God: A Brief History [Hardcover]

John Bowker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2002

Not just in words, but in art, dance, music and silence -- this book is the perfect overview for viewing divinity from every perspective. The history of God cannot possibly be told. How can you write the history of One who is outside time and space, and who has no beginning and no end? Nevertheless, the desire to understand and experience the divine is a fundamental human need. For billions of people, through many millennia, the quest to answer the basic questions of existence -- Why are we born? What will happen to us when we die? and how should we live out lives? -- has become a search for God. A Brief History of God explores the myriad ways in which humans have sought connection to the divine from the dawn of history to the present -- not just through religion and philosophy, but in art and literature, in music and dance, and in science.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Having already written a lushly illustrated overview of the beliefs and practices of the world's religions (World Religions, also from DK), Bowker turns his attention to God and produces a book chock-full of facts, stories, legends and illustrations about the ways that religious traditions have developed their beliefs in God. Bowker first examines the ideas of Nietzsche, Feuerbach, Freud and others to demonstrate that all individuals and societies grapple with the meaning of God. In roughly chronological order, Bowker surveys the history of belief in God in animistic religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Chinese religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. He explores various aspects of this belief, such as the meaning of dharma, the concept of wisdom and the nature of pilgrimage. Yet Bowker's book contains numerous problems. First, he never explains what he means by God. Is God the same as the Sacred or the Divine? Without a clearer explanation, many of the religions that he examines Buddhism, for example cannot be said to have a God. Second, does God indeed have a history? That implies that God would have had a beginning and will have an end, which runs counter to the notion that God is eternal and ahistorical. Third, because he does not provide a clear definition of God, Bowker levels the differences among the world's religions so that it appears that the God of Judaism is the same as the God of Hinduism. At best, Bowker provides a superficial overview of the history of belief in God for the "religion lite" crowd.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The former dean of Trinity College, Cambridge University now at Gresham College, Bowker (The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions) quotes a poem by R.S. Thomas to explain the purpose of his book: "the better ventilating of the atmosphere of the closed mind." Throughout, he opens doors to many spiritual and religious traditions, describing ways in which people "have made their own discoveries of God and have developed and changed our understanding of who and what God is, and of how God became real to them." The result is a fascinating, all-purpose book, beautifully illustrated in the DK manner. After the introductory material, the text is divided into sections on the religions of India, the religions of other Asian countries, and the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). With articles like "Jihad and Martyrdom," "Temples of India," "From Tagore to Gandhi," "Sex and Tantra," "Kabbalah," "Thealogy (feminist theology)," and "Celtic Christianity," the range is obviously wide. The maps, time lines, and comprehensive index are also helpful, and readers are encouraged to explore further with the help of a very good bibliography. Though similar information can be found in many introductory books on world religions, including the more traditional The Cambridge Illustrated History of Religions (edited by Bowker; see review below), this work lends itself more to pleasure reading than reference and will appeal to the casual reader interested in the variety of colorful religious rituals and symbols presented here. Highly recommended for high school and public libraries as well as undergraduate collections in academic libraries. Gary P. Gillum, Brigham Young Univ., Provo, UT
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: DK ADULT; 1st edition (May 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789480506
• ISBN-13: 978-0789480507
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #624,157 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A HISTORY of the HUMAN SEARCH, February 6, 2003

By 

Rebecca Johnson "The Rebecca Review" (Washington State) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: God: A Brief History (Hardcover)

This is not really a "history of God." It is more a "history" of the "human search" for God. Big difference. This book is about what God means to people in every generation and in every part of the world who have deepened and extended their knowledge of who God is. This is not a comprehensive history of all that has been thought and believed, it is more an understanding of who and what God is to humans around the globe.

This book explores the ways in which a belief in God began and how it has developed in the major religious traditions of the world. If you believe there is only one true God, you are going to have some problems with the way God is presented in this book. There is even an argument for atheism and a section on the positive role of witches.

This book is really not just about God, it is about a wide variety of topics including ritual, myth, music, science, art, sacrifice, architecture, The religions of India, Asia, Abraham and "In the End." Since many religions have their own dating systems, the dates in this book are given according to the western calendar.

This is really a brief overview of all the religions in the world.

"The claim is sometimes made that belief in God is like belief in fairies or Father Christmas: we may believe in such things when young but grown out of them when we are older and wiser. Phenomenology at the second level shows why that claim is wrong."

I enjoyed the section on Rumi because I've read some of his poetry and now I understand what a sulfi is. Apparently is it a man or woman with a broken heart. Someone who is always sensitive to the heartbreak of the world and who is always sensitive to Divine Beauty. Once the heart breaks open, it goes on breaking forever and there is beauty and majesty and agony in the experience.

"I was snow. I melted in you rays. The earth drank me: mist now, and pure spirit,I climb back to the sun."

A fascinating book on the human search for God.

~The Rebecca Review

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wrong title, wrong theme, wrong evidence, July 12, 2005

By 

Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: God: A Brief History (Hardcover)

The monotheists, finally compelled to curtail their militant approach to conversion, have turned to new methods. Some of these are almost intellectual. Bowker's approach is deft. He simply lists as many gods as he can find evidence for, then insists they are simply expressions of the one he favours. That's "God", of course - the enduring monotheist [and in this case, decidedly "Christian"] version of one of the thousands of deities humanity has invented over the centuries. There are, of course, creative deities, vicious deities, loving deities and hosts of those with specialised roles. Bowker's theme isn't new. Unlike some of his fellows using this approach, he simply ignores the "personality" disparities among the gods. There's only the one, he assumes, then goes on to list - and lavishly illustrate - personifications that carry cognomens that at least provide some identity.

Bowker lines up his gods in a grand geographical and chronological sequence. There are Indian gods, Chinese and Japanese spiritual beings and any others he can adduce. The "pagan" sprites are ignored, presumably since they didn't generate sophisticated artistic representation to warrant inclusion. Shamans in the Amazon could set him straight on this, but it's hard to see Bowker tramping the rain forest to garner "uncivilized" insights. All those peoples [and their deities] he catalogues, presenting brief histories and pictorial examples. In the end, in each case, however, they are all boiled down to his single deity. Olympian jealousies, forces contending for human support, power struggles on Earth and in the skies become no more than way stations in the realisation that all nothing more than temporary manifestations of this deity's struggle for identity. Various personality quirks expressed by these gods don't give them individuality. There's only the one, devising various methods to control human thinking. And keep them in fear.

Monotheism, as its name implies, is quite simple. Devising a single deity allows the commentator to attribute anything and everything to it. Change, exotic departures from a norm of behaviour or manifestation are simply evidence of the one god's power and desire to cover all the bases. It doesn't occur to Bowker that there can be many gods, all invented by the varieties of humans on the planet. Even his one god took generations to find its footing through the writings of many people. Other gods had to be cast aside in order to grant this one all the necessary powers and attributes it now claims. Such a simple idea has, of course, wide appeal. So long as only the one is given to a populace to accept, its strength grows without hindrance. Questioning any aspect of that existence renders the entire concept vulnerable.

Bowker meets the issue of questioners in stalwart fashion. He cannot deny that there are those who find flaws in the tangled ideas of monotheism. He must give them a voice. He then reduces that voice to a whisper. Where earlier adherents to the god saw its evidence in Nature, the new questioners declared these natural characteristics explainable. There's no "divinity" in the tides, in migrating birds or the violence of thunderstorms. So be it, says Bowker, and moves his deity out of the material realm. The god is displaced to some ethereal state in which it is no longer part of the physical world. It's "not an object", he says, it is "the One". By replacing one capital letter with another, Bowker thinks he's brought the idea up to date. In reality, he's only substituted one dogma with another, even less tangible one. This is a beautiful book to look at, but reading it can only lead to depression. Bowker's theme is artificial, his reasoning can only be labelled specious and his capacity for poor logic almost limitless. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Chaotic, like God?, October 10, 2004

By 

Gary Sprandel (Frankfort, Kentucky) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: God: A Brief History (Hardcover)

This book focuses on the religions of India, Asia, and "The Religions of Abraham" (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). Each religion is discussed with many 2-4 page sections discussing a particular topic, and including a few pictures, and side bars for quotes. This format lends it self well to introducing a diverse set of personages, but it also prevents a smoothly flowing narrative, so at times the book seems to bounce around. The chaotic effect is not without some merit, and if nothing else, you get an appreciation for the breadth of experiences. In the section on India, the introduction of name, upon name of different Gods, becomes overwhelming,

The breadth of the book is impressive, and the inclusion of poetry, throughout was useful. The photos throughout the book are impressive, and almost as much as the text lend an experiential flavor. Sometimes the book tries to be too biographical, rather than emphasizing concepts. Particularly lacking however, was an introduction of African, Native American, and Latin American expressions of God. He does included Buddhism however, which does not really have a clear notion of God.