The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Description

One of the most potent forces bedevilling the modern world is religious extremism. The need to understand it has never been greater, and Karen Armstrong attempts to do so in this text. Focusing in detail on Protestant fundamentalism in the United States, Jewish fundamentalism from 16th century Spain onwards and of course latterly in Israel, and Muslim fundamentalism over the last 400 years, she brings her deeply informed religious understanding to bear on the patterns that underlie fundamentalism. These evolve from the clash between - as she explains it - the conservative pre-modern mind that is governed by a love of myth and revelation, and the progressive rational society that relishes change. Fundamentalists view the contemporary world with horror, rejecting its claims to truth; there has always been a withdrawal from mainstream society and a fundamentalist "counter-culture" among the three traditions, and a state of war now exists over the future of our culture. These are not terrorists, rather, fundamentalists are now innovative, modern movements which exist 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, and by applying that originality to the wide sweep of European and American history affords a compelling narrative; as a history of movements of people and 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.

Karen Armstrong was born in Worcestershire. After becoming a nun in the 1960s, she left her order and lectured in literature at London University before becoming a full time writer, broadcaster and international adviser on religious and political affairs. A regular columnist for the Guardian, her books include A History of God, The Gospel According to Women, The Battle for God, Islam: A Short History, Through the Narrow Gate, her memoir A Spiral Staircase and A Short History of Myth: The Great Transformation and Buddha. Her work has been translated into forty languages. Karen Armstrong is also the author of three television documentaries. In 1999 she was awarded the Muslim Public Affairs Council Media Award and she was recently awarded a First Decoration of Art and Literature by the Egyptian Government - the first Western woman to be given this award. Since 11 September 2001 she has been a frequent contributor to conferences, panels, newspapers and periodicals on both sides of the Atlantic on the subject of Islam and fundamentalism. She has twice addressed members of the United States Congress, was one of three scholars to speak in the United Nations in the first session ever devoted to religion in that body, and has also been invited to advise members of the Canadian parliament on relations with the Islamic world. In June 2002, she gave the keynote address at the annual convention of the American Muslim Council, and is currently involved in a major project to develop an intellectually strong and pluralistic American Islam with leading members of the Muslim community. She lives in London.

'The quality of this remarkable book lies as much in its detail as in its sweeping vision' Daily Telegraph 'Armstrong displays all her usual talents: she has an eye for colourful evidence, a wonderful gift for clarity of exposition and an unerring sense of pace and voice and narrative.' Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Literary Review 'A remarkable book...impressive clarity and drive' Scotland on Sunday