Karen Armstrong (b. November 14, 1944 in Wildmoor, Worcestershire, England) is an author who writes on Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. Armstrong is a former nun, now a "freelance monotheist" ^[1]. She has advanced the theory that fundamentalist religion is a response to and product of modern culture. She was born into a family with Irish roots who after her birth moved to Bromsgrove and later to Birmingham. According to professor Juan Eduardo Campo, Karen Armstrong has been influential in conveying the more objective post-19th-century scholarship of Islam to a wide readership in Europe and North America.^[2] is the 318th day of the year (319th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Worcestershire (pronounced ; abbreviated Worcs) is a county located in the West Midlands region of central England. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Author (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Christianity is... For people named Islam, see Islam (name). ... A statue of the Sakyamuni Buddha in Tawang Gompa, India. ... For other uses, see Nun (disambiguation). ... Look up fundamentalism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For Christian theological modernism, see Liberal Christianity and Modernism (Roman Catholicism). ... , Bromsgrove is a town in Worcestershire, England. ... This article is about the British city. ...

Life

From 1962 to 1969, Karen Armstrong was a nun in the Society of the Holy Child Jesus. This was a teaching order, and once she had advanced from postulant and novice to professed nun, she was sent to St Anne's College, Oxford University, where she studied English. Armstrong left the order during her course of study. After graduating, she embarked on a D. Phil. (still at Oxford) on Alfred, Lord Tennyson. She continued to work on it while later teaching at the University of London, but her thesis was rejected by an external examiner. She eventually left academia without completing her doctorate. Year 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Also: 1969 (Stargate SG-1) episode. ... Society of the Holy Child Jesus - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... and of the St Annes College College name St Annes College Named after St Anne Established 1879 Sister college New Hall, Cambridge Principal Tim Gardam JCR President Kui-Sang Sze Undergraduates 437 Graduates 187 Location of St Annes College within central Oxford , Homepage Boatclub St Annes... The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford in England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S., Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, India, South Africa, and the Middle East, among other areas), English linguistics (including English phonetics, phonology... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Alfred, Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom and is one of the most popular English poets. ... Website http://www. ... This article is about the thesis in academia. ... Academia is a collective term for the scientific and cultural community engaged in higher education and research, taken as a whole. ...

This period was marked by ill-health (Armstrong's life-long, but at that time undiagnosed, epilepsy as described in The Spiral Staircase (2004)) and her readjustment to outside life. In 1976, she became an English teacher at a girls' school in Dulwich, but her epilepsy caused her to miss too many school days, and she was asked to leave in 1981. Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1976 Pick up sticks(MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... , Dulwich (pronounced or ) is a settlement mostly in the London Borough of Southwark with parts in the London Borough of Lambeth. ... Year 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981 Gregorian calendar). ...

Armstrong published Through the Narrow Gate in 1982, which described the restricted and narrow life she experienced in the convent (and earned her the enmity of many British Catholics). In 1984 she was asked to write and present a documentary on the life of St. Paul. The research for the documentary made Armstrong look again at religion, despite having abandoned religious worship after she left the convent. She has since become a prolific writer on subjects touching on all of the three major monotheistic religions. Year 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar). ... A Beguine convent in Amsterdam. ... This article is about the year. ... Paul of Tarsus (b. ... For the Celtic Frost album, see Monotheist (album) In theology, monotheism (from Greek one and god) is the belief in the existence of one deity, or in the oneness of God. ...

She is a fellow of the Jesus Seminar. The Jesus Seminar is a research team of about 200 New Testament scholars founded in 1985 by the late Robert Funk and John Dominic Crossan under the auspices of the Westar Institute. ...

Armstrong has written a number of articles for The Guardian. Her latest book, The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions, was published in March 2006; a revision of her biography of Muhammad: A Prophet For Our Time, was published in October of 2006 by Harper Collins. For other uses, see Guardian. ... March is the third month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see October (disambiguation). ...

In 2006, she appeared on BBC Radio 4's "Desert Island Discs". She also made commentaries on the documentary, "The Fundamentalists". old Radio 4 logo BBC Radio 4 is a UK domestic radio station which broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes including news, drama, comedy, science and history. ... Desert Island Discs is a long-running BBC Radio 4 programme. ...

Armstrong was one of three winners of the TED Conference's TED prize in 2008.^[3] TED (short for Technlogy Entertainment Design) is an annual conference in Monterey, California founded by Richard Saul Wurman. ...

Theory of religious fundamentalism

Armstrong has advanced a counter-intuitive theory of religious fundamentalism ^{[citation needed]}, key to understanding the movements as they emerged in the late fifteenth and twentieth centuries: Fundamentalism is a movement to maintain strict adherence to founding principles. ...

Central to her reading of history is the notion that premodern cultures possessed two complementary and indispensable ways of thinking, speaking and knowing: mythos and logos. Mythos was concerned with meaning; it "provided people with a context that made sense of their day-to-day lives; it directed their attention to the eternal and the universal" ^[4]. Logos, on the other hand, dealt with practical matters. It forged ahead, elaborating on old insights, mastering the environment, and creating fresh and new things. Armstrong argues that modern Western society has lost the sense of mythos and enshrined logos as its foundation. Mythical narratives and the rituals and meanings attached to them have ceded authority to that which is rational, pragmatic and scientific - but which does not assuage human pain or sorrow, and cannot answer questions about the ultimate value of human life. However, far from embarking on a wholesale rejection of the modern emphasis in favour of the old balance, the author contends, religious fundamentalists unwittingly turn the mythos of their faith into logos. Fundamentalism is a child of modernity, and fundamentalists are fundamentally modern.

Beliefs

Armstrong is a prolific scholar of religions and has written on a multitude of faiths. She described her personal religious beliefs in a C-Span interview in 2000: This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Year 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full 2000 Gregorian calendar). ...

[1] Monotheism (in Greek monon = single and Theos = God) is the belief in a single, universal, all-encompassing deity. ... For other uses, see Abraham (name) and Abram (disambiguation). ... An Achilles’ heel is a fatal weakness in spite of overall strength, actually or potentially leading to downfall. ... Media:Example. ...

Bibliography

Journal Articles

• "Ambiguity and Remembrance: Individual and Collective Memory in Finland" (2000)

• "The Holiness of Jerusalem: Asset or Burden?" (1998)

• "Women, Tourism, Politics" (1977)

Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... Also: 1977 (album) by Ash. ...

Books

• The Bible: A Biography (2007)

• The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions (2006)

• Muhammad: A Prophet For Our Time (2006)

• A Short History of Myth (2005)

• The Spiral Staircase (2004)

• Faith After September 11th (2002)

• The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam (2000)

• Buddha (2000)

• Islam: A Short History (2000)

• In the Beginning: A New Interpretation of Genesis (1996)

• Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths (1996)

• A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam (1993)

• The End of Silence: Women and the Priesthood (1993)

• The English Mystics of the Fourteenth Century (1991)

• Muhammad: a Biography of the Prophet (1991)

• Holy War (1988)

• The Gospel According to Woman: Christianity's Creation of the Sex War in the West (1986)

• Tongues of Fire: An Anthology of Religious and Poetic Experience (1985)

• Beginning the World (1983)

• The First Christian: Saint Paul's Impact on Christianity (1983)

• Through the Narrow Gate (1982)

Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... Year 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the 1991 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar). ... This article is about the year. ... Year 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar). ...

References

Booknotes was an American television series on C-SPAN hosted by Brian Lamb from 1989 to 2004. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 271st day of the year (272nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The International Journal of Middle East Studies is a scholarly journal published by the Middle East Studies Association of North America. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 325th day of the year (326th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Interviews

• Interview with Karen Armstrong from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

• Interview on the Brian Lehrer Show

• Interview with Robert Wright One of a series of interviews with influential philosophers and theologians on Slate.com's meaningoflife.tv (1hr 19min)

• Booknotes interview with Brian Lamb

• The freelance monotheism of Karen Armstrong — interview on American Public Media's Speaking of Faith

• Religion scholar Karen Armstrong — interview on National Public Radio (N.P.R.)'s Fresh Air From WHYY

• Bill Moyers interviews Karen Armstrong — transcript from Public Broadcasting Station (P.B.S.)'s NOW

• PBS' Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly Interview, "On America's Response to 9/11"

• Charlie Rose interview video

• Karen Armstrong speaks about her book, Prophet of Islam, (video)

• PBS interview with Armstrong

• David Weich interviews Armstrong at powells.com

• CBC Tapestry interview by Mary Hynes

Miscellaneous

• Brief synopsis of Armstrong's Buddha at smithsonianassociates.org

• Profile of Armstrong at islamfortoday.com

• Profile of Armstrong randomhouse.com

• We cannot afford to maintain these ancient prejudices against Islam — The Guardian piece regarding Pope Benedict's remark on Islam post 9-11