Customer Reviews
Like a poor school text book - By: Tom Knoop, 03 Jan 2008 
The authors of this book are Christians, & it assumes that there is a God. The style & presentation to me were like a poor school textbook: plenty of colourful pictures (some completely irrelevant) & use of repetitive bullet points. It takes as its starting point the ideas about God proposed by Plato & Aristotle, & goes on to discuss the history of Christian thought about God since then, including points raised by theologians & philosophers. Brief mention is made of other religions.
Towards the end of the book there is some discussion about the impact of science on religious beliefs about God, however it would appear that the authors do not understand some of the science that they are attempting to discuss. They seem to be particularly dismissive of & derogatory about the work of the biologist & writer Richard Dawkins.
I only read this book because a loved one gave it to me as a Christmas present, thinking that I should read something about the history of Christians' thinking about God. I am glad I read it, because it confirmed my views about this topic!
Incidentally the Peter Vardy who is the co-author of this book is a different person from the Peter Vardy behind the Emmanuel Schools Foundation, a group that has been operating schoolsin Britain according to fundamentalist Christian ideals including creationism.
Well worth getting - By: Donaldo, 15 May 2007 
Firstly, the good points. This is as accessible a work as I have ever read about philosophy & theology. Difficult concepts are very well explained & demonstrated, & theories linked together. I consider myself reasonably well read, but until I read this book there was many philosophical concepts I barely understood, & some I was entirely ignorant of. It covers the full spectrum of issues surrounding the idea of God - What do we mean by `God', arguments for/against existence, his attributes, effects of scientific discovery on our understanding of God, miracles & spirituality, etc. In short, it's pretty comprehensive. Had Richard Dawkins read a couple of small chaptersin this book, he could have saved his blushes on a few occasions. Conversely, I doubt many churchgoers are aware 10% of what isin this book. In fact, you could probably say that about 99% of all people are completely unaware of even some of the basic concepts notedin this book (though that hasn't stopped people having strong opinions on them!). Considering this largely ignored subject area, the writers do an excellent job or explaining most of the issuesin a clear & memorable fashion.
Onto the bad points. Though occasionally Islam, Buddhism, Judaism & a couple of other religions are mentioned throughout the book, it's mostly about Christianity. I would personally liked a little more about the other religions. A couple of the chapters are pretty mind numbing, though this may well be because some of the issues are so dry that even the best explanations cannot shed any light on them. The chapter on the Attributes of God for example, is so dull I couldn't stop myself skimming over it. Maybe it is simply impossible, however, to have an interesting discussion on the subject.
I think if you are interestedin the subject, & are looking for a place to start, I can't think of a better book to introduce you to the relevant issues better than this one
Does what it says on the cover - By: Dr. Nicholas P. G. Davies, 03 Aug 2006 A superb concise introductory tour of our concepts of God & how they have changed over time.
Well written, well illustrated, well produced. A book that will make you think about what version of God you believe or disbelieve in. Believer or not, you will discover that there's still a lot more to discover.
