it was nothing a construct from the minds of people in deep thought. After more than closely typed 400 pages of the book, Karen comes to the conclusion that people need a god but that god is not the one understood and accepted by the man of faith. The God of the masses was a simple entity like themselves with likes, dislikes, hate, envy, benevolence and punishment.

It looks like from Karen's treatise that god is construct of mind of thinking people under given historical times/periods. Those who wield political power used and misused the then prevailing ideas of god to subjugate people as well to expand their dominions. All of history witnessed the fight between people and nations professing different ideas of their gods. However, Karen did not dwell deeper into the phenomena. She pointedly skipped thru them the crusades, witch-hunts, anti-Semitism and religious wars. She gives more space to individual emanations or revelations that formed cults and formations from time to time. The theological literatures were created, to show that the idea of god is not something uniform. The god is not an objective entity coming out of logical arguments but a closed and subjective experience.

She gives more importance to Sufism and Mysticism, contemplation and devotion i.e. Dhyan & Bhakti in Indian term. There is an emphasis on the need for guidance from a teacher i.e. guru to initiate to the mystic ways. She introduced some of them revealing in trance. I think we do have such men and women in past as well as today in India. The Bhakti saints in Tamil and Hindi, Bengali Ram & Krishna bhaktas were experiencing a kind of divine presence chaitanya danced all the way from Bengal to Vrindavan, Meera sang and danced thru Rajasthan. The author of Geeta Govindam, Shri. Jayadeva and his wife Padmavati danced through forests, villages and cities of Orissa. All such saints had and still have followers. But they are not the dominant trend in Hindu communities. They are occasional. The predominant trend in all religious communities is that of a domesticated god. A god at home to pray to complain to grieve and console. Contemplation is a rare. Communal religious observations are the norm. Karen touched upon none of these in her book. Ofcourse her book is not about the Hindu gods or anything Indian. The entire contents of this book is on the subject how some few men invented, constructed and sold a god of their need that the mass lay persons accepted and followed. There were changes even contradictory that came about in certain historical circumstances. Since, no ideas and constructors could be held fixed and permanent so the concept of god even & of changing back and forth. There were movements that gripped sections of society at times and packed thru times. Only the personalized gods carrying the contradictory characteristics continued to be acceptable. Personalized gods carried hate & revenge. At the end of her treatise, Karen deplores the manifestation of fundamentalism during the current decade. This god is abhorrent and detestable and she declares herself against such a god. She advocates a universal god of love and compassion. She has no road map for that. Her universal god seems to be multi cultural and multi ethnic. I fear that any multi cultural god will invite new conflicts. Let us admit that at much of international conferences on religious amity the various religions, leaders accept oneness of the teachings of all religions but no one of their followers practice any such precepts. Each of the religions wishes and wants to be dominant universally above all others. If religious teachings are of universal value and complementary why not we consciously try and evolve some universal practices as part of religious functions and festivals. Karen seems to think that god has something to do with ethics and morality meaning there by that there are unchanging ethical and moral rules given not by human experience but by god. This is mis-leading and denial of god and religion will not result in chaotic or anarchic society. 4000 years of god did not bring a just society neither it brought love among humans.

In the 4000 year of its history the idea of god though conceptualized to bring order and harmony in society, in fact brought disharmony, hate, conflicts, murders and assassinations all thru Karen Armstrong recognizes all these still she hopes idea of god as benevolent and compassionate fascinates her. She also approves the concept of god as contemplated by Yogis, mystics and Sufis. She does not venture into an alternative way of living without any god or religion. Living beings except humans have not professed any religion. Still there is an order in their living when the order is upset for whatsoever reason or cause the specie die out or get mutated to survive. Humans need not assumes to have any special role bestowed by god. Just because the idea is too ancient doest not mean that is real. More ancients died out

Review By:

K.N. Krishnan