“The Story of How We've Imagined God, From Cave Paintings to Quantum Mysticism”
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Title: A History of God
Author: Karen Armstrong
Category: World History, Faith, Spirituality & Meaning
Did you know that for most of human history, nobody actually believed in a single supreme deity? Sam and Sophie open with that provocative idea from Karen Armstrong's sweeping history, and it only gets wilder from there.
They trace the divine from the cave paintings at Lascaux, where God was everywhere and nowhere, through the capricious gods of Mesopotamia and Egypt, to the Axial Age when prophets like Isaiah redefined God as a moral force. Along the way, they unpack the contradictions of the biblical God, the political power struggles at Nicaea and Chalcedon, the rise of Islam's absolute tawhid, and the mystics—Kabbalah, Sufis, Meister Eckhart—who knew that rational concepts always fall short.
If you've ever wondered how our image of God has changed over time, or why the mystics might have had it right all along, this episode is for you. The takeaway: the experience of transcendence is universal, but our interpretations are shaped by culture and history—and we're not stuck with any one image.
A History of God by Karen Armstrong. If you want the full written summary, the whole library is on 7minutebooks.com/app—over 6,000+ titles you can read or listen to in any language, with infographics on many. Unlimited access from $2.99 a month, $9.99 a year, or $19.99 lifetime.
Chapters
00:00The Divine Before Monotheism01:36The Axial Age And The Prophets02:36Exile, Jesus, And The Church Councils03:56Islam And The Mystics04:48Modern Challenges And The Takeaway
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