Karen Armstrong: The Great Transformation

by David Klinghoffer, Religion BookLine -- Publishers Weekly, 2/8/2006

PW gave a starred review (Jan. 16) to Armstrong's latest book, The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions (Knopf, Apr. 2006). RBL sat down with her to discuss her findings about the genesis of the world's great faiths.

RBL: In The Great Transformation, you describe the Axial Age (900-200 B.C.E.) when four great religious and philosophical traditions were born in Israel, Greece, India and China. What accounts for the almost simultaneous emergence?

Armstrong: In all four countries of the Axial Age, human society had taken a major step forward. City life was developing; there were industrial and agricultural revolutions; the beginning of a market economy; transport and roads were improving and this enlarged people's horizons. As a result, people began to look at the world differently.

Another ingredient was violence. In the four Axial regions, violence and warfare had reached unprecedented levels. In every single case the catalyst of major religious change was revulsion from warfare and aggression.

RBL: Who's your favorite Axial sage?

Armstrong: If you are going to push me, I think I would have to say that the Buddha was the star of the Axial Age. But Confucius is a close second.

RBL: The Hebrew prophets spent a lot of time denouncing the belief in false gods. But you write that to the Axial sages, "What mattered was not what you believed but how you behaved." Would Jeremiah agree?

Armstrong: Yes, he would. The prophets were not denouncing the belief in false gods but insisting that the people of Israel must not worship them. There is a difference. Most of the prophets probably believed that other Gods existed. The prophets' chief message was ethical: they demanded that Israelites practice social justice and compassion.

RBL: You write that "the spirit of compassion...lies at the heart of all our traditions." Which modern faith does the best job of keeping that spirit prominent in its believers' awareness?

Armstrong: Buddhism, I think.

RBL: You're not too friendly toward modern "fundamentalists."

Armstrong: I hope that I am not unfriendly toward modern "fundamentalists," because one of the main principles of the Axial Age is what one of the Chinese sages called jian ai: "concern for everybody." But yes, those who think that only one religion is right will be offended by my book, because I see all the great traditions as equally valid and in profound agreement.

RBL: You call for a modern Great Transformation. Do you see one brewing?

Armstrong: We are witnessing a widespread abuse of religion and hatred that is often given religious justification. We have now to learn to live the Golden Rule globally, seeing that other nations are as important as our own.