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Religious Book Store > Religious books beginning with B
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The Bible: A Biography (Books That Changed the World) |
Author: Karen Armstrong
Published: 2007-11-10 |
List price: $21.95
Our price: $14.93
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Resurrection of the Good Book
I'd rename this book "Karen Armstrong Calls a Code on The Bible", as in calling a code in the hospital when someone has had a cardiac and/or respiratory arrest. By the end of Armstrong's book, the cardiac monitor hooked to the Christian Bible has a strong and steady beat.
I once took the time to read the Bible from cover to cover. Weary of being battered by Campus Crusaders (an oddly apt name), I went to the source (in English, I don't read Greek or Hebrew), and read every word, including the begats, including the many, many proscriptions for capital punishment, including the incredibly bloody and genocidal behavior of those who were supposed to be God's Chosen People, including funky dietary directions. My conclusion was that taking the Bible as the literal word of God can only be done by descending to a level of intellectual and emotional dishonesty that I could not personally access. If the Bible WAS the literal Logos (word of God), then, to paraphrase Ricky Ricardo talking to Lucy: God, you have some serious 'splainin' to do.
What then to do with this amazing collection of texts that has been somewhat haphazardly and arbitrarily lumped together and called The Bible? Answer: read Armstrong's remarkable, pithy, eye and mind opening book. The rich tradition of the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Islam, Christianity) springs into a Joseph's Multi-Colored Coat dazzler: Violence, religious ecstasy, profound desire for knowledge of God, sex, political manipulation, ego, faith, hope, love, and raw lust for power swirl through this kaleidoscopic, richly layered, many textured book called The Bible.
By tracing the Abrahamic roots of biblical religions, tracking the gradual coalescence of religious writings that would eventually become the Bible, and giving a thorough AND thrilling history of the way Western faithful have reacted to Sacred Scripture, Armstrong made me, and might make you, want to again pick up a book that seems more often used for hitting people over their theological or political heads than inspiring compassion and cohesion. Armstrong's closing comments strongly belie the negative reviewer comments about her "attacking the Bible". Armstrong does nothing of the sort. She breathes life and hope into a book that has more often been used, of late, as a theological/political, anti-scientific football than a source of spiritual enrichment and growth. Read with a spirit of inquiry, Armstrong's The Bible, A Biography, is a resurrection, a healthy dose of CPR, for a Good Book that is dusty, unoriginal, dated, and often brutal when taken literally (except for the sexy parts, of which there are more than a few). Armstrong's book can't make The Bible into Chicken Soup for the Atheist, but it does make The Bible rich and enticing, even to those who are more concerned about freedom FROM religion than freedom OF Religion. Doubt me? Give it a whirl, we'll chat afterwards.
 The Judeo-Christian Tradition of Biblical Exegis
For those seeking a book by book overview of the Bible I would suggest Kenneth Davis' excellent "Don't Know Much About The Bible". Armstrong's book is really more about who wrote the Bible and under what historical circumstances. Another central purpose she has is to demonstrate that biblical scholars, both Jewish and Christian, have traditonally recognized that the Bible is full of metaphors, paradoxes and is subject to multiple interpretations. Unfortunately, this sophisticated approach to the Bible is currently at odds with scores of religious fundamentalists who insist on a literal reading of the Bible as if it was 100% scientifically and historically accurate. Armstrong successfully shows that the fundamentalists are not only factually wrong but out of step with the Judeo-Christian tradition of rabbinical and monastic exegis.
I'm an atheist with a strong interest in religious history and Armstrong has long been one of my favorite writers of non-fiction. I find her critiques of religious fundamentalists to be well supported and correct. However, I disagree with her attacks on secularism in the "Modernity" chapter. She seems to be trying to blame secularism for 20th century warfare. The truth is that human aggression has been with us from our earliest days. The Bible itself is full of conflict and many wars throughout history have been fought in the name of relgion. I agree that 20th century secular movements, such as Communism and Nazism, have also been sources of death and destruction. But to imply that secular societies are inherently more violent than religious ones seems to me false and misguided.
In any case, Armstrong is an excellent writer and I recommend this, as well as many other books by her, to those seeking to learn more about religious history and sacred writings.
As easily readable overview of the History of the evolution of the written scriptures
I found this book to be very informative, thought provoking and engaging. I did not find it difficult to understand, but rather thought it was a good basic primer in the history of the scriptures and the political shaping of the current day version of the The Bible. I was impressed by the citations that supported the text, and found the style to be without judgment. Often her passages left me searching for her conclusions - only to realize that Ms. Armstrong was careful to leave the conclusions up to the reader. I appreciate that now that I understand the premise. Since reading this, I have read many acclaims for her integrity and thoroughness, which has raised the value of the book for me as a source of valid information. I recommend it for anyone looking for an intellectual evaluation of the bible.
A New Perspective on the Bible
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.
Not Bible 101
A good knowledge of the Bible, I think, is required to really follow and understand all the historical facts jammed into the middle of this small book. But if you don't know the Bible well and slog on through this book anyway you will still gain a general impression of how long, rich and complex the history of the development of the Bible is. It is actually many books written by many different people in different settings for different purposes. It has been significantly edited by other people. It is full of paradoxes. It is still changing (its meaning). That is it is inexhaustible (books like this and many others still written today prove that). For the author it is a scripture written by men; to others it is the word of God.
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