Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence PDF
Preview Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence
Praise for Karen Annstrong's Fields of Blood "Elegant and powerful. ... Erudite and accurate, dazzling in its breadth of knowledge and historical detail. ... Armstrong has done a great service by showing us how wrong some of the sim plistic assumptions have been. But she also makes us aware of how much more there is to be known about the awesome dimen sion of religion in public life." -The Washington Post "A compelling examination of the true forces underlying religious violence." -The Huffington Post "Written in a lucid and fleet prose .... [Armstrong is] one of the keenest minds working on understanding the role religion plays in cultures around the globe." -Minneapolis Star Tribune "Panoramic work .... Enjoyable and informative." -Salon "A valuable, readable rebuttal of a pernicious contemporary myth .... Armstrong goes through the centuries and assorted cultures to demonstrate again and again how religious principles and religious leaders were co-opted to support warfare." -St. Louis Post-Dispatch "A tour-de-force of the history of the world's major religions .... Fields of Blood is thought-provoking as it examines one of the more fascinating elements of human civilization." -Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "Armstrong is doing us a great service .... We feel we are in the hands of an expert." -The Guardian (London) "Riveting. ... [A] mighty offering. Armstrong is one of our most erudite expositors of religion." -The Observer (London) "Provocative and supremely readable .... Bracing as ever, [Arm strong] sweeps through religious history around the globe and over 4,000 years to explain the yoking of religion and violence and to elucidate the ways in which religion has also been used to counter violence." -Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Epic in scale .... A comprehensive and erudite study of the his tory of violence in relation to religion .... An intriguing read, useful resource and definitive voice in defense of the divine in human culture." -Kirkus Reviews {starred review) "A well-written historical summary of what have traditionally been viewed as 'religious' wars, showing convincingly that in pretty much all cases it was not so much religion as it was politi cal issues that fueled the conflict." -Library journal (starred review) "Armstrong again impresses with the breadth of her knowledge and the skill with which she conveys it to us." -Booklist (starred review) Karen Armstrong Fields of Blood Karen Armstrong is the author of numerous books on reli gion, including The Case for God, A History of God, The Battle for God, Holy War, Islam, Buddha, and The Great Transformation, as well as a memoir, The Spiral Staircase. Her work has been translated into forty-five languages. In 2.008 she was awarded the TED Prize and began working with TED on the Charter for Compassion, created online by the general public, crafted by leading thinkers in Juda ism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confu cianism. It was launched globally in the fall of 2009. Also in 2008, she was awarded the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Medal. In 2013, she received the British Acad emy's inaugural Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Transcultural Understanding. l\LSO BY Kl\REN l\RMSTRONG Through the Narrow Gate A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest ofJ udaism, Christianity and Islam Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths Islam: A Short History Buddha The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam The Spiral Staircase A Short History of Myth Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions The Bible: The Biography The Case for God: What Religion Really Means Twel11e Steps to a Compassionate Life Fields of Blood _..,._ Religion and the History ofViolence KAREN ARMSTRONG ANCHOR BOOKS A Division of Penguin Random House LLC New York For ]ane Garrett FIRST ANCHOR BOOKS EDITION, SEPTEMBER 2015 Copyright 0 2.014, 2.0IJ by Karen Armstrong All rights reserved. Published in the United Stares by Anchor Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. Originally published in Great Britain by The Bodley Head, an imprint of the Random House Group Limited, London, and subsequently published in slightly different form in hardcover in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, in z.01+ Anchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC. Grateful acknowledgment is made to Schocken Books for permission to reprint an excerpt from The Five Books of Moses, Deluxe Edition with fllustrations: The Schocken Bible, Volume l by Dr. Everett Fox, copyright 0 1983, 1986, 1990, 1995 by Schocken Books. Reprinted by permission of Schocken Books, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday PublishingGroup, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. The Library of Congress has cataloged the Knopf edition as follows: Armstrong, Karen, [date] Fields of blood : religion and the history of violence I Karen Armstrong. pages cm 1. Violence-Religious aspects. 1. Tide. llL65.V55A76 2.014 z.01'.7z.---dcz.3 z.014011057 Anchor Books Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-0-307-94696-6 eBook ISBN: 978-0-385-35310-6 Author photograph Cl Michael Lionstar Book design by Cassandra ]. Pappas www.anchorbooks.com Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 Now Hevel became a shepherd of flocks, and Kayin became a worker of the soil But then it was, when they were out in the field that Kayin rose up against Hevel bis brother and he killed him. YHWH said to Kayin: Where is Hevel your brother? Hesaid: I do not know. Am I the watcher of my brother? Nowhe said: What have you clone! Hark-your brother's blood cries out to me from the soil! -GENESIS 4: :z., 8-ro, translated by Everett Fox Contents lntroduction 3 Part One • BEGINNINGS r. Farmers and Herdsmen 21 2. India: The Noble Path 3. China: Warriors and Gentlemen 4. The Hebrew Dilemma Part Two • KEEPING THE PEACE 5. Jesus: Not of This World? 6. Byzantium: The Tragedy of Empire 7. The Muslim Dilemma 8. Crusade and Jihad Part Three • MODERNITY 9. The Arrival of "Religion" ro. The Triumph of the Secular II. Religion Fights Back 12. Holy Terror 13. Global Jihad Afterword 393 Postscript 403 Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index
Description:The list of books you might like
