One of NRO's Corner's bloggers, I can't remember who, expressed dismay with Karen Armstrong's chracterization of Muhammed's relations with the Jews, and the resulting distrust of her scholarship.

He's right.

I was browsing in the neighborhood used book store, and found a copy of In The Beginning, her interpretation of Genesis. Leaving aside her theological credentials for the moment, the thing was hostile, hostile, hostile. I read through her section on Noah, and she does note that Noah barely protests the destructions of Earth, in comparison to Abraham's pleading on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah. So far, ok. Then this gem: "...it seems that even God does not yet fully comprehend the nature of human goodness." God is assuaged by the smell of Noah's sacrifice, not the sentiments that sacrifice represents. And to those who would defend God, she claims that God's destruction of almost all human life makes it easier to defend human kings who've tried the same thing.

Look, I'm not claiming she's utterly and completely off-base here. But rather than making these questions, something that might yield useful and insightful answers, she's content to diminish God. Such childishness and ignorance does not recommend her as the expert on the West's religions that she claims to be.