One is The Histofy of God by Karen Armstrong. She looks through the history of the Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) and finds a recurring theme in all three that was lost over the years of transliterations and mistranslations. It’s a pretty dense read.
The other book, I am almost ashamed to admit, is The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. Yes, The Da Vinci Code guy. Let me state without equivocation, he knows how to craft a page turner, and he does his homework – even if from some less than reliable sources. This book is closer in tone to his first Robert Langdon book, Angels & Demons (which was the best book of the three) in that it attempts to bridge the gap between science and religion. That’s all I’ll say – no more spoilers.
What these two books have in common is that they both emphasize that there is no boundary between sacred and secular. The academic Armstrong asserts that God is a construct that created from and by human understanding, and shaped by human experience. When we all pray to God, we are in essence praying a particular understanding of God that is unique to this time and place.
To elaborate on The Lost Symbol would give too much of the book away, but suffice it to say, he would approve of the above statement, although he would say it doesn’t go far enough. That’s all I’ll say for now. Read the book, it came out yesterday.
