Books & Bibles
Entertainment
Fashion & Jewelry
Gifts & Giving
Home Decor & Accents
Kitchen & Gourmet
Beauty & Health
Specialty Stores
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Battle For God
| Our Price |
$ 22.00
|
|
| Retail Value |
$ 25.00 |
|
| You Save |
$ 3.00 (12%) |
|
| Item Number |
151010 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Item Description...
Outline Review
About 40 years ago popular opinion assumed that religion would become a weaker force and people would certainly become less zealous as the world became more modern and morals more relaxed. But the opposite has proven true, according to theologian and author Karen Armstrong (A History of God), who documents how fundamentalism has taken root and grown in many of the world's major religions, such as Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Even Buddhism, Sikhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism have developed fundamentalist factions. Reacting to a technologically driven world with liberal Western values, fundamentalists have not only increased in numbers, they have become more desperate, claims Armstrong, who points to the Oklahoma City bombing, violent anti-abortion crusades, and the assassination of President Yitzak Rabin as evidence of dangerous extremes. Yet she also acknowledges the irony of how fundamentalism and Western materialism seem to urge each other on to greater excesses. To "prevent an escalation of the conflict, we must try and understand the pain and perception of the other side," she pleads. With her gift for clear, engaging writing and her integrity as a thorough researcher, Armstrong delivers a powerful discussion of a globally heated issue. Part history lesson, part wake-up call, and mostly a plea for healing, Armstrong's writing continues to offer a religious mirror and a cultural vision. --Gail Hudson
Product Description
Fundamentalism has emerged as one of the most powerful forces at work in the world. However, it remains incomprehensible to large numbers of people. In The Battle for God, Karen Armstrong brilliantly and sympathetically shows us how and why fundamentalist groups came into existence and what they yearn to accomplish. Focusing on Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim fundamentalism, she examines the ways in which these movements, while not monolithic, have each sprung from a dread of modernity -- and often in response to assault, sometimes unwitting, sometimes intentional, by the mainstream society. Armstrong sees the fundamentalist groups as complex, innovative and modern -- rather than throwbacks to the past -- but contends that they have failed in religious terms. Maintaining that fundamentalism often exists in symbiotic relationship with an aggressive modernity, each urging the other on to greater, excess, she suggests compassion as a way to defuse what is now" an intensifying conflict.
|
Item Specifications...
Pages 272
Dimensions: Length: 7.13" Width: 4.21" Height: 1.22"
Weight: 0.39 lbs.
Binding Audio Cassette
Release Date Apr 1, 2003
Publisher HarperAudio
ISBN 0694523046
EAN 9780694523047
UPC 099455025003
|
Availability 2 units.
Availability accurate as of May 26, 2012 01:48.
Usually ships within one to two business days from La Vergne, TN.
Orders shipping to an address other than a confirmed Credit Card / Paypal Billing address may incur and additional processing delay.
|
Product Categories
Similar Products
Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | Outstanding, Lucid, most helpful May 20, 2008 |
This is the Go-To text on Fundamentalism in religions. Very insightful, very well written, very understandable. Characteristic performance by a good author.
| | |  | Decent history but painted over with a progressive ideology. Apr 14, 2008 |
First and foremost, in `The Battle for God', Karen Armstrong demonstrates her knowledge of religious history by chronicling the manner in which religious adherents of the three monotheisms have struggled to preserve their faith against growing challenges presented to them since the Enlightenment. In doing so, she offers an explanation on how the modern Fundamentalist movement has come into existence, and why at the turn of the 21st Century it poses such a severe threat to the values of modern culture. Considering the abysmal knowledge possessed by most Westerners regarding religious Fundamentalism, `The Battle for God' should make a significant contribution in dispelling this blindness.
However, while Miss. Armstrong's grasp of history is praiseworthy, I find it difficult to compliment her approach to sociology and religious essence. Her primary assertion is that militant literalism is a new phenomenon, fabricated as a reaction against the growth of secularism; a bold theory that lacks any substantial evidence. Miss. Armstrong's usage of the term `Fundamentalism' is also too liberal for comfort, strengthening the impression that much of her evaluations on the beliefs of religious adherents through history are coloured by her own `progressive religious' persuasions, and an attempt to historically justify such beliefs.
| | | | a mixed bag- better re distant past Apr 13, 2008 |
Pretty good in the first half, since it gives a lot of information about premodern religions (and also, of course, because I'm not knowledgeable enough to spot whatever factual errors there are). She doesn't tie it all together in one neat theoretical pile; but her discussion is interesting enough to camouflage that.
Her distinction between mythos (narratives which are of moral value regardless of their factual accuracy) and logos (pure reason) makes sense to me, even though I question her assertion that it made sense to adherents of premodern religion.
In the last half, this book weakens quite a bit: she has a strong bias in favor of moral equivalence that doesn't hold up real well after 9/11. As a result, she gives every benefit of the doubt to Islam, and is less generous to Christianity and Judaism.
For example, in describing Islamic pogroms in the 1920s, she writes: "On August 24, 1929, during a period of great tension between Arabs and Zionists in Palestine, fifty-nine Jewish men, women and children had been massacred in Hebron." The reference to "great tension between Arabs and Zionists" implies moral equivalency- its not just random murder, it was just "tension" manifesting itself. And note that she doesn't say who did the massacring. I wouldn't describe this as conscious bias; to be fair, I don't think Hamas types would use the term "massacre." But nevertheless I get the sense she is trying a little too hard to be fair to the Arabs.
And in describing 1980s Arab terrorism: "Surrounded by 46,000 militant Jewish settlers, the Arabs became frightened and some resorted to violence." Given that there are, oh, two dozen Arab nations surrounding Israel and trying to wipe it out, the notion that the poor terrorists became "frightened" of Israel seems hard to believe.. In addition, her grasp of Judaism (the religion with which I am most familiar) is none too sure.
A couple of factual errors that I noticed:
*"traditional, conservative faith ... took it for granted that reason could not demonstrate the truth of the kind of myths found in the scriptures." In fact, the Kuzari (13th c. or so) purports to demonstrate the proof of the relevation at Sinai, and thus of Judaism. (Just google "kuzari proof" for lots of arguments pro and con).
*"Before a Jew attends a synagogue service, he bathes in the mikveh, a ritual bath." This may occasionally be true of Hasidim; but the notion that this is the norm for even Orthodox Jews is flat out wrong. (I have more or less regularly attended Orthodox congregations for four of the past five years, and have only heard the word "mikveh" in reference to (a) women or (b) purifying cookware and silverware).
A look at the hostile reviews shows some polarization among readers. Liberal Christians and secularists seem to like this book; religious Jews, conservatives (especially Christian conservatives) and even secular hawks tend to dislike it. | | | | A manual on the rise of fundamentalism for the religious and irreligious alike Apr 7, 2008 |
A carefully crafted history of fundamentalism from a erudite, deep thinker. Enlightening in view of present global tensions especially.
Norman Gage Western Australia | | | | The Battle for God Jan 27, 2008 |
| I found the book somewhat difficult to stick with. It sort of drug on for me. | | | Write your own review about The Battle For God
|
|
(0 Items)
