Malachi151

Yep, and the same can be said of the writings and deeds of Lenin, Mao, and Stalin. Indeed the Hebrew scriptures strike me a very Leninist.

"God loves the poor and hates the people who oppress the poor, and God is going to kill everyone, mutilate their babies, curse them with famine and plagues and disease, because the poor continue to be oppressed, which God hates."

That seem to be the overriding theme of the books of the prophets....

Magdlyn

LOL

gstafleu

I just (almost) finished her The Great Transformation (or via: amazon.co.uk). She there argues that, roughly (roughly!) 500BC four cultures, the Chinese, the Indians (as in India: Buddha) the Greeks and the Hebrews were forced by historical circumstances (life was a mess) to reform their religions into a more compassionate form. An interesting concept, although not quite hers alone, it is apparently (never read the guy) based on Karl Jasper's idea of the Axial Age.

Gerard Stafleu

gstafleu

How about the complete (almost) gospel of John? E.g. the logos hymn seems fairly non-literal to me, as does that anothen (born again/from above) bit in John 3.

Gerard Stafleu

Magdlyn

That theory must be what she was referring to in the interview. She admits, having been raised Catholic, "scripture" was not used that much, if at all, anyway.

The snorting and blowing YHWH and his bloody wars and conquests can be gently set aside to make a quiet place for the mystics to intuitively experience the divine, in an almost Buddhist (I would suggest, gnostic) way.

Student of Sophia

Very true. The God of the fundamentalists, literalists, etc is not the God (or Goddess) of mystics and philosophers.

This is a very, very hard pill for some people to swallow especially if they haven't read enough to dispel the inevitable pop-culture misunderstandings regarding all this.

Joan of Bark

I believe this is what Silberman and Finkelstein assert in The Bible Unearthed.

I have read a couple of books by Armstrong, and while I enjoy the take she gives on the information, she does strike me as a Christian apologist.

-Jay-

Quite right. S & F do assert etiological significance to much of Biblical history. Dever does, too. The J, E, D, & P sources also tend to support such a line of reasoning when considered in terms of their political subtexts. The idea really clicked for me when I was considering the issue of where Cain found a wife if, at the time he was set to wandering the only other people around were his parents.

I like the detail Armstrong puts into her background material, although I find it tedious at times. I hadn't really considered her as an apologist before, but now that I think about it, you're right. Being an extremely liberal Catholic myself, I suspect that I've read Armstrong through a filter that I wasn't conscious of.

regards,

NinJay

matthewthomas

Apologist perhaps, but an often voiced criticism is that doesn't restrict herself to Christian apologetics, but also defends Islam:
http://www.islam-watch.org/Ibrahim/K...pologetics.htm
http://www.hyscience.com/archives/20..._armstrong.php
...are amongst various criticisms of her perceived bias towards Islam.

When I read The Great Transformation, I had a nagging feeling that some religious reforms were being presented in a strained way in order to fit this thesis. I'd have to look at it again more closer to say where, I'm afraid, as it was just a thought in the back of my mind. Although I find KA's books interesting to read, I wonder if she is sometimes guilty of defining True Religion ^TM as the compassionate form, and so the early, primitive or violent religious ideas (or whatever one calls them) aren't True Religion, so can't be used to attack religions now.

Best wisehs,
Matthew

Magdlyn

What about the idea that the Exodus story, being written during exile in Babylon, was the expansion of earlier legend threads, to shore up the hope that YHWH would now release the Judaeans from Babylon as he supposedly rescued Moses' tribe from Egypt?


I believe Armstrong is just very fond of mystical spirituality, no matter in which religion it appears. She presents reams of evidence of mystics of all 3 Abrahamic religions, from all thru late antiquity into the Middle Ages, in the History of God which I am currently reading.

I don't think she is "apologizing" for all religions. I think she acknowledges the violent sides of each, but calls for unity to bring peace. Unity will be brought by stressing what each religion (including the other 2 big ones, RCA and Sony, erm, I mean Hinduism and Buddhism*) has in common. Experience of God as One, and that "he" is found within each of us. You know, that kumbaya stuff.


*cookie for anyone who recognizes this attribution