Having read five of Karen Armstrong's previous books on the history of religion, I turned to her latest book with eager anticipation. As the forensic title suggests, she was clearly provoked into writing it by the brilliantly presented but in content careless and ignorant dismissal of all forms of religion by the group of writers who may be grouped together as the 'New Atheists', or even as 'fundamentalist atheists', a group led by the scientist, Richard Dawkins who present religion not only as mistaken but as positively evil and the cause for all violence in the history of the world.

 What she contributes to the debate is her deep understanding of the history of religion, both theist and non-theist, while others, notably Alister McGrath, have concentrated on the logic of the arguments, and Tina Beattie has contributed a feminist perspective. She builds her case gradually and with typical thoroughness so that it is not until the final chapter (apart from the Introduction) that her protagonists are mentioned by name. Those that are now weary of the debate do not need to fear that her book is a mere repetition of stale arguments. There is plenty of substance to read and much that is new material even for those who have read her other books, although, of course, she incorporates her earlier research. The book is of value even if Richard Dawkins and his supporters had never engaged in their anti-religion campaign.

 She begins this book in the caves of Lascaux in the Palaeolithic period and deals with each aspect of developing theology as it crops up in her historical account. Original Sin, for instance, is first mentioned early in her book in her section on the Creation story although this interpretation of the Adam and Eve story was not devised until the early 5th. century C.E. and was never adopted by either the Jewish or Eastern Orthodox faiths. The rest of the chapter on the development of the theist concept of God suffers, perhaps, from being a very condensed and therefore potentially indigestible version of the history that is easier to read in its originally more expansive treatment in her 'History of God' and 'History of the Bible'. The non-Biblical scholar may find it easier to absorb in later chapters her condensed versions of her work on Greek thought and of her work on Islam and on later mystic and doctrinal developments in Christianity.

 Tracing the history of religion from the earliest days of humanity she gradually builds her case for a more nuanced and well-informed understanding of the concept of God and of the sacred books of the faiths than Richard Dawkins and his supporters seem able or willing to take into account. She demonstrates how their case rests upon opposition to a particular and recent form of fundamentalist religion of which their 'hard-line form of scientific naturalism' can be seen as a mirror image. Unlike earlier atheistic thinkers they are not theologically literate but seem to be unaware - both of the long tradition of symbolic interpretation of the scriptures and of the work of more recent religious thinkers and scholars.

 She returns to one of the dominant themes of her earlier books, the importance of the distinction between the function of human reason or 'logos' in providing factual information about the world and the function of the creative imagination and symbolism in the arts and in religion that explores the meaning of that world and of human experience. She argues for an understanding of God that is not intended to be a scientific hypothesis but is an exploration of meaning that can be understood only by the practice of spiritual discipline and living a way of life rather than through speculative reasoning. Her emphasis on the central importance to all religions of a compassionate life-style leads her to an increasing interest in the relationship between all the world faiths, exemplified in the organisation 'Charter for compassion' with whose web-site (www.charterforcompassion.com) she has recently become associated.

 Her Catholic background tends to limit her perception of the significance of late twentieth century developments in Protestant thought to the U.S.A. omitting, for instance, the impact in Britain of the later writing of Dietrich Bonhoeffer popularised by John Robinson's book 'Honest to God'. However, that same Catholic background enables her greater appreciation of the communal and liturgical nature of religious faith that is worth greater attention in Protestant thinking.

 To sum up, Karen Armstrong brings together in this book the formidable and wide-ranging scholarship that has underpinned each of her earlier books and uses it to create her Case for God while emphasising that understanding is in the end accessible more by the practice of a spiritual discipline and way of life than by mere thought.