About this title: This erudite and thought-provoking book is an excellent introduction to three major religious faiths--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam--and their differing views of God, as well as the way these views have shaped the world. Karen Armstrong's personal history includes time spent as a nun in her homeland of England; this fact makes her comparative ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books, New York
Date Published: 1994
ISBN-13:9780345384560ISBN:0345384563
Description: Very Good- 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. First printing of this trade paperback edition. Faint reading creases. Two small surface stains on the foredges. Ownership information on the inside of the front cover. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 1994
ISBN-13:9780345384560ISBN:0345384563
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Cover has a little wear. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 496 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: Reprint.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books, New York
Date Published: 1994
ISBN-13:9780345384560ISBN:0345384563
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 496 p. Audience: General/trade. Beautiful near-mint condition. No marks, handwriting, bookplates, etc. inside. Very slight wear to covers. read more
Description: Good. Used-Good. Softcover Ed May contain highlighting/underlining/notes/etc. May have used stickers on cover. Ships same or next day. Expedited shipping takes 2-3 business days; standard shipping takes 4-14 business days. read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Gramercy
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780517223123ISBN:0517223120
Description: Good in Good jacket. DUST JACKET WORN AS IT HAS SERVED IT'S PURPOSE AND PROTECTED THE BOOK, Clean, nice condition, good reading copy. read more
Description: Good. Dust Cover Missing. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. As issued No Jacket. Spine lean, corner bumps, front cover curls up, long scratch across front cover, several blocks of pages in middle of book were creased from a bump, reading crease along spine of edge of front cover, and other moderate to heavy shopwear. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books, New York, NY, USA
Date Published: 1994
ISBN-13:9780345384560ISBN:0345384563
Description: GOOD. NOT ex-library. NO writing or highlighting but quite a few pages have bottom corners accidentally folded down together. Cover has a crease across the front, along with minor edge rubbing; no tears. No spine creases or previous owner names. 050309gs. read more
"Karen Armstrong has no background in history nor in the academic study of religion, and it shows. This book's approach to the three Abrahamic religions is overly simplistic, presenting only Armstrong's often-erroneous views of these three prominent religions with almost no grounding in historical fact. She picks and chooses which sources to cite in accordance with her own biases and agenda, and it is clear that however much distance she might put between her life as a nun and her life as an armchair historian, she will never be able to escape her Catholic origins. Books like this are part of the reason why so many non-academics have such a poor understanding of the history of religion in the world, and do little more than contribute to the cloud of misinformation which surrounds the field."
"Armstrong, a former Catholic nun, traces the histories of Christ, Yahweh, and Allah from their common roots to the present, taking brief excursions along the way to explore some of the more interesting and eccentirc sects that have sprung up and usually been exterminated with extreme prejudice along the way. She points out, for example, that all three trace their claims of Truth back to a single man, Abraham, who believed in a god named El, who is none of the three major monotheistic deities of the west. Oh, and while Abraham did worship a single god, he believed in many gods. Kabbalah, Gnosticism, Catherism, Sufism, and others are explored. Armstrong does a particularly good job in my opinion of distilling complex theological principles into succinct, easy to understand language without demeaning or simplifying the complexity of issues like the nature of faith, the mysteries of trinity, the Council of Nicaea, the process of biblical redaction, the particularities of Orthodox iconography, and the subtle differences between canonical and liturgical traditons. A very good read."
"Armstrong's book is an example of a great, historic account of an important and ongoing phenomenon: the belief in God. In this book, she focuses on the Judaic god and the relationship of that god to Christianity and Islam. Going far beyond the obvious connections of these religions, Armstrong offers the reader and in depth study of religious belief itself and its connotations to human society. Her writing is lucid, and with wonderful British wit (easily missed at times) she methodically lays out the ideas of god and religious belief in general.
Over and beyond the god of the Judaic religions, she also offers wonderful and fully developed religious concepts such as mysticism and spiritualism, both historic and modern. Furthermore, her book discusses such historical periods as the Enlightement and Reformation, studying how those periods transformed ideas about god. She ends the book by presenting a very pertinent question: does god have a future. Her answer I will not give away here, but I will say it is insightful, truthful in the historically religious sense, if not even a bit hopeful in a very human sense.
"One of the most informative, relevant, and fascinating books I've ever read. It was by no means an easy read. But for the amount of education you get out of it, the read is well worth it.
The author traces the history of monotheism (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) and shows not only their interconnectedness, but also their literal unity. The detail in the exploration of the history of monotheism was indeed comprehensive - but also appropriate as it shows how religion has developed from era to era and how there is absolutely no universal truth or standard even within those sects. Instead they bend and change based on the needs of the people and those who have power over them.
It was a remarkably well-balanced and informative book that all religious people should read.
There are few among us that would pick up a book of Shakespeare and just start reading it for enjoyment - those 500year old writings are incredibly difficult for us to understand because the language and culture has changed since their writing, so we know you should look up some background or cliff notes or something to help us understand the ideas of context of what we read. And it's only all the more true with the religious books that are much older and have the added barrier of the translaters' bias and agendas - it is irresponsible to read old spiritual books without reading about the history, translation, and context of those books. Karen Armstrong does us all a favor by making a single volume that it is so useful for exactly that purpose."
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