The Great Transformation

The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions

De: Karen Armstrong

Narrado por: Karen Armstrong

From one of the world’s leading writers on religion and the highly acclaimed author of the bestselling A History of God, The Battle for God and The Spiral Staircase, comes a major new work: a chronicle of one of the most important intellectual revolutions in world history and its relevance to our own time.

In one astonishing, short period – 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 into the present day: Confucianism and Daoism in China; Hinduism and Buddhism in India; monotheism in Israel; and philosophical rationalism in Greece. Historians call this the Axial Age because of its central importance to humanity’s spiritual development. Now, Karen Armstrong traces the rise and development of this
transformative moment in history, examining the brilliant contributions to these traditions made by such figures as the Buddha, Socrates, Confucius and Ezekiel.

Armstrong makes clear that despite some differences of emphasis, there was remarkable consensus among these religions and philosophies: each insisted on the primacy of compassion over hatred and violence. She illuminates what this “family” resemblance reveals about the religious impulse and quest of humankind. And she goes beyond spiritual archaeology, delving into the ways in which these Axial Age beliefs can present an instructive and thought-provoking challenge to the ways we think about and practice religion today.

A revelation of humankind’s early shared imperatives, yearnings and inspired solutions – as salutary as it
is fascinating.

Excerpt from The Great Transformation:

In our global world, we can no longer afford a parochial or exclusive vision. We must learn to live and behave as though people in remote parts of the globe were as important as ourselves. The sages of the Axial Age did not create their compassionate ethic in idyllic circumstances. Each tradition developed in societies like our own that were torn apart by violence and warfare as never before; indeed, the first catalyst of religious change was usually a visceral rejection of the aggression that the sages witnessed all around them. . . .

All the great traditions that were created at this time are in agreement about the supreme importance of charity and benevolence, and this tells us something important about our humanity.©2006 Karen Armstrong; (P)2006 Books on Tape

Reseñas de la Crítica

"The Great Transformation can serve the needs of new readers interested in a popular work that synthesizes scholarship. . . . [U]seful to anyone seeking an integral sense of world religions."
—The Globe and Mail

Praise for Karen Armstrong:
"Karen Armstrong is a genius."
—A. N. Wilson, author of Jesus: A Life

"Armstrong is a lucid writer with a knack for synthesizing vast quantities of research."
—The Globe and Mail

"Armstrong’s writing continues to offer a religious mirror and a cultural vision."
—Amazon.com

"Armstrong has a dazzling ability: she can take a long and complex subject and reduce it to the fundamentals, without oversimplifying."
—The Sunday Times

audible should focus on quality as much as lroft

the book is excellent. Fascinating, and requires time to think! no proble with the book. it's Audible that I find keeps doing a second rate job. the chapter divisions are based on time, rather than the actual chapter divisions. why? because obviously the audio files were based on 46 munte cassette sides. Audible could take the time to re-cut the audio files to align with the actual book chapters, but why would they bother? doing a good job isn't important to them if you will pay for their lousy job. but there's no warning or information to say "copied over from old cassette audio with inaccurate chapter breaks".

minor complaint

I have one minor complaint. The book chapters and the audible chapters don't line up.

Okay, but nothing new

This was a decent summary of its topic, but I didn't notice anything particularly new or insightful in it. Worth getting if you haven't already been exposed to the topic, but probably not if you're already familiar with the subject matter and its thesis. The only significant difference was that in addition to the traditional coverage of the trio of the Daoic (East Asian), Dharmic (South Asian), and Abrahamic (Middle Eastern) religions/philosophies when discussing this topic, she also added in Greek religion/philosophy.

tl;dr Get if you're new to the topic, are interested in the extension to Greek religion/philosophy, or are heavily into the topic; otherwise find something else to occupy your time and Audible credits.

Worth the Journey

This book almost killed me. It took me two years to read. I had to divide and conquer owning both a hard copy as well as the audio book. The author reads her own work. She constantly mispronounces the prophet Isaiah’s name or perhaps she doesn’t and it’s me who says it wrong. There is so much to unpack and learn about the Axial Age that rather than being a one and done, this book inspires me to keep going in my studies.

Great book!

A Must Read for our time. Open yourself to a new perspective on humanity, as related to religion and ego.