Is Karen Armstrong right about the change in religious belief?

Former nun and religious scholar Karen Armstrong has written a number of books about the history of Western religions. She claims that in the 17th century there was a major change in the nature of religious belief. Here is a link to a site that gives a fairly good summary of her beliefs.

In particular, consider the statement that “God is not a a Being but Being itself” Is that what people used to believe, which I interpret as God being a metaphor. She claims that it is only recently that people have said that the Bible should be taken literally. She says that religious wars always had political motivations inseparable from religious ones. A number of people, with widely different religious beliefs and non-beliefs, have questioned the accuracy of her point of view. Richard Dawkins has said that Armstrong is an atheist who refuses to admit it. Check the quotation at the end of this link What do you think?