Summary | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Reviews | Beyond the Book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Mar 2006, 496 pages
Paperback:
Apr 2007, 560 pages
Book Reviewed by:
BookBrowse Review Team
Buy This Book
This article relates to The Great Transformation
Karen Armstrong spent seven
years as a nun in the
Catholic
Society of the
Holy Child Jesus
during the 1960s
and later wrote
a tell-all book,
Through the
Narrow Gate
(1982) that
bemoaned the
restrictive
life.
She teaches
Christianity at
London's Leo
Baeck College
for the Study of
Judaism. It was
her first trip
to Jerusalem in
1983 that piqued
her interest in
commonality
among faiths. At
the time she was
an atheist who
was "wearied" by
religion and
"worn out by
years of
struggle;" but
the trip gave
her back "a
sense of what
faith is all
about."
Her books
include A
History of God
(1993),
Jerusalem: One
City, Three
Faiths
(1996) and
The Battle for
God (2000).
Continue bio at
BookBrowse.....
Also of
interest:
A
30 minute NPR
radio interview
(New York Public
Radio, 30 mins).
Select quotes
from this
interview:
"Too many
religious people
want to be right
not
compassionate."
"The practice of
compassion is
religion."
"Religion is
designed not to
answer our
questions but to
help us to ask
them and to hold
us in an
attitude of awe
and wonder ... a lot of
science does
that too."
Did you know? The term Axial Age was coined in 1948 by German philosopher Karl Jaspers to describe the approximate 600 year period from around 800 BC during which the foundations of the world's great religions was laid.
This "beyond the book article" relates to The Great Transformation. It originally ran in May 2006 and has been updated for the
April 2007 paperback edition.
Go to magazine.
The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson
From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
