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The great transformation : the beginning of our religious traditions Cover Image

The great transformation : the beginning of our religious traditions / Karen Armstrong.

Armstrong, Karen, 1944- (Author).

Summary:

In the ninth century BCE, the peoples of four distinct regions of the civilized world created the religious and philosophical traditions that have continued to nourish humanity to the present day: Confucianism and Daoism in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, monotheism in Israel, and philosophical rationalism in Greece. Later generations further developed these initial insights, but we have never grown beyond them. Now, Karen Armstrong reveals how the sages of this pivotal "Axial Age" can speak clearly and helpfully to the violence and desperation that we experience in our own times. The Axial Age faiths began in recoil from the unprecedented violence of their time. There was a remarkable consensus in their call for an abandonment of selfishness and a spirituality of compassion. The traditions of the Axial Age were not about dogma--all insisted on the primacy of compassion even in the midst of suffering.--From publisher description.

Record details

ISBN: 0375413170
ISBN: 0676974651
Physical Description: xviii, 469 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: New York : Knopf, 2006.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	The Axial peoples (c. 1600 to 900 BCE) -- Ritual (c. 900 to 800 BCE) -- Kenosis (c. 800 to 700 BCE) -- Knowledge (c. 700 to 600 BCE) -- Suffering (c. 600 to 530 BCE) -- Empathy (c. 530 to 450 BCE) -- Concern for everybody (c. 450 to 398 BCE) -- All is one (c. 400 to 300 BCE) -- Empire (c. 300 to 220 BCE) -- The way forward.