Books written by Karen Armstrong

Muhammad

During a lull in the disastrous Fifth Crusade (1218-19), Francis of Assisi appeared in the Christian camp in the Nile delta, crossed the enemy lines and asked to be taken to the Sultan al-Kamil. He is said to have spent three days with ...
Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths

In the Eden story, we can see what the divine meant for the Israelite worshippers in Solomon's Temple. As in all the myths of the lost paradise, Eden was a place where there had been easy access to the heavenly world.
The Case for God

The Eden story is certainly not a morality tale; like any paradise myth, it is an imaginary account of the infancy of the human race. In Eden, Adam and Eve are still in the womb; they have to grow up, and the snake is there to guide ...
In the Beginning: A New Interpretation of Genesis

in the womb forever; they have to be ejected from Eden and become separate individuals, forced to make their own way in an alien world. After their sin, we watch Adam and Eve behaving like children or young adolescents, unable to cope ...
Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence

Countering the atheist claim that believers are by default violent fanatics and religion is the cause of all major wars, this book demonstrates that religious faith is not inherently violent.
Angel Eyes: Releasing Fears and Following Your Soul Path

Had I been more experienced, I would have had her land on earth to a physical body. There were so many things to learn! When it was my turn, I was nervous but ready to experience anything. I did ask if the wolf I saw the night before ...
The Case for God

As the nineteenth century drew to a close, the British poet and nowelist Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) poignantly expressed the modern predicament. In “The Darkling Thrush,” dated December 31, 1900, he expressed the bleak desolation of the ...
The Lost Art of Scripture

For most of their history, the world's religious traditions have regarded these texts as tools for the individual to connect with the divine, to transcend their physical existence, and to experience a higher level of consciousness that ...
Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life

Karen Armstrong explains how to practise the religion of compassion that her last books have preached.
St Paul: The Misunderstood Apostle

A fascinating account of the life of St Paul, by the world's foremost religious historian. 'Karen Armstrong is a genius' - A. N. Wilson
Through the Narrow Gate: A Memoir of Spiritual Discovery

Harry the Hedgehog till they both got heartily sick of it . But it was no use offering me anything else . My mother thought the book was morbid and quietly disposed of it . I noticed its absence and guessed what had happened .
A Short History of Myth (Myths series)

5' Thokhild Jacobsen, 'The Cosmos as State' in H. and H.A. Frankfort (eds), The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man, An Essay on Speculative Thought in the Ancient .\lear East (Chicago, 1946), 186-197. 5' Ibid., 169.
St. Paul: The Apostle We Love to Hate

17 Warren Carter, “Construction of Violence and Identities in Matthew's Gospel,” in Shelly Matthews and E. Leigh Gibson, ... Luke 11:2–4, as translated in Stephen J. Patterson, The Lost Way: How Two Forgotten Gospels Are Rewriting the ...
The Lost Art of Scripture: Rescuing the Sacred Text

For most of their history, the world's religious traditions have regarded these texts as tools for the individual to connect with the divine, to transcend their physical existence, and to experience a higher level of consciousness that ...
Una historia de Dios: 4000 años de búsqueda en el judaísmo, el cristianismo y el islam

4000 años de búsqueda en el judaísmo, el cristianismo y el islam Karen Armstrong. El imperio islámico hacia el año 750 liva Toled Bujata Tabriz Merv Samarcanda Aran Bali Keruing Alepo.
Plädoyer für Gott

Anders als im Mittleren Osten üblich war dies eine gewaltfreie Kosmologie . Es gab kein Kämpfen und kein Töten . Die Israeliten waren Opfer eines entsetzlichen Angriffs geworden : Zerstörung ihrer heiligen Stadt , Verwüstung ihrer ...
La gran transformación: Los orígenes de nuestras tradiciones religiosas.

Como siempre , tengo una enorme deuda de gratitud con el equipo de producción de Knopf , cuya pasión por la precisión y la elegancia resulta indispensable : Chuck Antony ( corrector de estilo ) , Patrice Silverstein y Chuck Thompson ...
Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence

Karen Armstrong, former Roman Catholic nun and one of our foremost scholars of religion, speaks out to disprove the link between religion and bloodshed. * Religion is as old as humanity: Fields of Blood goes back to the Stone Age hunter ...
Buddha

A portrait of the Buddha explores his identities both as an archetypal religious icon and as a man, chronicling his journey from his decision to leave a life of ease and power to his attainment of spiritual enlightenment.
Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence

Informed by Armstrong's sweeping erudition and personal commitment to the promotion of compassion, Fields of Blood makes vividly clear that religion is not the problem.