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| islam karen armstrong book: A History of God Karen Armstrong, 2004 A study of the deity of the world's three dominant monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In a dynamic interplay between religion and society's ever-changing beliefs, values, and traditions, human beings' ideas about God have been transformed. Ideas about God have been molded to apply to the spiritual needs of the people who worship him in a particular place and time. The author explores and analyzes the development and progression of the various perceptions of God from the days of Abraham to present times--Adapted from book jacket. |
| islam karen armstrong book: The Case for God Karen Armstrong, 2009-09-22 From the bestselling author of A History of God and The Great Transformation comes a balanced, nuanced understanding of the role religion plays in human life and the trajectory of faith in modern times. Why has God become incredible? Why is it that atheists and theists alike now think and speak about God in a way that veers so profoundly from the thinking of our ancestors? Moving from the Paleolithic Age to the present, Karen Armstrong details the lengths to which humankind has gone to experience a sacred reality that it called God, Brahman, Nirvana, Allah, or Dao. She examines the diminished impulse toward religion in our own time when a significant number of people either want nothing to do with God or question the efficacy of faith. With her trademark depth of knowledge and profound insight, Armstrong elucidates how the changing world has necessarily altered the importance of religion at both societal and individual levels. And she makes a powerful, convincing argument for structuring a faith that speaks to the needs of our dangerously polarized age. |
| islam karen armstrong book: Muhammad Karen Armstrong, 2023-06-15 A life of the prophet Muhammad by bestselling author Karen Armstrong. 'Armstrong has a dazzling ability: she can take a long and complex subject and reduce it to its fundamentals, without over-simplifying' SUNDAY TIMES 'One of our best living writers on religion' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Not just a sympathetic book that would dispel the misconceptions and misgivings of its western readers, but also a book that is of considerable importance to Muslims' MUSLIM NEWS Most people in the West know very little about the prophet Muhammad. The acclaimed religious writer Karen Armstrong has written a biography which will give us a more accurate and profound understanding of Islam and the people who adhere to it so strongly. Muhammad also offers challenging comparisons with the two religions most closely related to it - Judaism and Christianity. |
| islam karen armstrong book: Religion and State Leon Carl Brown, 2000 The image of Islam as an aggressive and xenophobic religion has long prevailed and can at times appear to be substantiated by current affairs. This work challenges this conventional view, with a historical overview ranging from Islam's early centuries to the present day. |
| islam karen armstrong book: Through the Narrow Gate, Revised Karen Armstrong, 2005-02-19 Read and cherished by thousands all over the world since it was first published in 1981, Through the Narrow Gate takes the reader on a spiritual journey that began one September day in 1962 when Karen Armstrong said good-bye to her family at London's King's Cross station and journeyed on to the convent in Tripton to become a nun. Through the Narrow Gate is by turns a book of spiritual revelation and an intimate look at life inside the cloistered walls of the convent.--BOOK JACKET. |
| islam karen armstrong book: In the Beginning Karen Armstrong, 2011-08-10 “Karen Armstrong is a genius.”—A. N. Wilson As the foundation stone of the Jewish and Christian scriptures, The Book of Genesis unfolds some of the most arresting stories of world literature—the Creation; Adam and Eve; Cain and Abel; the sacrifice of Isaac. Yet the meaning of Genesis remains enigmatic. In this fascinating volume, Karen Armstrong, author of the highly acclaimed bestseller A History of God, brilliantly illuminates the mysteries and profundities of this mystifying work. BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Karen Armstrong's Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life. “A lyrical chronicle of one woman's wrestling with Genesis that can serve as a guide to others . . . As notable for its scholarship as it is for its honesty and vulnerability.”—Publishers Weekly “Armstrong can simplify complex ideas, but she is never simplistic.”—The New York Times Book Review |
| islam karen armstrong book: Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life Karen Armstrong, 2010-12-28 One of the most original thinkers on the role of religion in the modern world—and the bestselling author of such acclaimed books as A History of God, Islam, and Buddha—now gives us a thoughtful, and thought-provoking book that can help us make the world a more compassionate place. Karen Armstrong believes that while compassion is intrinsic in all human beings, each of us needs to work diligently to cultivate and expand our capacity for compassion. Here, she sets out a program that can lead us toward a more compassionate life. The twelve steps Armstrong suggests begin with “Learn About Compassion” and close with “Love Your Enemies.” In between, she takes up “compassion for yourself,” mindfulness, suffering, sympathetic joy, the limits of our knowledge of others, and “concern for everybody.” She suggests concrete ways of enhancing our compassion and putting it into action in our everyday lives, and provides, as well, a reading list to encourage us to “hear one another’s narratives.” Throughout, Armstrong makes clear that a compassionate life is not a matter of only heart or mind but a deliberate and often life-altering commingling of the two. |
| islam karen armstrong book: The Spiral Staircase Karen Armstrong, 2016-06-09 A raw, intensely personal memoir of spiritual exploration from one of the world’s great commentators on religion. |
| islam karen armstrong book: Muhammad Prophet for our time Karen Armstrong, 2013-06-01 Karen Armstrong adalah penulis yang telah menghasilkan karya-karya gemilang tentang berbagai tradisi agama. Dalam setiap tulisannya, dia menampakkan kepiawaiannya menampilkan kajian yang rumit menjadi bahasan yang memikat dan mudah dimengerti. Penulis yang bermukim di Inggris itu kini menampilkan biografi Nabi Muhammad, yang tentunya membawakan tafsiran yang baru dan mengejutkan yang selalu menjadi kekhasannya. Biografi Nabi Muhammad ini ditulis Karen pertama kali sebagai respons terhadap fatwa Ayatullah Khomeini terhadap Salman Rushdie. Hingga saat itu, kebanyakan literatur Barat menggambarkan Muhammad entah sebagai orang suci yang sempurna atau sebagai penipu ulung. Armstrong berdiri di tengahnya: Muhammad ditampilkannya sebagai seorang luar biasa berbakat, pemberani, dan kompleks. Diperlihatkannya pula betapa karakter dan ide-ide Nabi demikian kuat untuk mengubah sejarah secara drastis dan menarik jutaan pengikut. Dengan mahir Karen menjalinkan di dalam narasinya jejak-jejak awal sejarah panjang permusuhan Barat terhadap Islam. Ditulis dengan riset yang kuat dan berdasarkan sumber-sumber yang berimbang, penggambaran Karen tentang Nabi dengan latar kehadirannya tentu dapat pula mencerahkan pembaca dengan pemahaman baru tentang kejadian-kejadian modern di kancah politik internasional. [Mizan, Agama, nabi, Islam, Karen Amstrong, Indonesia] |
| islam karen armstrong book: Fields of Blood Karen Armstrong, 2014-10-28 From the renowned and bestselling author of A History of God, a sweeping exploration of religion's connection to violence. For the first time in American history, religious self-identification is on the decline. Some have cited a perception that began to grow after September 11: that faith in general is a source of aggression, intolerance and divisiveness--something bad for society. But how accurate is that view? And does it apply equally to all faiths? 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. And so, with her deep learning and sympathetic understanding, Karen Armstrong examines the impulse toward violence in each of the world's great religions. The comparative approach is new: while there have been plenty of books on jihad or the Crusades, 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. And so the martial ethos became bound up with the sacred. At the same time, however, 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. |
| islam karen armstrong book: The Battle for God Karen Armstrong, 2001 Britain's greatest religious historian chronicles the rise and rise of fundamentalism. One of the most potent forces bedevilling the modern world is religious extremism, and the need to understand it has never been greater. Focusing in detail on Protestant fundamentalism in the United States, Jewish fundamentalism from sixteenth century Spain onwards and Muslim fundamentalism over the last four hundred years, Armstrong examines the patterns that underlie fundamentalism. These evolve from the clash between the conservative pre-modern mind that is governed by a love of myth, and the progressive rational society that relishes change. Fundamentalists view the contemporary world with horror, rejecting its claims to truth, and a state of war now exists over the future of our culture. They are not terrorists, rather, they are innovative, existing in a symbiotic relationship with an aggressive modernity, each urging the other on to greater excess. The Battle for God is original in its thesis and in its understanding; as a history of religious ideas it is fascinating, and as an explanation of one of the most destabilizing forces at large in the world today it is extraordinary. |
| islam karen armstrong book: Islam Karen Armstrong, 2011-05-12 One of the world's foremost commentators on religious affairs on the history (and destiny) of the world's most misunderstood religion. In the public mind, Islam is a religion of extremes: it is the world's fastest growing faith; more than three-quarters of the world's refugees are Islamic; it has produced government by authoritarian monarchies in Saudi Arabia and ultra-republicans in Iran. Whether we are reading about civil war in Algeria or Afghanistan, the struggle for the soul of Turkey, or political turmoil in Pakistan or Malaysia, the Islamic context permeates all these situations. Karen Armstrong's elegant and concise book traces how Islam grew from the other religions of the book, Judaism and Christianity; introduces us to the character of Muhammed; and demonstrates that for much of its history, the religion has been a force for enlightenment that promoted liberties for women and allowed the arts and sciences to flourish. ISLAM shows how this progressive legacy is today often set aside as the faith struggles to come to terms with the economic and political weakness of most of its believers and with the forces of modernity itself. |
| islam karen armstrong book: A History of God Karen Armstrong, 2011-06-30 The idea of a single devine being - God, Yahweh, Allah - has existed for over 4,000 years. But the history of God is also the history of human struggle. While Judaism, Islam and Christianity proclaim the goodness of God, organised religion has too often been the catalyst for violence and ineradicable prejudice. In this fascinating, extensive and original account of the evolution of belief, Karen Armstrong examines Western society's unerring fidelity to this idea of One God and the many conflicting convictions it engenders. A controversial, extraordinary story of worship and war, A History of God confronts the most fundamental fact - or fiction - of our lives. |
| islam karen armstrong book: Jerusalem Karen Armstrong, 2011-08-10 Venerated for millennia by three faiths, torn by irreconcilable conflict, conquered, rebuilt, and mourned for again and again, Jerusalem is a sacred city whose very sacredness has engendered terrible tragedy. In this fascinating volume, Karen Armstrong, author of the highly praised A History of God, traces the history of how Jews, Christians, and Muslims have all laid claim to Jerusalem as their holy place, and how three radically different concepts of holiness have shaped and scarred the city for thousands of years. Armstrong unfolds a complex story of spiritual upheaval and political transformation--from King David's capital to an administrative outpost of the Roman Empire, from the cosmopolitan city sanctified by Christ to the spiritual center conquered and glorified by Muslims, from the gleaming prize of European Crusaders to the bullet-ridden symbol of the present-day Arab-Israeli conflict. Written with grace and clarity, the product of years of meticulous research, Jerusalem combines the pageant of history with the profundity of searching spiritual analysis. Like Karen Armstrong's A History of God, Jerusalem is a book for the ages. BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Karen Armstrong's Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life. |
| islam karen armstrong book: Muhammad Karen Armstrong, 2013-08-13 New York Times–Bestselling Author: This biography of the man who inspired the world’s fastest-growing religion “paints a portrait of a very human prophet” (The Wall Street Journal). Muhammad presents a fascinating portrait of the founder of a religion that continues to change the course of world history. Muhammad’s story is more relevant than ever, because it offers crucial insight into the true origins of an increasingly radicalized Islam. Countering those who dismiss Islam as fanatical and violent, Karen Armstrong, author of Islam and A History of God, offers a clear, accessible, and balanced portrait of the central figure of one of the world’s great religions. “A good glimpse of how the vast majority of the world’s Muslims understand their prophet.” —The New York Times “Respectful, knowledgeable, and, above all, readable. It succeeds because [Armstrong] brings Muhammad to life as a fully rounded human being.” —The Economist |
| islam karen armstrong book: Guide to Thomas Aquinas Josef Pieper, 2011-06-10 One of the great philosophers of the 20th Century, Josef Pieper, gives a penetrating introduction and guide to the life and works of perhaps the greatest philosopher ever, St. Thomas Aquinas. Pieper provides a biography of Aquinas, an overview of the 13th century he lived in, and a wonderful synthesis of his vast writings. Pieper shows how Aquinas reconciled the pragmatic thought of Aristotle with the Church, proving that realistic knowledge need not preclude belief in the spiritual realities of religion. According to Pieper, the marriage of faith and reason proposed by Aquinas in his great synthesis of a theologically founded worldliness was not merely one solution among many, but the great principle expressing the essence of the Christian West. Pieper reveals his extraordinary command of original sources and excellent secondary materials as he illuminates the thought of the great intellectual Doctor of the Church. The purpose of these lectures is to sketch, against the background of his times and his life, a portrait of Thomas Aquinas as he truly concerns philosophical-minded persons today, not merely as a historical personage but as a thinker who has something to say to our own era. I earnestly hope that the speculative attitude which was Thomas' most salient trait as Christianity's universal teacher will emerge clearly and sharply from my exposition. - Josef Pieper |
| islam karen armstrong book: Islam Karen Armstrong, 2008 Traces the history of Islam, from the flight of Muhammad and the founding of the first mosques to the development of the modern Muslim state, and examines its present beliefs and practices. |
| islam karen armstrong book: A Short History of Myth (Myths series) Karen Armstrong, 2010-10-29 What are myths? How have they evolved? And why do we still so desperately need them? A history of myth is a history of humanity, Karen Armstrong argues in this insightful and eloquent book: our stories and beliefs, our curiosity and attempts to understand the world, link us to our ancestors and each other. This is a brilliant and thought-provoking introduction to myth in the broadest sense–from Palaeolithic times to the “Great Western Transformation” of the last 500 years–and why we dismiss it only at our peril. |
| islam karen armstrong book: Buddha Karen Armstrong, 2008-11-03 The author of The Battle for God and other works on religion focuses her attention on the Buddha, retracing his life from prince to savior of humankind, in a philosophical portrait that offers an illuminating look at how his life and path to spiritual enlightenment spawned one of the great religions of the world. Reprint. |
| islam karen armstrong book: Islam, the Misunderstood Religion Muḥammad Quṭb, 1967 |
| islam karen armstrong book: Sacred Nature Karen Armstrong, 2023-09-05 From one of the most original thinkers on the role of religion in the modern world, a profound exploration of the spiritual power of nature—and an urgent call to reclaim that power in everyday life. Much has been written on the scientific and technological aspects of climate change.... But Armstrong’s book is both more personal and more profound. Its urgent message is that hearts and minds need to change if we are to once more learn to revere our beautiful and fragile planet. —The Guardian Since the beginning of time, humankind has looked upon nature and seen the divine. In the writings of the great thinkers across religions, the natural world inspires everything from fear, to awe, to tranquil contemplation; God, or however one defined the sublime, was present in everything. Yet today, even as we admire a tree or take in a striking landscape, we rarely see nature as sacred. In this short but deeply powerful book, the best-selling historian of religion Karen Armstrong re-sacralizes nature for modern times. Drawing on her vast knowledge of the world’s religious traditions, she vividly describes nature’s central place in spirituality across the centuries. In bringing this age-old wisdom to life, Armstrong shows modern readers how to rediscover nature’s potency and form a connection to something greater than ourselves. |
| islam karen armstrong book: Why Evolution is True Jerry A. Coyne, 2009 Weaves together the many threads of modern work in genetics, palaeontology, geology, molecular biology, anatomy and development that demonstrate the processes first proposed by Darwin and to present them in a crisp, lucid, account accessible to a wide audience. |
| islam karen armstrong book: Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an Denise Spellberg, 2014-07-01 In this original and illuminating book, Denise A. Spellberg reveals a little-known but crucial dimension of the story of American religious freedom—a drama in which Islam played a surprising role. In 1765, eleven years before composing the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson bought a Qur’an. This marked only the beginning of his lifelong interest in Islam, and he would go on to acquire numerous books on Middle Eastern languages, history, and travel, taking extensive notes on Islam as it relates to English common law. Jefferson sought to understand Islam notwithstanding his personal disdain for the faith, a sentiment prevalent among his Protestant contemporaries in England and America. But unlike most of them, by 1776 Jefferson could imagine Muslims as future citizens of his new country. Based on groundbreaking research, Spellberg compellingly recounts how a handful of the Founders, Jefferson foremost among them, drew upon Enlightenment ideas about the toleration of Muslims (then deemed the ultimate outsiders in Western society) to fashion out of what had been a purely speculative debate a practical foundation for governance in America. In this way, Muslims, who were not even known to exist in the colonies, became the imaginary outer limit for an unprecedented, uniquely American religious pluralism that would also encompass the actual despised minorities of Jews and Catholics. The rancorous public dispute concerning the inclusion of Muslims, for which principle Jefferson’s political foes would vilify him to the end of his life, thus became decisive in the Founders’ ultimate judgment not to establish a Protestant nation, as they might well have done. As popular suspicions about Islam persist and the numbers of American Muslim citizenry grow into the millions, Spellberg’s revelatory understanding of this radical notion of the Founders is more urgent than ever. Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an is a timely look at the ideals that existed at our country’s creation, and their fundamental implications for our present and future. |
| islam karen armstrong book: Jesus A. N. Wilson, 1992 In a book that is as daring and unconventional as it is scholarly, the celebrated biographer of Tolstoy and C.S. Lewis searches for the elusive historical reality in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Wilson enables readers of every shade of faith or skepticism to discover the man who became the central figure in Western civilization and whose teachings have survived nearly 2,000 years. |
| islam karen armstrong book: Holy War Karen Armstrong, 1988 A penetrating narrative history of the Crusades that reveals the ominous links and parallels between those medieval clashes and the violent rivalries of the Middle East today. |
| islam karen armstrong book: Europe and the Mystique of Islam Maxime Rodinson, 2002-11-23 For centuries the Islamic world has, by turns, been both reviled and admired in the West. Since the time of the Crusades, Europeans have viewed Muslim culture and religion through the unique distorting lens of Orientalism, colouring all aspects of their perception and generating a curious blend of fascination and distrust. Historian, sociologist and Middle East specialist Maxime Rodinson presents an account of this relationship, in a history that is balanced and concise yet insightful. |
| islam karen armstrong book: Sacred Karen Armstrong, Everett Fox, Colin F. Baker, British Library, 2007 Sacred is the lush official catalog of the groundbreaking British Library exhibit bearing the same name, which presents many of the world’s most beautiful religious texts for the first time. Illustrations from rare and exquisite examples of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim sacred texts from the Library’s collections, along with unique treasures on loan from other institutions, are showcased and accompanied by essays from three of today’s leading religious scholars that explore aspects of the three faiths, including their historical development and contemporary meaning. Stunning full-color illustrations of many previously unreproduced manuscripts from the shared history of the three major religions are paired are brought into compellingly modern context by perceptive writers on religion such as Karen Armstrong, Everett Fox, Frank Peters, and Kathleen Doyle. The manuscripts featured in Sacred include one of the earliest surviving Qur‘ans, completed 160 years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, and a sixth-century Christian text that was suppressed by the church for failing to include the genealogy of Christ. Other fascinating manuscripts include an ancient Jewish text containing an illustration of God’s face—forbidden in Jewish tradition—and the Torah scroll used by the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng. Sacred pairs images of these remarkable works with commentary from scholars and critics that explores the relationship between these three major faiths. Accompanied by over 200 color illustrations, Sacred represents the first time that such remarkable and venerable manuscripts have been brought together in a single volume—illustrating the remarkable shared history of three of the world’s major religions. |
| islam karen armstrong book: The House of Islam Ed Husain, 2018-06-19 “Ed Husain has become one of the most vital Muslim voices in the world. The House of Islam could very well be his magnum opus.” -Reza Aslan, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Zealot “This should be compulsory reading.” -Peter Frankopan, author of the international bestseller The Silk Roads Today, Islam is to many in the West an alien force, with Muslims held in suspicion. Failure to grasp the inner workings of religion and geopolitics has haunted American foreign policy for decades and has been decisive in the new administration's controversial orders. The intricacies and shadings must be understood by the West not only to build a stronger, more harmonious relationship between the two cultures, but also for greater accuracy in predictions as to how current crises, such as the growth of ISIS, will develop and from where the next might emerge. The House of Islam addresses key questions and points of disconnection. What are the roots of the conflict between Sunni and Shi'a Muslims that is engulfing Pakistan and the Middle East? Does the Koran encourage the killing of infidels? The book thoughtfully explores the events and issues that have come from and contributed to the broadening gulf between Islam and the West, from the United States' overthrow of Iran's first democratically elected leader to the emergence of ISIS, from the declaration of a fatwa on Salman Rushdie to the attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo. Authoritative and engaging, Ed Husain leads us clearly and carefully through the nuances of Islam and its people, taking us back to basics to contend that the Muslim world need not be a stranger to the West, nor our enemy, but our peaceable allies. |
| islam karen armstrong book: Summary and Analysis of A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam Worth Books, 2017-02-14 So much to read, so little time? This brief overview of A History of God tells you what you need to know—before or after you read Karen Armstrong’s book. Crafted and edited with care, Worth Books set the standard for quality and give you the tools you need to be a well-informed reader. This short summary and analysis of A History of God by Karen Armstrong includes: Historical context Chapter-by-chapter summaries Detailed timeline of important events Important quotes Fascinating trivia Supporting material to enhance your understanding of the original work About A History of God by Karen Armstrong: A History of God is a rich and comprehensive account of the concept of God across thousands of years of human history. Karen Armstrong, a former nun, focuses on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, with insights into the work of Western history’s great theologians and philosophers. Can humanity persist without some idea of God? Far from moving into an era of pure atheism, Armstrong believes that God as a construct is more crucial now than ever. God is not “dead,” God has not abandoned us, God merely shape-shifts to adapt to new contexts, whether that context is medieval agrarianism, nineteenth-century romanticism, or twenty-first-century post-modern techno-urbanism. Armstrong’s in-depth examination of monotheism provides a foundation for the curious novice while not holding back on academic concepts and obscure but fascinating historical accounts. The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of nonfiction. |
| islam karen armstrong book: Speaking of Faith Krista Tippett, 2008-01-29 A thought-provoking, original appraisal of the meaning of religion by the host of public radio's On Being Krista Tippett, widely becoming known as the Bill Moyers of radio, is one of the country's most intelligent and insightful commentators on religion, ethics, and the human spirit. With this book, she draws on her own life story and her intimate conversations with both ordinary and famous figures, including Elie Wiesel, Karen Armstrong, and Thich Nhat Hanh, to explore complex subjects like science, love, virtue, and violence within the context of spirituality and everyday life. Her way of speaking about the mysteries of life-and of listening with care to those who endeavor to understand those mysteries--is nothing short of revolutionary. |
| islam karen armstrong book: Venus and Aphrodite Bettany Hughes, 2019-11-14 'Lively' THE TIMES 'Engrossing' THE SPECTATOR 'Stunning' WOMAN & HOME 'Marvellous' BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE Through ancient art, evocative myth, intriguing archaeological discoveries and philosophical explorations, Bettany Hughes takes us on a voyage of discovery to reveal the truth behind Venus, and why this immortal goddess is so much more than nudity, romance and sex. It is both the remarkable story of one of antiquity's most potent forces, and the story of human desire - how it transforms who we are and how we behave. |
| islam karen armstrong book: No god but God: The Origins and Evolution of Islam Reza Aslan, 2012-08-14 Engaging, accessible, and thought-provoking, No god but God is a persuasive, elegantly written, and accessible introduction for young readers to a faith that for much of the West remains shrouded in ignorance and fear. Adapted for young readers from No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, this exploration of Islam by Reza Aslan, internationally acclaimed scholar of comparative religion, delves into the rituals and traditions of a religion that is largely misunderstood by the West. It covers the religion’s origins—the revelation of Muhammad as Prophet and the subsequent uprising against him, and the emergence of his successors—as well as Islam’s complex history. No god but God is sure to stimulate discussion and encourage understanding of the Islamic faith and the people who follow it. Praise for No god But God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam of Islam “This welcome addition to Islamic studies provides a valuable context for reflection about the origins of issues facing Muslims and their neighbors today.”—Publishers Weekly “An introduction to Islam as evocative as it is provocative.”—Kirkus Reviews “Wise and passionate book.”—New York Times Financial Times Best Book of the Year |
| islam karen armstrong book: Dante Richard Warrington Baldwin Lewis, 2001 Traces the life and development--emotional, artistic, philosophical--of this poet-historian, from his wanderings through the Tuscan hills and churches to his days as a young soldier fighting for democracy to his civic leadership and years of exile. |
| islam karen armstrong book: Muhammad Karen Armstrong, 2023-06-15 A life of the prophet Muhammad by bestselling author Karen Armstrong. 'Armstrong has a dazzling ability: she can take a long and complex subject and reduce it to its fundamentals, without over-simplifying' SUNDAY TIMES 'One of our best living writers on religion' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Not just a sympathetic book that would dispel the misconceptions and misgivings of its western readers, but also a book that is of considerable importance to Muslims' MUSLIM NEWS Most people in the West know very little about the prophet Muhammad. The acclaimed religious writer Karen Armstrong has written a biography which will give us a more accurate and profound understanding of Islam and the people who adhere to it so strongly. Muhammad also offers challenging comparisons with the two religions most closely related to it - Judaism and Christianity. |
| islam karen armstrong book: Did God Really Command Genocide? Paul Copan, Matt Flannagan, 2014-11-11 A common objection to belief in the God of the Bible is that a good, kind, and loving deity would never command the wholesale slaughter of nations. Even Christians have a hard time stomaching such a thought, and many avoid reading those difficult Old Testament passages that make us squeamish. Instead, we quickly jump to the enemy-loving, forgiving Jesus of the New Testament. And yet, the question doesn't go away. Did God really command genocide? Is the command to utterly destroy morally unjustifiable? Is it literal? Are the issues more complex and nuanced than we realize? In the tradition of his popular Is God a Moral Monster?, Paul Copan teams up with Matthew Flannagan to tackle some of the most confusing and uncomfortable passages of Scripture. Together they help the Christian and nonbeliever alike understand the biblical, theological, philosophical, and ethical implications of Old Testament warfare passages. Pastors, youth pastors, campus ministers, apologetics readers, and laypeople will find that this book both enlightens and equips them for serious discussion of troubling spiritual questions. |
| islam karen armstrong book: The Bible , 1607 |
| islam karen armstrong book: St. Paul Karen Armstrong, 2015 A stirring account of the life of Paul, who brought Christianity to the Jews, by the most popular writer on religion in the English-speaking world, Karen Armstrong, author of The History of God, which has been translated into thirty languages |
| islam karen armstrong book: The Evolution Of God Robert Wright, 2010-11-04 For centuries, faithful followers of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism have looked to their holy texts for spiritual guidance, social and political mandates, and answers to man's burning questions about the workings of the universe. But what if these believers have been overlooking the most important message in their Scriptures? In THE EVOLUTION OF GOD, bestselling author Robert Wright finds a kind of 'hidden code' in the Bible and the Koran. Read closely, he says, these texts reveal the key to harmony among the Abrahamic faiths, and thus to a peaceful world - nothing less than the salvation of humankind. THE EVOLUTION OF GOD explains why spirituality has a role today, why science affirms the validity of the religious quest, and why the future will hold harmony instead of religious extremism. If there is an author capable of giving us a revolutionary, enlightening re-reading of the Scriptures, it is Robert Wright. He has written acclaimed and influential books on the evolution of our minds and our history. Now he tackles the evolution of God. |
| islam karen armstrong book: Desire of the Everlasting Hills Thomas Cahill, 2010-04-28 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author of How the Irish Saved Civilization comes a compelling historical narrative about Jesus—an obscure rabbi from a backwater of the Roman Empire who became the central figure in Western Civilization. Divertingly instructive...gratifying...[Cahill] makes Jesus a still-living literary presence. —The New York Times In his subtle and engaging investigation into the life and times of Jesus, Thomas Cahill shows us Jesus from his birth to his execution through the eyes of those who knew him and in the context of his time—a time when the Jews were struggling to maintain their beliefs under overlords who imposed their worldview on their subjects. Here is Jesus the loving friend, itinerate preacher, and quiet revolutionary, whose words and actions inspired his followers to journey throughout the Roman world and speak the truth he instilled—in the face of the greatest defeat: Jesus' crucifixion as a common criminal. Daring, provocative, and stunningly original, Cahill's interpretation will both delight and surprise. |
Islam - Wikipedia
Islam [a] is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, [12] and the teachings of Muhammad. [13] Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number 2 billion …
Islam Religion - What is Islam
Islam is one of the world’s major religions, followed by over 1.9 billion people globally. It is a faith based on the principles of monotheism, the belief in one Allah, and was revealed to the world …
Islam | Religion, Beliefs, Practices, & Facts | Britannica
6 days ago · Islam, major world religion that emphasizes monotheism, the unity of God (‘Allah’ in Arabic), and Muhammad as his final messenger in a series of revelations. As the literal word of …
Islam - Five Pillars, Nation of Islam & Definition - HISTORY
Jan 5, 2018 · Islam is the second-largest religion in the world after Christianity, with about 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide.
What is Islam? - IslamiCity
Commonly, Islam refers to the monotheistic religion revealed to Muhammad ibn (son of) Abdullah between 610 and 632 of the Common Era. The name Islam was instituted by the Qur’an, the …
The Religion of Islam
Mar 8, 2006 · This website is for people of various faiths who seek to understand Islam and Muslims. It contains a lot of brief, yet informative articles about different aspects of Islam. New …
Islam: History, Beliefs, And Modern Significance - WorldAtlas
Jun 3, 2019 · The Five Pillars of Islam make up the main tenants of the Muslim religion. The basis of this belief system is rooted in the daily practice of prayers, strict observance of Ramadan, …
What is Islam? History and Beliefs of the Muslim Religion - Bart D.
Mar 21, 2024 · Explore 'What is Islam?'—an overview of its history, core beliefs, practices, and the profound impact of Islam's founder on the global Muslim community, all presented from a …
What is Islam - إسلام ويب
Jul 24, 2001 · Islam emphasizes submission to God, guiding believers to achieve harmony with themselves and creation. Recognized as the culmination of God’s revelations to humanity, …
Islam’s beliefs, practices, and history | Britannica
Islam is a strictly monotheistic religion, and its adherents, called Muslims, regard the Prophet Muhammad as the last and most perfect of God’s messengers, who include Adam, Abraham, …
Islam - Wikipedia
Islam [a] is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, [12] and the teachings of Muhammad. [13] Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number 2 billion …
Islam Religion - What is Islam
Islam is one of the world’s major religions, followed by over 1.9 billion people globally. It is a faith based on the principles of monotheism, the belief in one Allah, and was revealed to the world …
Islam | Religion, Beliefs, Practices, & Facts | Britannica
6 days ago · Islam, major world religion that emphasizes monotheism, the unity of God (‘Allah’ in Arabic), and Muhammad as his final messenger in a series of revelations. As the literal word of …
Islam - Five Pillars, Nation of Islam & Definition - HISTORY
Jan 5, 2018 · Islam is the second-largest religion in the world after Christianity, with about 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide.
What is Islam? - IslamiCity
Commonly, Islam refers to the monotheistic religion revealed to Muhammad ibn (son of) Abdullah between 610 and 632 of the Common Era. The name Islam was instituted by the Qur’an, the …
The Religion of Islam
Mar 8, 2006 · This website is for people of various faiths who seek to understand Islam and Muslims. It contains a lot of brief, yet informative articles about different aspects of Islam. New …
Islam: History, Beliefs, And Modern Significance - WorldAtlas
Jun 3, 2019 · The Five Pillars of Islam make up the main tenants of the Muslim religion. The basis of this belief system is rooted in the daily practice of prayers, strict observance of Ramadan, …
What is Islam? History and Beliefs of the Muslim Religion - Bart D.
Mar 21, 2024 · Explore 'What is Islam?'—an overview of its history, core beliefs, practices, and the profound impact of Islam's founder on the global Muslim community, all presented from a …
What is Islam - إسلام ويب
Jul 24, 2001 · Islam emphasizes submission to God, guiding believers to achieve harmony with themselves and creation. Recognized as the culmination of God’s revelations to humanity, …
Islam’s beliefs, practices, and history | Britannica
Islam is a strictly monotheistic religion, and its adherents, called Muslims, regard the Prophet Muhammad as the last and most perfect of God’s messengers, who include Adam, Abraham, …
