LOST ART OF SCRIPTURE

Book number: 92777 Product format: Hardback Author: KAREN ARMSTRONG

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Bibliophile price £6.00
Published price $35


Sub-titled 'Rescuing the Sacred Texts', and by the bestselling author of 'A History of God', in our increasingly secular world, holy texts are seen at best as irrelevant, and at worst as an excuse to incite violence, hatred and division. So what value, if any, can scripture hold for us today? If our world no longer seems compatible with scripture, is it perhaps because its original purpose has become lost? Today we see the Quran being used by some to justify war and terrorism, the Torah to deny Palestinians the right to live in the land of Israel, and the Bible to condemn homosexuality and contraception. The holy texts at the centre of all religious traditions are often employed selectively to underwrite arbitrary and subjective views. They are believed to be divinely ordained and claimed to contain eternal truths. But as Karen Armstrong, a world authority on religious affairs, shows in her fascinating journey through millennia of history, this narrow reading of scripture is a relatively recent phenomenon. For hundreds of years these texts were instead viewed as spiritual tools - scripture was a means for individuals to connect with the divine, to transcend their physical existence, and to experience a higher level of consciousness. Holy texts were seen as fluid and adaptable rather than a set of binding archaic rules which had to be believed. Karen Armstrong argues that only by rediscovering an open engagement with their holy texts will the world's religions be able to curtail arrogance, intolerance and violence, and if scripture is used to engage with the world in more meaningful and compassionate ways, we will find it still has a great deal to teach us. The myths, rituals, sacred texts and ethical practices of religion develop a plan of action 'whereby people reach beyond themselves to connect with the true and ultimate reality that will save them from the destructive forces of everyday existence.' But what is that ultimate reality - Brahman, Dao, Nirvana, Elohim or God? Armstrong traces the chronological development of major scriptural canons in India and China as well as the monotheistic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and how they prescribe different ways of living in harmony and what the Greeks call Kenosis - the 'emptying' of self, a central scriptural theme. A serious and inspiring piece of scholarship blending cultural history, anthropology and neuropsychology sending us back to the sacred texts with fresh eyes. 605pp, deckle edge pages, highly desirable in the USA.

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ISBN 9780451494863

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