Search Results: Returned 3 Results, Displaying Titles 1 - 3
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c2004., W.W. Norton & Co. Call No: 200 H316e Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: An analysis of the clash of faith and reason in today's world that offers a historical tour of mankind's willingness to suspend reason in favor of religious beliefs, even when those beliefs are used to justify atrocities. While warning against the encroachment of organized religion into politics, the author draws on insights from neuroscience, philosophy, and Eastern mysticism to call for a truly modern approach to ethics and spirituality that is both secular and humanistic.
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2014., Adult, Knopf Canada Call No: 201 A735f Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: "A sweeping exploration of religion's connection to violence. For the first time in American history, religious self-identification is on the decline. In these troubled times, we risk basing decisions of real and dangerous consequence on mistaken understandings of the faiths subscribed around us, in our immediate community as well as globally. Karen Armstrong examines the impulse toward violence in each of the world's great religions. This book lays the Christian and the Islamic way of war side by side, along with those of Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Daoism and Judaism. Each of these faiths arose in agrarian societies with plenty of motivation for violence: landowners had to lord it over peasants and warfare was essential to increase one's landholdings, the only real source of wealth before the great age of trade and commerce. In each context, it fell to the priestly class to legitimize the actions of the state. At the same time, their ideologies developed that ran counter to the warrior code: around sages, prophets and mystics. Within each tradition there grew up communities that represented a protest against the injustice and violence endemic to agrarian society. This book explores the symbiosis of these 2 impulses and its development as these confessional faiths came of age. The aggression of secularism has often damaged religion and pushed it into a violent mode. But modernity has also been spectacularly violent, and so Armstrong goes on to show how and in what measure religions, in their relative maturity, came to absorb modern belligerence--and what hope there might be for peace among believers in our time. Karen Armstrong is the author of The Case for God, A History of God, The Battle for God, Holy War, Islam, Buddha and The Great Transformation -- and a memoir, The Spiral Staircase."--Provided by publisher.
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[2015]., Adult, Schocken Books Call No: 201 S121n Edition: First American edition. Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: "The phenomenon of religious extremism and violence committed in the name of God. If religion is perceived as being part of the problem, Rabbi Sacks argues, then it must also form part of the solution. When religion becomes a zero-sum conceit -- that is, my religion is the only right path to God, therefore your religion is by definition wrong -- and individuals are motivated by what Rabbi Sacks calls "altruistic evil," violence between peoples of different beliefs appears to be the only natural outcome. But through an exploration of the roots of violence and its relationship to religion, and employing groundbreaking biblical analysis and interpretation, Rabbi Sacks shows that religiously inspired violence has as its source misreadings of biblical texts at the heart of all three Abrahamic faiths. By looking anew at the book of Genesis, with its foundational stories of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Rabbi Sacks offers a radical rereading of many of the Bible's seminal stories of sibling rivalry: Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, Rachel and Leah. "Abraham himself," writes Rabbi Sacks, "sought to be a blessing to others regardless of their faith. That idea, ignored for many of the intervening centuries, remains the simplest definition of Abrahamic faith. It is not our task to conquer or convert the world or enforce uniformity of belief. It is our task to be a blessing to the world. The use of religion for political ends is not righteousness but idolatry. To invoke God to justify violence against the innocent is not an act of sanctity but of sacrilege." Here is an eloquent call for people of goodwill from all faiths and none to stand together, confront the religious extremism that threatens to destroy us, and declare: Not in God's Name. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks is a global religious leader and the author of more than twenty-five books. He teaches at universities in Britain, the United States, and Israel"--Provided by publisher.
