"The Case for God"
by Karen Armstrong
The Bodley Head
376 pp 2009
“I don’t believe in God” said the student to the bishop
“Indeed” said the bishop “pray, tell me about this God” so the student did.
“No, I don’t believe in him either” said the bishop.
This tale may be apocryphal, but it makes the point that popular ideas of God, especially those held by professed atheists, can be very different from those held by many within the church. Such divergence of views perhaps first came to public attention in the controversy over the book “Honest to God” by John Robinson, Bishop of Woolwich, published in 1953. The book was not a ground-breaking treatise on theology but an attempt for the first time to put contemporary theological thinking into a popular book for the layman. To traditionalists it was little short of heresy, to others it was a welcome breath of theological fresh air. Since then much has been written on the subjects of God, faith and religion and Karen Armstrong in this book makes a bold attempt to discuss them for the non-theologian under her subtitle “What religion really means”.
The main title might lead one to expect an exposition on traditional lines of the so called ‘proofs’ for the existence of God, but on the contrary she goes to some lengths to explain why such a quest is futile. She goes on to argue that in modern times words such as ‘faith’ and ‘belief’ have been so altered that they now have meanings our ancestors would have found extraordinary and herein lies the problem. Religion and science have been put at odds with each other and the underlying concept of God has become incredible to many in this age of scientific rationalism.
Is this inevitable? Is there another way? In a wide ranging survey, drawing on past thinkers from many backgrounds, Karen Armstrong finds the basis for an understanding of God and faith which accords with tradition but will speak unapologetically to the modern age. I could not begin to summarise it here; the book is not an easy read, and one should perhaps say it is aimed at a more determined reader (perhaps I should say doubter) than “Honest to God” but it will amply repay the effort, even if one only dips into some of the key chapters.
David Tidy