Karen Armstrong

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This article is about the religious author. For the American operatic soprano, see Karan Armstrong.

Karen Armstrong

FRSL
Armstrong in 2016
Armstrong in 2016
Born (1944-11-14) 14 November 1944 (age 79)
Wildmoor, Worcestershire, England
OccupationWriter
NationalityBritish
Alma materSt Anne's College, Oxford
Website
CharterForCompassion.org

Karen Armstrong

Irish Catholic descent known for her books on comparative religion.[1] A former Roman Catholic religious sister, she went from a conservative to a more liberal and mystical Christian faith. She attended St Anne's College, Oxford, while in the convent and majored in English. She left the convent in 1969.[1] Her work focuses on commonalities of the major religions, such as the importance of compassion and the Golden Rule
.

Armstrong received the US$100,000 TED Prize in February 2008. She used that occasion to call for the creation of a Charter for Compassion, which was unveiled the following year.

Personal life

Armstrong was born at Wildmoor,

treadle machine with no needle for a fortnight."[3]

Once she had advanced from

dissertation on a topic that had been approved by the university committee. Nevertheless, it was failed by her external examiner on the grounds that the topic had been unsuitable.[4] Armstrong did not formally protest this verdict, nor did she embark upon a new topic but instead abandoned hope of an academic career. She reports that this period in her life was marked by ill-health stemming from her lifelong but, at that time, still undiagnosed temporal lobe epilepsy.[5][6][7]

Around this time she was lodged with

The Spiral Staircase.[4]

Armstrong is unmarried.

Confucian, I think."[9][10]

Career

In 1976, Armstrong took a job teaching English at

Protestant minister,[11] and the Jesuit father Bernard Lonergan.[12] In 1996, she published Jerusalem
: One City, Three Faiths.

Armstrong's The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions (2006) continues the themes covered in A History of God and examines the emergence and codification of the world's great religions during the so-called Axial Age identified by Karl Jaspers. In the year of its publication Armstrong was invited to choose her eight favourite records for BBC Radio's Desert Island Discs programme.[13] She has made several appearances on television, including on Rageh Omaar's programme The Life of Muhammad. Her work has been translated into forty-five languages.[14] She was an advisor for the award-winning, PBS-broadcast documentary Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet (2002), produced by Unity Productions Foundation.

In 2007 the

Islamic Religious Council of Singapore invited Armstrong to deliver the MUIS Lecture.[15]

Armstrong is a fellow of the Jesus Seminar, a group of scholars and laypeople which attempts to investigate the historical foundations of Christianity. She has written numerous articles for The Guardian and for other publications. She was a key advisor on Bill Moyers' popular PBS series on religion, has addressed members of the United States Congress, and was one of three scholars to speak at the UN's first ever session on religion.[16] She is a vice-president of the British Epilepsy Association, otherwise known as Epilepsy Action.

Armstrong, who has taught courses at

human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensable to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community."[19]

Awarded the $100,000

Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Paul Simon.[21]

In 2012, the Jack P. Blaney Award for Dialogue recognized her outstanding achievement in advancing understanding about and among world religions, and promoting compassion as a way of life. During her award residency in Canada, Armstrong gave the "State of the Charter for Compassion Global Address" and co-launched a compassionate cities initiative in Vancouver.[22]

Honours

In 1999 Armstrong received the Muslim Public Affairs Council's Media Award.[23][24][25]

Armstrong was honoured by the New York Open Center in 2004 for her "profound understanding of religious traditions and their relation to the divine."[26]

She received an honorary degree as Doctor of Letters by Aston University in 2006.[27]

In May 2008 she was awarded the

Roosevelt Institute, one of four medals presented each year to men and women whose achievements have demonstrated a commitment to the Four Freedoms proclaimed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941 as essential to democracy: freedom of speech and of worship, freedom from want and from fear. The institute stated that Armstrong had become "a significant voice, seeking mutual understanding in times of turbulence, confrontation and violence among religious groups." It cited "her personal dedication to the ideal that peace can be found in religious understanding, for her teachings on compassion, and her appreciation for the positive sources of spirituality."[28]

She also received the TED Prize 2008.[29]

In 2009 she was awarded the Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize by the University of Tübingen.[30]

Armstrong was honoured with the Nationalencyklopedin's International Knowledge Award 2011[31] "for her long standing work of bringing knowledge to others about the significance of religion to humankind and, in particular, for pointing out the similarities between religions. Through a series of books and award-winning lectures she reaches out as a peace-making voice at a time when world events are becoming increasingly linked to religion."

On 12 May 2010, she was made honorary Doctor of Divinity by Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario).[32]

On 30 November 2011 (

University of Saint Andrews.[33]

On 20 March 2012, Karen Armstrong was awarded the 2011/12 Jack P. Blaney Award for Dialogue for her work in advancing understanding about and among world religions.[22]

In 2013, she was awarded the

Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding by the British Academy "in recognition of her body of work that has made a significant contribution to understanding the elements of overlap and commonality in different cultures and religions".[34]

On 3 June 2014, she was made an honorary Doctor of Divinity by McGill University.[35]

In 2017 Armstrong was bestowed

Princess of Asturias award in recognition of her investigations into world religions.[36]

Reception

Armstrong was described by philosopher

inter-faith dialogue.[41]

Armstrong has been criticized as misunderstanding theology and medieval history, especially in conservative publications First Things and National Review.[42][43]

Books

External videos
video icon Presentation by Armstrong on The Battle for God, 6 April 2000, C-SPAN
video icon Booknotes interview with Armstrong on Islam: A Short History, 22 October 2000, C-SPAN
video icon Discussion with Armstrong on Buddha, 9 March 2001, C-SPAN
video icon Presentation by Armstrong on Islam: A Short History, 1 August 2002, C-SPAN
video icon Presentation by Armstrong on The Spiral Staircase, 8 March 2004, C-SPAN
video icon Presentation by Armstrong on The Great Transformation, 3 April 2006, C-SPAN
video icon Presentation by Armstrong on Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time, 20 November 2006, C-SPAN
video icon After Words interview with Armstrong on Fields of Blood, 15 November 2014, C-SPAN

Journal articles

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Schulson, Michael (23 November 2014). "Karen Armstrong on Sam Harris and Bill Maher: "It fills me with despair, because this is the sort of talk that led to the concentration camps"". Salon. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  2. ISBN 0-312-34095-8
    .
  3. ^ Thorpe, Vanessa (2 October 2010). "Karen Armstrong: The compassionate face of religion". The Guardian.
  4. ^ a b Armstrong, Karen. The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out Of Darkness. New York: Random House, 2004.
  5. doi:10.1093/brain/awh719
    .
  6. ^ Stanford, Peter (5 April 2004). "The runaway nun". New Statesman. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  7. TheGuardian.com
    .
  8. ^ "Interview: Karen Armstrong, author, academic and broadcaster". Church Times. 22 July 2009. Retrieved 26 June 2022.
  9. ^ Quinn, Sally (29 March 2006). "A Historian's Faithful Account Once Rejecting Religion, Karen Armstrong Now Sees It as a Guidepost". The Washington Post. Retrieved 26 June 2022.
  10. ^ Bitting, Diane (17 April 2018). "How Karen Armstrong became a 'freelance monotheist'". LNP. Retrieved 26 June 2022.
  11. ^ See The Case for God, p. 87, footnote 42
  12. ^ The Case for God, p. 283.
  13. ^ "Desert Island Discs, February 12, 2006: Karen Armstrong". BBC Radio 4 Website. Retrieved 9 April 2008.
  14. ^ Turkovich, Marilyn. "Karen Armstrong". Charter for Compassion. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  15. ^ Karen Armstrong delivers the 2007 MUIS lecture Archived 19 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine, muis.gov.sg
  16. ^ Karen Armstrong Speaker Profile at The Lavin Agency, thelavinagency.com. Archived 17 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ Dave Weich, "Karen Armstrong, Turn, Turn, Turn".
  18. ^ "Voices on Antisemitism interview with Karen Armstrong". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 5 July 2007. Archived from the original on 15 February 2012.
  19. ^ "The Charter for Compassion". Archived from the original on 10 May 2011.
  20. ^ "TEDPrize 2008 Winner :: Karen Armstrong". TEDPrize Website. Retrieved 19 March 2008.
  21. ^ Chapman, Glenn (12 November 2009). "Online call for religions to embrace compassion". Agence France-Presse. Retrieved 12 November 2009.
  22. ^ a b "Twelve Days of Compassion with Karen Armstrong". Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  23. ^ "Last Chance to Buy Your Tickets to MPAC Media Awards Gala on Sunday, 1 June". Muslim Public Affairs Council. Archived from the original on 22 May 2012. Retrieved 25 December 2011.
  24. ^ "Karen Armstrong". Westar Institute. Archived from the original on 14 November 2011. Retrieved 25 December 2011.
  25. ^ "Karen Armstrong". Bill Moyers Journal. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). 13 March 2009. Retrieved 25 December 2011.
  26. ^ "Open Center Gala Honorees". 2009. Archived from the original on 3 November 2009. Retrieved 9 October 2009.
  27. ^ "Honorary Graduates of the University". Aston University. Archived from the original on 25 June 2010. Retrieved 25 December 2011.
  28. ^ "The Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Awards: Freedom of Worship: Karen Armstrong". Four Freedoms Award website. Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. 2008. Retrieved 28 June 2008.
  29. ^ "2008 Winners". TED Prize. Archived from the original on 18 January 2010. Retrieved 25 December 2011.
  30. ISBN 978-3-16-150305-4. Archived from the original
    on 22 March 2014.
  31. ^ "Intervju med Karen Armstrong". The Knowledge Awards. Archived from the original on 21 April 2012. Retrieved 25 December 2011.
  32. ^ "Former Prime Minister Paul Martin among Queen's honorary degree recipients"., Queen's Gazette
  33. ^ "The point of religion". 16 November 2011. University of St Andrews, News archive.
  34. ^ "Celebrated British author Karen Armstrong wins inaugural prize for her contribution to global interfaith understanding". British Academy. 4 July 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  35. ^ "Fourteen individuals to receive honorary degree from McGill". McGill Reporter. 30 April 2014.
  36. ^ Giles, Ciaran; Aritz Parra (31 May 2017). "Religion Scholar Karen Armstrong Wins Top Spanish Award". Associated Press.
  37. ^ de Botton, Alain (19 July 2009). "In defence of the true God - review". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
  38. ^ Bonos, Lisa (16 January 2011). "Review of Karen Armstrong's "Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life"". The Washington Post. Retrieved 21 May 2011.
  39. ^ Miller, Laura. ""Buddha" by Karen Armstrong". Salon.com. Archived from the original on 7 August 2011. Retrieved 21 May 2011.
  40. S2CID 161552084
    .
  41. ISBN 978-1-4443-9044-5. Extract of page 249
  42. ^ "The Selective Compassion of Karen Armstrong | Joe Carter". First Things. 16 November 2009. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
  43. ^ Ibrahim, Raymond (7 May 2007). "Islamic Apologetics". National Review. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
  44. ^ McGirr, Michael (10 October 2014). "Book Review: Battling with the evils of humanity". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
  45. ^ Winkett, Lucy (7 June 2019). "In scripture, we find not just religious thought and theory—but a challenge to how we read". Prospect. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  46. ^ Briefly reviewed in the January 2023 issue of Commonweal, p.65.

External links

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