Karen Armstrong

{{about|the religious author|the American operatic soprano|Karan Armstrong}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Karen Armstrong

| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|OBE|FRSL|size=100%}}

| image = Karen_Armstrong.jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Armstrong in 2016

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1944|11|14}}

| birth_place = Wildmoor, Worcestershire, England

| alma_mater = St Anne's College, Oxford

| institution =

| death_date =

| death_place =

| occupation = Writer

| period =

| genre =

| influences =

| signature =

| website = {{URL|https://charterforcompassion.org|CharterForCompassion.org}}

}}

Karen Armstrong (born 14 November 1944) is a British author and commentator known for her books on comparative religion.{{cite news|title=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" |first= Michael | last= Schulson |url=http://www.salon.com/2014/11/23/karen_armstrong_sam_harris_anti_islam_talk_fills_me_with_despair/|work=Salon|date=23 November 2014 |access-date=7 June 2018}} 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 graduated in English. She left the convent in 1969. 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, Worcestershire,{{cite book|last=Armstrong|first=Karen|title=Through A Narrow Gate: A Memoir of Spiritual Discovery|publisher=Macmillan|year=2005|edition=Revised|pages=7|isbn=0-312-34095-8}} into a family of Irish ancestry who, after her birth, moved to Bromsgrove and later to Birmingham. In 1962, at the age of 17, she became a member of the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus, a teaching congregation, in which she remained for seven years. Armstrong says she suffered physical and psychological abuse in the convent; according to an article in The Guardian newspaper, "Armstrong was required to mortify her flesh with whips and wear a spiked chain around her arm. When she spoke out of turn, she claims she was forced to sew at a treadle machine with no needle for a fortnight."{{cite news|title=Karen Armstrong: The compassionate face of religion|first= Vanessa|last= Thorpe|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2010/oct/03/profile-karen-armstrong-religion|newspaper=The Guardian|date=2 October 2010}}

Once she had advanced from postulant and novice to professed nun, she enrolled in St Anne's College, Oxford, to study English. Armstrong left her order in 1969 while still a student at Oxford. After graduating with a Congratulatory First, she embarked on a DPhil on the poet Alfred Tennyson. According to Armstrong, she wrote her 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.Armstrong, Karen. The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out Of Darkness. New York: Random House, 2004. 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.{{cite journal|last=McGrath|first=Alister|year=2006|title=Spirituality and well-being: some recent discussions|journal=Brain|volume=129|issue=1|pages=278–282|doi=10.1093/brain/awh719|doi-access=free}}{{cite magazine |title=The runaway nun |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/node/159516 |first=Peter |last=Stanford|magazine=New Statesman |date=5 April 2004 |access-date=16 August 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://theguardian.com/books/2007/oct/06/society1|title=A question of faith|last=Bunting|first=Madeleine|date=6 October 2007|website=TheGuardian.com }}

Around this time she was lodged with Jenifer and Herbert Hart, looking after their disabled son, as told in her memoir The Spiral Staircase.

Armstrong is unmarried.{{Cite news |url=https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2009/24-july/features/interview-karen-armstrong-author-academic-and-broadcaster |title=Interview: Karen Armstrong, author, academic and broadcaster |date=22 July 2009 |work=Church Times |access-date=26 June 2022 }}{{Dead link|date=March 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Although she had once described herself as a "freelance monotheist," more recently she said, "I wouldn't even call myself a monotheist anymore. ... If anything, I'm a Confucian, I think."{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2006/03/29/a-historians-faithful-account-span-classbankheadonce-rejecting-religion-karen-armstrong-now-sees-it-as-a-guidepostspan/6affb52c-fbf6-4761-a8cb-7bbc03bf8799/ |title=A Historian's Faithful Account Once Rejecting Religion, Karen Armstrong Now Sees It as a Guidepost |last=Quinn |first=Sally |date=29 March 2006 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=26 June 2022 }}{{Cite news |url=https://lancasteronline.com/features/faith_values/how-karen-armstrong-became-a-freelance-monotheist/article_465ead6a-4285-11e8-9ea2-e35f769846e7.html |title=How Karen Armstrong became a 'freelance monotheist' |last=Bitting |first=Diane |work=LNP |date=17 April 2018 |access-date=26 June 2022 }}

Career

In 1976, Armstrong took a job teaching English at James Allen's Girls' School in Dulwich while working on a memoir of her convent experiences. This was published in 1982 as Through the Narrow Gate to excellent reviews. That year she embarked on a new career as an independent writer and broadcasting presenter. In 1984, the British Channel Four commissioned her to write and present a television documentary on the life of St. Paul, The First Christian, a project that involved traveling to the Holy Land to retrace the steps of the saint. Armstrong described this visit as a "breakthrough experience" that defied her prior assumptions and provided the inspiration for virtually all her subsequent work. In A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam (1993), she traces the evolution of the three major monotheistic traditions from their beginnings in the Middle East up to the present day and also discusses Hinduism and Buddhism. As guiding "luminaries" in her approach, Armstrong acknowledges (in The Spiral Staircase and elsewhere) the late Canadian theologian Wilfred Cantwell Smith, a Protestant minister,See The Case for God, p. 87, footnote 42 and the Jesuit father Bernard Lonergan.The Case for God, p. 283. 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.{{cite web |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/desertislanddiscs20060212.shtml |title= Desert Island Discs, February 12, 2006: Karen Armstrong |access-date= 9 April 2008 |work= BBC Radio 4 Website }} 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.{{Cite web|url=https://charterforcompassion.org/about1/karen-armstrong|title=Karen Armstrong|last=Turkovich|first=Marilyn|website=Charter for Compassion|language=en-gb|access-date=2019-04-30|archive-date=22 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190322004419/https://charterforcompassion.org/about1/karen-armstrong|url-status=dead}} 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.[http://www.muis.gov.sg/newsletternet/v.aspx?n=85 Karen Armstrong delivers the 2007 MUIS lecture] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140319061942/http://www.muis.gov.sg/newsletternet/v.aspx?n=85 |date=19 March 2014 }}, muis.gov.sg

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.[http://www.thelavinagency.com/college/karenarmstrong.html Karen Armstrong Speaker Profile at The Lavin Agency], thelavinagency.com. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517022702/http://www.thelavinagency.com/college/karenarmstrong.html |date=17 May 2008 }} She is a vice-president of the British Epilepsy Association, otherwise known as Epilepsy Action.

Armstrong, who has taught courses at Leo Baeck College, a rabbinical college and centre for Jewish education located in North London, says she has been particularly inspired by the Jewish tradition's emphasis on practice as well as faith: "I say that religion isn't about believing things. It's about what you do. It's ethical alchemy. It's about behaving in a way that changes you, that gives you intimations of holiness and sacredness."Dave Weich, [http://www.powells.com/blog/?p=14106 "Karen Armstrong, Turn, Turn, Turn".] She maintains that religious fundamentalism is not just a response to, but is a product of contemporary culture{{cite web |url= http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/antisemitism/voices/transcript/index.php?content=20070705 |title= Voices on Antisemitism interview with Karen Armstrong |publisher= United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |date= 5 July 2007 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120215165824/http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/antisemitism/voices/transcript/index.php?content=20070705 |archive-date= 15 February 2012 }} and for this reason concludes that, "We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to 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."{{Cite web|url=http://charterforcompassion.org/share/the-charter/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510213651/http://charterforcompassion.org/share/the-charter/|url-status=dead|title=The Charter for Compassion.|archive-date=10 May 2011}}

Awarded the $100,000 TED Prize in February 2008, Armstrong called for drawing up a Charter for Compassion, in the spirit of the Golden Rule, to identify shared moral priorities across religious traditions, in order to foster global understanding and a peaceful world.{{cite web |url= http://www.tedprize.org/?page_id=8 |title= TEDPrize 2008 Winner :: Karen Armstrong |access-date= 19 March 2008 |work= TEDPrize Website}} It was presented in Washington, D.C. in November 2009. Signatories include Queen Noor of Jordan, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Paul Simon.

{{Cite news| last = Chapman | first = Glenn | title = Online call for religions to embrace compassion | publisher = Agence France-Presse | date = 12 November 2009 | url = https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gMy_pmwt7MKtU1RzSn_AfrhUFZJg | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100417073104/http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gMy_pmwt7MKtU1RzSn_AfrhUFZJg | url-status = dead | archive-date = 17 April 2010 | access-date = 12 November 2009 }}

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.{{cite web|title=Twelve Days of Compassion with Karen Armstrong|url=https://www.sfu.ca/dialogue/watch-read-discover/compassion-karen-armstrong.html|access-date=1 March 2019|archive-date=30 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730085657/https://www.sfu.ca/dialogue/watch-read-discover/compassion-karen-armstrong.html|url-status=dead}}

Honours

In 1999 Armstrong received the Muslim Public Affairs Council's Media Award.{{cite web |url=http://www.mpac.org/programs/hollywood-bureau/last-chance-to-buy-your-tickets-to-mpac-media-awards-gala-on-sunday-june-1st.php |title=Last Chance to Buy Your Tickets to MPAC Media Awards Gala on Sunday, 1 June |publisher=Muslim Public Affairs Council |access-date=25 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120522092032/http://www.mpac.org/programs/hollywood-bureau/last-chance-to-buy-your-tickets-to-mpac-media-awards-gala-on-sunday-june-1st.php |archive-date=22 May 2012 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web|url=http://www.westarinstitute.org/Fellows/armstrong.html |title=Karen Armstrong |publisher=Westar Institute |access-date=25 December 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111114185552/http://www.westarinstitute.org/Fellows/armstrong.html |archive-date=14 November 2011 }}{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/03132009/profile.html |work=Bill Moyers Journal |title= Karen Armstrong |publisher=Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) |date= 13 March 2009|access-date=25 December 2011}}

Armstrong was honoured by the New York Open Center in 2004 for her "profound understanding of religious traditions and their relation to the divine."{{cite web|url=http://www.opencenter.org/galahonorees/ |date=2009 |access-date=9 October 2009 |title=Open Center Gala Honorees |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091103190743/http://www.opencenter.org/galahonorees/ |archive-date= 3 November 2009 }}

She received an honorary degree as Doctor of Letters by Aston University in 2006.{{cite web|url=http://www1.aston.ac.uk/about/history/honorary-graduates/ |title=Honorary Graduates of the University |publisher=Aston University |access-date=25 December 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100625025202/http://www1.aston.ac.uk/about/history/honorary-graduates/ |archive-date=25 June 2010 }}

In May 2008 she was awarded the Freedom of Worship Award by 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."{{cite web |url=http://www.fourfreedoms.nl/index.php?lang=en&id=16&laureate=77 |title=The Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Awards: Freedom of Worship: Karen Armstrong |access-date=28 June 2008 |year=2008 |work=Four Freedoms Award website |publisher=Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute |archive-date=2 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202020640/http://www.fourfreedoms.nl/index.php?lang=en&id=16&laureate=77 |url-status=dead }}

She also received the TED Prize 2008.{{cite web|url=http://www.tedprize.org/2008-winners/ |title=2008 Winners |publisher=TED Prize |access-date=25 December 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100118072829/http://www.tedprize.org/2008-winners/ |archive-date=18 January 2010 }}

In 2009 she was awarded the Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize by the University of Tübingen.{{cite book|last=Armstrong|first=Karen.|title=Plädoyer für Gott|year=2010|publisher=Mohr Siebeck|location=Tübingen|isbn=978-3-16-150305-4|pages=108|url=http://www.mohr.de/en/religious-studies/subject-areas/all-books/buch/plaedoyer-fuer-gott.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140322002011/http://www.mohr.de/en/religious-studies/subject-areas/all-books/buch/plaedoyer-fuer-gott.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2014-03-22}}

Armstrong was honoured with the Nationalencyklopedin's International Knowledge Award 2011{{cite web |url=http://kunskapspriset.se/2011/10/internationella-hederspriset-2011-gar-till-karen-armstrong-3/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120421215127/http://kunskapspriset.se/2011/10/internationella-hederspriset-2011-gar-till-karen-armstrong-3/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=21 April 2012 |title=Intervju med Karen Armstrong |publisher=The Knowledge Awards |access-date=25 December 2011 }} "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).{{cite web |url=http://www.queensu.ca/gazette/content/former-prime-minister-paul-martin-among-queens-honorary-degree-recipients/ |title=Former Prime Minister Paul Martin among Queen's honorary degree recipients |access-date=29 December 2016 |archive-date=27 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170427042839/http://www.queensu.ca/gazette/content/former-prime-minister-paul-martin-among-queens-honorary-degree-recipients |url-status=dead }}, Queen's Gazette

On 30 November 2011 (Saint Andrew's Day), Armstrong was made honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Saint Andrews.{{cite web|url=https://news.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/the-point-of-religion/ |title=The point of religion| date= 16 November 2011}} University of St Andrews, News archive.

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.

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".{{cite web|title=Celebrated British author Karen Armstrong wins inaugural prize for her contribution to global interfaith understanding|url=http://www.britac.ac.uk/news/celebrated-british-author-karen-armstrong-wins-inaugural-prize-her-contribution-global|website=British Academy|access-date=23 July 2017|date=4 July 2013}}

On 3 June 2014, she was made an honorary Doctor of Divinity by McGill University.{{cite web|url=https://reporter.mcgill.ca/fourteen-personalities-to-receive-honorary-degree-from-mcgill/ |title=Fourteen individuals to receive honorary degree from McGill |date= 30 April 2014| work= McGill Reporter}}

In 2017 Armstrong was bestowed Princess of Asturias award in recognition of her investigations into world religions.{{cite news|url=https://www.apnews.com/306547297bb044f49b8b2a93de08301e |first= Ciaran|last=Giles | author2= Aritz Parra |title= Religion Scholar Karen Armstrong Wins Top Spanish Award|publisher=Associated Press |date= 31 May 2017}}

Reception

Armstrong was described by philosopher Alain de Botton as "one of the most intelligent contemporary defenders of religion", who "wages a vigorous war on the twin evils of religious fundamentalism and militant atheism".{{cite news |last1=de Botton |first1=Alain |title=In defence of the true God - review |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jul/19/armstrong-case-god-alain-de-botton |access-date=7 September 2021 |work=The Guardian |date=19 July 2009}} The Washington Post referred to her as "a prominent and prolific religious historian".{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/14/AR2011011406932.html|title=Review of Karen Armstrong's "Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life"|last=Bonos|first=Lisa|date=16 January 2011|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=21 May 2011}} Laura Miller of Salon described her as "arguably the most lucid, wide-ranging and consistently interesting religion writer today".{{cite web|url=http://dir.salon.com/books/feature/2001/04/18/armstrong/index.html|title="Buddha" by Karen Armstrong|last=Miller|first=Laura|work=Salon.com|access-date=21 May 2011 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807045944/http://dir.salon.com/books/feature/2001/04/18/armstrong/index.html|archive-date=7 August 2011}} Juan Eduardo Campo, author of the Encyclopedia of Islam (2009), included Armstrong among a group of scholars who he claimed currently conveyed a "more or less objective", as opposed to polemical, view of Islam and its origins to a wide public.{{cite journal| author=Juan Eduardo Campo|title=Review of [Muhammad and the Origins of Islam] by F. E. Peters |journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies|volume=28|issue=4| pages=597–599 |date=November 1996 |doi=10.1017/s0020743800063911|s2cid=161552084 }} After the 11 September attacks she was in great demand as a lecturer, pleading for inter-faith dialogue.{{cite book |title=The Secular Outlook: In Defense of Moral and Political Secularism |first1=Paul |last1=Cliteur |author-link=Paul Cliteur |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-4443-9044-5 |page=249 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SeBa-9NUKmEC}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=SeBa-9NUKmEC&pg=PA249& Extract of page 249]

Armstrong has been criticised as misunderstanding theology and medieval history, especially in conservative publications First Things and National Review.{{Cite web|title=The Selective Compassion of Karen Armstrong {{!}} Joe Carter|url=https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2009/11/the-selective-compassion-of-karen-armstrong|access-date=2019-06-23|website=First Things|date=16 November 2009|language=en|archive-date=23 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190623120611/https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2009/11/the-selective-compassion-of-karen-armstrong|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|last=Ibrahim|first=Raymond|date=2007-05-07|title=Islamic Apologetics|url=https://www.nationalreview.com/2007/05/islamic-apologetics-raymond-ibrahim/|access-date=2019-06-23|website=National Review|language=en-US}}

=Books=

{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?156439-1/the-battle-god Presentation by Armstrong on The Battle for God, 6 April 2000], C-SPAN| video2 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?159382-1/islam-short-history Booknotes interview with Armstrong on Islam: A Short History, 22 October 2000], C-SPAN| video3 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?163081-1/buddha Discussion with Armstrong on Buddha, 9 March 2001], C-SPAN| video4 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?172048-1/islam-short-history Presentation by Armstrong on Islam: A Short History, 1 August 2002], C-SPAN| video5 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?181053-1/the-spiral-staircase Presentation by Armstrong on The Spiral Staircase, 8 March 2004], C-SPAN| video6 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?192064-1/the-great-transformation-beginning-religious-traditions Presentation by Armstrong on The Great Transformation, 3 April 2006], C-SPAN| video7 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?195459-1/muhammad-prophet-time Presentation by Armstrong on Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time, 20 November 2006], C-SPAN| video8 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?322547-1/after-words-karen-armstrong After Words interview with Armstrong on Fields of Blood, 15 November 2014], C-SPAN}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=1982

|title=Through the Narrow Gate

|location=London

|publisher=Pan Books

|isbn=978-0-333-31136-3

}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=1983

|title=Beginning the World

|location=London

|publisher=Pan Books

|isbn=978-0-333-35017-1

}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=1983

|title=The First Christian: Saint Paul's Impact on Christianity

|location=London

|publisher=Pan Books

|isbn=978-0-330-28161-4

}}

Tongues of Fire: An Anthology of Religious and Poetic Experience. Editor. Harmondsworth, England: Viking Press. 1985. {{ISBN|978-0-670-80878-6}}.
{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=1986

|title=The Gospel According to Woman: Christianity's Creation of the Sex War in the West

|location=London

|publisher=Pan Books

|isbn=978-0-330-29744-8

}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=1988

|title=Holy War: The Crusades and their Impact on Today's World

|publisher=Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group

|isbn=978-0385721400

}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=1991

|title=Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet

|publisher=Victor Gollancz Ltd

|isbn=0575062444

}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=1991

|title=The English Mystics of the Fourteenth Century

}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=1993

|title=The End of Silence: Women and the Priesthood

}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=1993

|title=A History of God

|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf

|isbn=0-345-38456-3

}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=1994

|title=Visions of God : Four Medieval Mystics and Their Writings

}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=1996

|title=In the Beginning: A New Interpretation of Genesis

}}

{{cite book |last=Armstrong |first=Karen |display-authors=0 |title= Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths |publisher= HarperCollins |date= 1996 |isbn= 0002555220 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=TZltAAAAMAAJ}}, with better online access at {{cite book |title= idem |publisher= Ballantine Books |date= 2015 |isbn= 9780345391681 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=_MJuf1yZrY0C |access-date=5 January 2022}}
{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=2000

|title=Islam: A Short History

|publisher=Modern Library Chronicles

|isbn=0-8129-6618-X

}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=2000

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

|publisher=Knopf/HarperCollins

|isbn=978-0006383482

}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=2002

|title=Faith After 11 September

}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=2004

|title=Buddha

|publisher=Penguin

|isbn=9780143034360

}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=2004

|title=The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out Of Darkness

|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf

|isbn=978-0-375-41318-6

}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=2005

|title=A Short History of Myth

|publisher=Canongate Books

|isbn=9781841956442

}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=2006

|title=Muhammad: A Prophet For Our Time

|isbn=978-0061155772

|publisher=HarperCollins

}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=2006

|title=The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions

|publisher=Knopf

|isbn=978-0-375-41317-9

}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=2007

|title=The Bible: A Biography

|publisher=Grove Press

|isbn=978-0-8021-4384-6

}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=2009

|title=The Case for God

|publisher=Vintage

|isbn=978-0-307-26918-8

}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=2010

|title=Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life

|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf

|isbn=978-0-307-59559-1

}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=2011

|title=A Letter to Pakistan

|publisher=Oxford University Press

|isbn=978-0-19-906330-7

}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=2014

|title=Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence

|publisher=Bodley Head

|isbn=978-1-84792-186-4

}}{{cite news|last1=McGirr|first1=Michael|title=Book Review: Battling with the evils of humanity|url=http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/karen-armstrong-and-the-role-of-violence-in-religion-20141011-114dt3.html|access-date=19 October 2014|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=10 October 2014}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=2015

|title=St. Paul: The Apostle We Love to Hate

|publisher=New Harvest

|isbn=978-0-54461-739-1}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=2019

|title=The Lost Art of Scripture

|publisher=Bodley Head

|isbn=978-1-84792-432-2}}{{cite news|last1=Winkett|first1=Lucy|title=In scripture, we find not just religious thought and theory—but a challenge to how we read|url=https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/in-scripture-we-find-not-just-religious-thought-and-theory-but-a-challenge-to-how-we-read|access-date=23 August 2019|magazine=Prospect|date=7 June 2019}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=2019

|title=Religion

|isbn=9781784875695

|publisher=Vintage

}}

{{cite book

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=2022

|title=Sacred Nature: Restoring Our Ancient Bond with the Natural World

|isbn=978-0593319437

|publisher=Knopf

}}Briefly reviewed in the [https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/books-brief-16 January 2023 issue] of Commonweal, p.65.

=Journal articles=

{{cite journal

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=1977

|title=Women, Tourism, Politics

|journal=Anthropological Quarterly

|volume=50

|issue=3

|pages=135–145

|issn=0003-5491

|doi=10.2307/3317593

|jstor=3317593

}}

{{cite journal

|last=Armstrong

|first=Karen

|display-authors=0

|date=1998

|title=The Holiness of Jerusalem: Asset or Burden?

|journal=Journal of Palestine Studies

|volume=27

|issue=3

|pages=5–19

|issn=0377-919X

|jstor=2537831

|doi=10.2307/2537831

|url=http://jps.ucpress.edu/content/27/3/5.full.pdf

}}

{{cite journal |date=21 Nov 2014 |title=The deep roots of Islamic State : Wahhabism – and how Saudi Arabia exported the main source of global terrorism |department=Cover Story |journal=New Statesman |volume=143 |issue=5237 |pages=26, 28, 31}}

References

External links

[http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/library/author.pperl?authorid=834 Author Spotlight] at Random House
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160923231601/http://www.islamfortoday.com/karenarmstrong.htm Profile at Islam for Today], islamfortoday.com
[http://charterforcompassion.org Charter for Compassion], charterforcompassion.org
{{IMDb name|35783}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20090625013913/http://www.readthespirit.com/explore/2007/11/049-conversatio.html Interview with Karen Armstrong on "The Bible"], readthespirit.com
[https://web.archive.org/web/20110525014923/http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/66/reason-of-faith/ The reason of faith] Ode magazine, 2009
[http://www.fifthestate.co.uk/author/karenarmstrong/ Articles by Karen Armstrong on the 5th Estate blog], fifthestate.co.uk
{{LCAuth|n81049455|Karen Armstrong|47|ue}}

; Audio and video

{{TED speaker}}
[http://www.ted.com/talks/karen_armstrong_makes_her_ted_prize_wish_the_charter_for_compassion My wish: The Charter for Compassion] (TED2008)
[http://www.ted.com/talks/karen_armstrong_let_s_revive_the_golden_rule Let's revive the Golden Rule] (TEDGlobal 2009)
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries/2009/07/090714_theforum_120709.shtml Audio: Karen Armstrong in conversation on the BBC World Service discussion programme] The Forum, BBC.co.uk
{{C-SPAN|83314}}
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vi-wd9arSM Interview with Karen Armstrong on "A History of God", "The Case for God", "Sacred Nature"] (University of Sheffield, 2022)