Reviews

I've always viewed many of our problems today as a struggle for whose "Truth" gets to drive decision and policy making. For example, as someone adamantly pro-choice, my thought was always - if you are against abortions - don't have one, both don't prevent women who need to from getting one. My Truth isn't the same as many Christians. I view these matters as Truth vs truths. Armstrong makes the case that matters of religious differences and taking beliefs to the extreme can be better understood through the logos - mythos view. This did help me understand why people need to have their "Truth" triumph over others. I find Karen Armstrong's book informative and fascinating - she is a former nun. Unfortunately, this book further strengthens my belief that organized religions are the source of 95% of our problems, not only today, but through-out history. There is no asterisk after the first commandment that this only applies to other Christians and we would all be better off if we remember that.

nwhyte's review against another edition

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4.0

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1979182.html[return][return]I was really impressed by this historical account of religious fundamentalism (well, of Christian, Jewish and Islamic fundamentalism) over the centuries up to 1999. I have not always been convinced by Armstrong's approach of parallelling changes in different cultures that happened at the same time, but this worked really well for me, disposing breezily with the importance of balancing logos and mythos, tracking the different religions' responses to the Enlightenment and modernisation, and then exploring the parallel rise of hardline fundamentalist reaction in all three traditions during the late twentieth century. For the most recent period, Armstrong also restricts her geographical focus down to the USA for Christianity, Israel for Judaism, and Egypt and Iran for Islam, which means of course that all kinds of interesting material from elsewhere is simply omitted. But those are all fascinating countries, and I found her analyses of the religious politics of Israel and Iran particularly illuminating.[return][return]Writing in 1999, Armstrong thought that fundamentalism was establishing a new equilibrium after a period when it had appeared insurgent and had then suffered a series of defeats in the 1980s and 1990s. I think she would now agree that we have seen a distinct rise in the strength of fundamentalism in all three traditions in the years since. In the last few pages she looks at how the rest of us should deal with fundamentalism. Repression does not work, she points out, and indeed makes these movements stronger; we must remember that they are based on fear and incomprehension. Rather we should challenge fundamentalists on their own ground, on their lack of compassion for their fellow human beings; this is where they miss a crucial core value to all three of the religious traditions. Definitely worth reading if you are interested in understanding the extremists.

lynitab's review against another edition

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5.0

Even though I rated this book amazing, I think a lot of readers will find it somewhat ponderous. This is a historian's book, especially a historian interested in the roots of much of unsettling conflict of values that is rocking our world today. In one way it was relieving and others depressing. Armstrong meticulously traces the rise and fall of fundamentalist thinking over the centuries. In this book she is focusing on the Big Three in the western world, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but I suspect that we could find similar cycles in Far eastern religions, as well. It is fascinating to learn about how all of the big three religions were founded in similar ideas about peace, taking care of the poor, and a sense that the spiritual life and the political life served mankind in different ways. All three became politicized and came under the thrall of those that "reformed" their religions in ways that turned their backs on those founding principals and instead cast religious faith in a fight for survival. All three have significant adherents that live in fear of annihilation by ungodly , relativist, and diverse forces. At the same time, those who are morally offended by the "us and them" slant of fundamentalism have also become entrenched. They see racism, homophobia, misogyny hate and violence when they look at the religious right, and fighting this has become their religion.

Armstrong wrote this book in 2000, but even then she didn't see any resolution to this on-going battle. The only bright side I found was that this battle has been going on for 1,500 years( and she tracks it meticulously) and neither side looks like they will give up. There are some from both sides who are beginning to recognize that the best we can hope for is that we find a way to co-exist, rather than destroy each other.

labinsky's review against another edition

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3.0

i love karen armstrong, but what i love about karen armstrong doesn't come through in this book, even if her thesis is really strong and well articulated. the book is dense, so dense that this book took me three years of picking up and putting down to read. i have a degree in religious studies, i find most of karen armstrong's work to be page turners, but not this one. while i agree with her overall thesis and her reassertment against the secularity theory in her post-9/11 preface, the book is painted as a history of fundamentalism when in fact it is an analysis of case studies in fundamentalism, cherry-picked to epitomize her argument, that follows a historical timeline, becoming more and more narrow in scope as the book continues. the fact that the book focuses only on iran, egypt, israel, and the united states once it progresses past the 17th century leaves a lot to be desired in understanding the role of fundamentalism in our modern world. while interesting, this is definitely not her strongest book.

mickymac's review against another edition

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5.0

Excellent study of fundamentalism that adress the link between this ultraconservatism and modernity. the bckground to muslimfundamnetalism adds sognficnantly to our knowledge and hopefully understanding of this driver of politics.

wellgollygee's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

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