Examines the origins of the religious traditions of the world during the ninth century B.C.E. in four distinct regions--Confucianism and Daoism in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, monotheism in Israel, and philosophical rational...

Armstrong succeeds - brilliantly - in placing fundamentalist movements in a historical context, showing how each is both a product of its times and typical of recurring trends....Armstrong, with her astonishing depth of knowledge and ...

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 Arms...

Karen Armstrong spent seven years in a convent (which she described in a previous memoir) and, when she left, was at a loss as to what to do with her life. In THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE, she writes about her difficulties, as she first picke...

A nuanced exploration of the part religion plays in human life, past and present, from one of the foremost commentators on religion at work today.Moving from the Paleolithic Age to the present, Karen Armstrong details the great length...