The Bible is the most read book in history. It has been translated into more than two thousand languages and sold at least six billion copies in the last two hundred years alone. Made up of sixty-six "books" divided into two Testaments, this complex and communal work has been transformed by its various translations into a single work at the heart of the world's largest and most powerful religion, Christianity. In this landmark account, Karen Armstrong discusses the complex origins, gestation, life and afterlife of this collection of "books". In her trademark lively and authoritative style, she asks how the various scriptures were collected into one work, how it became accepted as Christianity's sacred text, and how it continues to exercise profound political and philosophical influenceas well as religious control over the world around us.
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"it was a profound treat to return, if indirectly, to the Good Book, guided by Armstrong's all-but incendiary intelligence...Without pulling a punch, she pursues the Bible's creation and influence from earliest antiquity to the present." (Globe and Mail 20071020)
"Asking Karen Armstrong to write about the Bible is like asking a tree to grow: it's perfectly natural...The story of the Bible's life that Armstrong fashions is not a study of the historical formation of sacred canon. Instead, it's a history of styles of reading scripture." (Publisher's Weekly 20071214)
"Armstrong analyzes the social and political situation in which oral history turned into written scripture, how this all-pervasive scripture was collected in one work, and how it became accepted as sacred text...The author ends her account with the insistence that most of the major religious teachers of the past...as well as religious teachers from other faiths insisted that charity and loving-kindness were essential to biblical interpretation...This is a lucid, accessible and timely distillation of 2,000 years of biblical gestation, growth and interpretation." (Canadian Jewish News 20071206)
"Armstrong, a world-renowned religious historian, conveys with great, plainspoken lucidity how the texts of the Bible were understood differently in different times according to prevailing historic events. More importantly, she stresses that this was not a self-serving error, this reinterpretation of scripture, but a universally understood practice of making God's Word continuously relevant and immediate in human lives. What we have done in our secular scientific age is to turn biblical narrative into a museum piece." (Toronto Star 20071118)
"The best writer on religion in our lifetime is Karen Armstrong, and her latest and slimmest book is as much worth reading as The History of God, The Battle of God...and everything else she produces with such astonishing regularity. Since the Bible lives in the minds of readers, this biography is a chronological account of how people have read and interpreter the most important literature in monotheism." (Catholic Register 20071118)
"Asking Karen Armstrong to write about the Bible is like asking a tree to grow: it's perfectly natural...The story of the Bible's life that Armstrong fashions is not a study of the historical formation of sacred canon. Instead, it's a history of styles of reading scripture." (Publisher's Weekly 20071214)
"Armstrong analyzes the social and political situation in which oral history turned into written scripture, how this all-pervasive scripture was collected in one work, and how it became accepted as sacred text...The author ends her account with the insistence that most of the major religious teachers of the past...as well as religious teachers from other faiths insisted that charity and loving-kindness were essential to biblical interpretation...This is a lucid, accessible and timely distillation of 2,000 years of biblical gestation, growth and interpretation." (Canadian Jewish News 20071206)
"Armstrong, a world-renowned religious historian, conveys with great, plainspoken lucidity how the texts of the Bible were understood differently in different times according to prevailing historic events. More importantly, she stresses that this was not a self-serving error, this reinterpretation of scripture, but a universally understood practice of making God's Word continuously relevant and immediate in human lives. What we have done in our secular scientific age is to turn biblical narrative into a museum piece." (Toronto Star 20071118)
"The best writer on religion in our lifetime is Karen Armstrong, and her latest and slimmest book is as much worth reading as The History of God, The Battle of God...and everything else she produces with such astonishing regularity. Since the Bible lives in the minds of readers, this biography is a chronological account of how people have read and interpreter the most important literature in monotheism." (Catholic Register 20071118)
About the Author
Karen Armstrong is the world's most respected writer on religion. Her many best-selling books include Islam: A Short History; Buddha; A History of God; and The Great Transformation as well as two volumes of autobiography, Through the Narrow Gate and The Spiral Staircase. She lives in London, England.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By James Gallen
TOP 100 REVIEWER
This book provides an overview of the story of the Bible, not the text itself, but how it was written, how the canon was selected and how it has been interpreted and used over the centuries. Spanning the millennia from the writing to the present, it gives a view of the place of the Bible in the world that is often missing when reading about a particular book or thene of the Scriptures.
Author Karen Armstrong introduces, or reminds, the reader, about the sources of the Old and New Testament, the multiple authors of Isaiah and the way the Bible shaped the Jewish self-image. As it progresses, she cites comments by many writers, Christian and Jewish, including Sts. Augustine and Jerome, Martin Luther and many others.
I have read a fair amount about the Bible (see my Listmania, "Thinking of God") but I learned things I had not previously known. From my perspective, telling the story in a continuum is the most helpful aspect of this book. For one who has studied the Bible less deeply, it will provide a good introduction.
Author Karen Armstrong introduces, or reminds, the reader, about the sources of the Old and New Testament, the multiple authors of Isaiah and the way the Bible shaped the Jewish self-image. As it progresses, she cites comments by many writers, Christian and Jewish, including Sts. Augustine and Jerome, Martin Luther and many others.
I have read a fair amount about the Bible (see my Listmania, "Thinking of God") but I learned things I had not previously known. From my perspective, telling the story in a continuum is the most helpful aspect of this book. For one who has studied the Bible less deeply, it will provide a good introduction.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Zen Truth
I am admittedly a fan of Karen Armstrong and find that her books never disappoint. Writing a treatise on the bible fits beautifully with her other dissertations such as 'A History of God' and 'The Great Transformation'. Our journey in pursuit of the creation of the Good Book takes us through the various stages from earliest antiquity to the present. However, it is more than a mere history of its formation, as it also introduces us to the development of styles in reading and understanding scripture. We are reminded that scripture doesn't directly impart information about God but rather evokes sacred truths that can guide our lives if we allow them to flourish within us. As always Ms. Armstrong expertly brings us to a better, more educated understanding of what religion is all about. Anyone interested in the development of our society will be sure to find something of interest in this book.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
I`ve been a fan of Karen Armstrong for many years and always look forward to her latest publication. In a world that sometimes appears chaotic and unstable Ms Armstrong voice has a calming influence. With this publication she has once more put things into a proper perspective. Whether you look at the historical perspective of the Bible or how it is perceived by some in the present Ms Armstrong provides a basis from which you can grasp the significance of the meanings the Bible has held for some and the impact it has had on them and the world. Amen.
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