Karen Armstrong: 'All the major traditions adopted the theology of
non-violence'
http://comment.independent.co.uk/podium/article301627.ece
From the Hibbert Trust Lecture, delivered by the writer and broadcaster
to the Royal Society of Arts, in London
Published: 26 July 2005
The book I've just finished deals with the Axial Age. It's the period
from about 900 to 200 BCE [Before the Common Era], when all the major
traditions that have continued to nourish humanity came into being at
roughly the same time in four separate regions of the world, in China,
India, Israel and Greece.
Why should we go back to these ancient faiths? Because they were the
experts. In this period of history, not so much in Greece, though they
have made some wonderful contributions, but especially in India, China
and Israel, people worked as hard to find a cure for the spiritual ills
of humanity as we do today trying to find a cure for cancer. We don't
spend as much energy re-hashing, looking, examining, experimenting with
our religious and moral traditions and we've rarely gone beyond these
insights.
Karen Armstrong
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.atheism/msg/4d8d5d0ee9ab15fe
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