Moving from the Paleolithic age to the present, Karen Armstrong details the great lengths to which humankind has gone in order to experience a sacred reality. While noting that the changing face of the world has necessarily changed the importance of religion at both the societal and the individual level, she makes a powerful, convincing argument for drawing on the insights of the past in order to build a faith that speaks to the needs of our dangerously polarized age.

PT. 1 The unknown God (30,000 BCE to 1500 CE): Homo religiosus -- God -- Reason -- Faith -- Silence -- Faith and reason -- PT. 2 The modern God (1500 CD to the present): Science and religion -- Scientific religion -- Enlightenment -- Atheism -- Unknowing -- Death of God?