This magisterial tome by Karen Armstrong is to date the best book on comparative religion I've read so far in my life. It's a truly stupendous work of holistic scholarship. She works through the full historical span of recorded religious writings, built out of preexisting oral traditions for millennia already - Israel, India, and China are the big three foci throughout, with all major world religions given ample coverage during the thematically roving chapters.
The book is prefaced by a couple of quotes from William Blake that really set the tone for the rest of its argument: one hears his decried notions that "all religions are one" resonate through the Poetic Genius of all the texts we might consider Scripture today, so eloquently and rich in detail are the introductions Armstrong makes with each distinct faith. Jainism and the roots of the polycultural faith commonly banner-termed Hinduism are examined with as much diligence as the Hebrew canon, including the Talmudic midrash that later emerged as the preeminent focus of Jewish scripture; or the traditions of China, where Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist ideals grow up around each other and inter-pollinate sociologically across vast areas of human population over time - we witness the birth of Christianity with its own new emergent canon building in the already established edificies of Hebraic tradition; and latterly Islam also as Abraham's God bears angelic witness in an altogether different but ultimately similarly upbuilding revelations to the offspring of Hagar - Isaac's half-brother Ishmael, whose visitation in the presumed descendancy of the Prophet Muhammad of him bears claim to God's faithfulness even to those overlooked by established canonical traditions - Armstrong's framing all this as it unfurls over time has radically influenced my perception of other faiths compared to my own: I cannot but proudly assert that I understand any other religion enough to dismiss its claims entirely unless I put the effort into reading their scripture, observing their rituals and obediences and examining my own psychological and spiritual states as I take part in such things; how can you really know what's on the other side of a door if you won't even approach the doors you start seeing? Scripture is important because it records truths that are all too brilliantly human, but that exist as Truer than reality itself at certain points of belief - the maintenance of religion is not the purpose of any scripture, awakening people to better more peaceable states of collective mind is, through reason, tradition, and the cultivation of virtue. Forging peace between Muslims and Hindus was the sole reason for Sikhism's founding; how sad that as other faiths frictions of extremism do persist in the world... such we may always have to have with us to whatever extent; all the rest of us can do is try to be different and hope that goodness will more or less prevail. Which it does so the more for our faithful participation in Reality as it is. That's all any religion that works really is or does at the end of the day. The ancients knew this - Moses and Chuang Zhu would have seen eye-to-eye on far more than modern, compartmentalized intellects might presume - in any case I'm sure they would have found plenty of generousity to praise each other in the sight of Heaven as they understood it, as compared perhaps to the disinterested, polarized happenstance as much in the world today how there seem to be so many insurmountable obstacles in the way of what we might call Religious Belief - or even let alone Fervour! - I'm rambling. This risks turning into an unwarranted and largely speculative Holistic Essay, so for sake of possible Inquisitorial readership on this blog I'm going to cut myself short here and just end by saying that her chapter on ineffability is the best on the subject I've read outside of the Cloud.
Highly recommended reading for agnostics or indifferents who may be at all interested in an unbiased, pretty solidly comprehensive guide to the core textual living examples of so-called Holy texts - and it's a diverse bunch but there is so much that unites them in similitude at the same time; a fact that will resonate with anyone of any faith or none from reading Armstrong is that you will develop a much deeper appreciation for the plain facts of how much good, more or less, religious-originating values and ethics still hold fundamentally impressive sway on the vast majority of people in ways we don't perceive - perhaps we don't care to? But it's there, it's a real part of our world and the beyondness past what we know and cannot know. I'm saying all of this as a born-again Christian, without denominational affiliation though I technically do belong to an Anglican monastic community, but my home church situation got complicated and I have been congregationally homeless for over a year. I've got used to it and I'm not sure how spiritually healthy that is long-term, but it'll take a while to get over what happened at and with The Crowded House. That said, I'm steering a pretty orthodox path in my own way, I'd like to think. Even though I am also now a Taoist with possibly a smidge of Sufi too... God, give me wisdom and slowness as I explore the richness and variety of other religions for a spell. Well, okay, for a novel. Or seven.
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