I really enjoyed this book. It shows that religion isn't as black and white as some people try to make it. Armstrong does a good job of showing that religion and the Bible aren't about providing all of the answers, it's about struggling to find the answers and looking at the struggles of past peoples and their ideas to shed light on what it means to be a person of faith. ( )

I wasn’t very impressed with In the Beginning. It struck me as being basically a collection of Armstrong’s opinions on Genesis. None of the entries were really in depth enough to be of much practical use in either interpreting Genesis or in provoking questions about it. It was a little like reading Cliffs Notes.
While reading it, I got this terrible feeling that her underlying theme is something along the lines of “I don’t really understand it, but I’m sure that it is all right.” The only positive thing I can think of to say about is that it is probably well intentioned. Oh, and including Genesis at the back was very helpful as it kept me from having to juggle two books. ( )