God, monotheism and the rest of it

Last year I read Karen Armstrong's Battle for God. Basically it's a history of fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. I was impressed by her ability to describe complex histories and theological concepts using only plain language. I'd strongly recommend having a read of it as it's a good source of history and information on the development of these faiths. My copy is full of post-it notes. I just saw the documentary of her book History of God. While it's generally not bad, it's not particularly informative. Perhaps the book is more detailed. However what really surprised me was that it was really only about the development of God under Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Even then, the information wasn't really grounded in established fact and historical and archeological evidence but was rather a loose anthropological excerise. There's nothing wrong with that if your purpose is to produce a television documenary that leaves you with a warm, fuzzy feeling. But surely people ought to be given more detail. And not just about these three major faiths but other religions too.

To be honest, I think the three 'major' monotheisms get far too much air time. It's as if no other religious traditions exist. Moreover, the documentary treated pagan and polytheistic religions as precursors to monotheism, thereby implying that they are somehow less developed or sophisticated. Economically and geopolitically the world map may not be drawn up on the basis of adherence to one of the monotheistic religions. East Asia is an economic power house even though most of its peoples are not monotheists. However, I think there's a danger of relegating a lot of very useful and interesting thinking because it doesn't conform to the monotheistic template. For years, once becoming an atheist, I enjoyed reading the Tao Te Jing. It's so wonderfully ambiguous and paradoxical and poetic that it gives the reader the freedom to make of it what he or she feels. I think that is how most people, even monotheists, operate; especially when left to their own devices. Maybe we ought to celebrate that more.

Living in Jerusalem this past week and a bit has certainly confirmed the bankruptcy of organised religion. As much as religion has the capacity for beauty, surely the greatest beauty rests in the personal expressions not the grand public spectacles? But perhaps, being something of a loner, I'm a little biased on this point.

[A woman celebrating Orthodox Easter with the flame that symbolises Christ.]