The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Having already recounted "a history of God," the redoubtable Armstrong here narrates the evolution of the religious traditions of the world from their births to their maturity. In her typical magisterial fashion, she chronicles these tales in dazzling prose with remarkable depth and judicious breadth. Taking the Axial Age, which spans roughly 900 B.C.E. to 200 B.C.E., as her focal point, Armstrong examines the ways that specific religious traditions from Buddhism and Confucianism to Taoism and Judaism responded to the various cultural forces they faced during this period. Overall, Armstrong observes, violence, political disruption and religious intolerance dominated Axial Age societies, so Axial religions responded by exalting compassion, love and justice over selfishness and hatred. Thus, the central Buddhist and Jain practice of ahimsa, doing no harm, developed in India in reaction to the self-centeredness of Hindu ritual, and Hebrew prophets such as Amos proclaimed that justice and mercy toward neighbors offered the only correct way of walking with God. Accounts of the world's religions often present them as discrete entities developing apart from each other in a vacuum. Armstrong's magnificent accomplishment offers us an account of a violent time much like ours, when religious impulses in various locations developed practices of justice and love. (Apr. 3)
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From The Washington Post

In 1948, the German philosopher Karl Jaspers coined the term "Axial Age" to denote an astonishing era, from roughly 900 B.C. to 200 B.C., in which the foundations of the world's great religions were laid. This was the time of Socrates, Elijah, Siddhartha, Confucius. In her magisterial new exploration of the era, Karen Armstrong argues that all Axial Age traditions emphasized justice and were committed to the practice of "disciplined sympathy" and compassion. The Great Transformation is Armstrong at her best -- translating and distilling complex history into lucid prose that will delight scholars and armchair historians alike, drawing connections between the distant past and our own religious practices, suggesting that the antidotes to some of contemporary religion's excesses lie in the roots of the religious traditions themselves.

The Axial Age was anticipated, Armstrong writes, by the prophetic priest Zoroaster. Outraged at the violence of the Aryan warrior culture, Zoroaster conceived of the cosmos as a battle between the forces of good and evil, and he envisioned a great judgment that would eventually culminate in a world of peace and justice. Zoroastrianism is now known to us largely as a historical relic, but his "passionately ethical vision" and his determination to find a spiritual idiom that promoted peace bore fruit in the religious traditions of the Axial Age.

Other sages also emerged from the conflicts of the era: In India, the Axial Age coincided with the collapse of the Harappan civilization; in Greece, spirituality and philosophy flourished as the Mycenaean kingdom gave way to the Macedonian empire. Socratic philosophy was forged in the brutality of the Peloponnesian War. Breaking sharply from the Greek tradition of vengeance, Socrates argued that retaliation was always unjust and that the key to enlightenment and social virtue was acting with forbearance toward everyone, friend or enemy. The Buddha similarly taught that focusing on the self led to envy, conceit and pride; only a movement into "no self" would lead to "non-distress" and "unhostility."

When the kingdom of Israel, profitably allied with Assyria, failed to care for its poor, the prophet Amos warned that God would turn against his chosen people if they did not clean up their act. Amos, Armstrong writes, exemplified kenosis, or self-emptying: He believed that "his subjectivity had been taken over by God," so it was not Amos offering radical prophecies but God himself. God had experienced the injustices committed by Israel as painful and humiliating acts against him -- so Amos was calling the Israelites to feel, as their God felt, the sufferings of others.

Though this is a study of ancient history, Armstrong has a present-day agenda. We also live in a time of great social transformation and unrest, and, like the Axial sages, we should foster compassion, self-emptying and justice.

She notes that compassionate spirituality leaves room for doctrine: "This is not to say that all theology should be scrapped or that the conventional beliefs about God or the ultimate are 'wrong.' . . . The test is simple: if people's beliefs -- secular or religious -- make them belligerent, intolerant, and unkind about other people's faith, they are not 'skillful.' If, however, their convictions impel them to act compassionately and to honor the stranger, then they are good, helpful, and sound. This is the test of true religiosity . . . . Instead of jettisoning religious doctrines, we should look for their spiritual kernel."

Armstrong's emphasis on the things that unify Hinduism, Socratic philosophy, Judaism and Confucianism has just a whiff of the old colonialist approach to "world religions," reveling in religions' resemblances without sufficiently acknowledging their particularities. (The Brits who "discovered" Hinduism cast it, and every other religion, in terms that looked a lot like Christianity. Armstrong does much the same thing in reverse, casting Judaism and its spiritual descendants in terms that look a lot like Buddhism.) This approach fails to recognize the ways in which Buddhist compassion and Hindu compassion and Christian compassion and Jain compassion may meaningfully differ. Without an honest appraisal of those differences, it is hard to evaluate, say, the difference between the morality of the euthanasia advocate and the radical pro-life Catholic. Whose compassion trumps, that of George W. Bush or of John Paul II?

And yet, Armstrong's call to rededicate our religious selves to compassion, other-directed love and service is downright rousing. People from many different faiths will close this book reminded of the value their tradition places on compassion and recommitted to expressing it in their own religious idiom.

Reviewed by Lauren F. Winner
Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; First Printing edition (March 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375413170
• ISBN-13: 978-0375413179
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #114,413 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

340 of 355 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Original Religions Stress Compassion, March 29, 2006

By	The Spinozanator (Waco, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Karen Armstrong spent seven years as a nun, has written 16 previous books about religious matters, and is a prominent commentator on religious affairs in Britain. Her views have changed considerably since her earlier days in the convent, but she maintains tremendous respect for the world's great religions. She is a self-proclaimed "monotheist," but her writings seem to merely support and encourage a spiritual approach toward life - rather than a belief in any deity..."Human beings are spiritual animals...homo sapiens is also homo religiosus."

Armstrong's topic in this book is the Axial Age - those seven centuries from 900BCE to 200BCE that were marked by violence and warfare. In four different regions of the world, four great theologies (or ideologies) arose specifically to oppose these violent trends:

China - Daoism and Confucianism
India - Hinduism and Buddhism
Palestine - Judaism, which led to Christianity and Islam
Greece - philosophical rationalism

In all four geographical regions, the initial teaching was of tolerance, love, and humane treatment of others - despite the tendency for some of these to evolve into something else. Each tradition formulated its own version of the Golden Rule because what mattered was how one acts - putting ethical behavior at the heart of the spiritual life. The original prophets never relied on dogma - their emphasis was consistently on compassion. "The consensus of these four areas is an eloquent testimony to the unanimity of the spiritual quest of the human race. The Axial peoples all found that the compassionate ethic worked."

When secondary prophets or philosophers did start to insist on obligatory doctrines, it was usually a sign that the movement was losing its momentum. In our religious institutions and their dogmas, we are at times creating the exact type of religiosity that the prophets from the Axial Age were trying to get rid of.

Armstrong follows the progress of the religious development of the four Axial peoples side by side, charting their progress, sometimes in fits and starts. According to the author, we have never surpassed the insights of the Axial Age. Each generation since has tried to adapt the original insights to their particular situation and that is our task today.

The following themes are apparent throughout:

1. God is made in man's image rather than the other way around. He is a projection of man's cultural needs, changing as culture evolves, and as new charismatic leaders present themselves.

2. Each tradition wrestled with Mythos versus Logos - the more mystical, spiritual, and tolerant approach versus the one more analytical and theological. An emphasis shift from a mystical, unknowable God to a more personal God has its advantages, but tends to allow intolerance and fundamentalism.

3. When concentrating on the similarities as to how humanity has always searched for God, they are more obvious than the differences.

Armstrong started life with a conservative faith which has changed over the years to a more liberal and mystical one in her quest for God, sans dogma. Many Christians have lived a similar scenario, yet maintained their original beliefs. This book is not a polemic, and I think most people of any faith would not be offended by her approach. In "The Great Transformation," Armstrong is her usual scholarly and convincing self, with insightful comments on every page that would be hard to find elsewhere. "Religion is like a raft," she has said, explaining the Buddhist view of it. "Once you get across the river, moor the raft and go on. Don't lug it with you if you don't need it any more."

112 of 119 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Profound And Moving, April 23, 2006

By	John D. Cofield - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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The Great Transformation is a history of the Axial Age, the period in the approximate first millenium B.C.E. when nearly all of our present day religions and philosophies were born. The Axial Age was a time when religion and philosophy evolved from the mere worship of something out of fear it could hurt you to a true ethical, compassionate belief. Karen Armstrong is a brilliant writer and thinker, and this is her finest work.

In a series of well organized and clearly developed chapters Armstrong traces the development of Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Greek philosophy, Confucianism, Daoism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Armstrong provides context for the developments of these thought systems by succinctly describing the troubles of the time: invasions, epidemics, and the ebb and flow of cultural diffusion and change. She then relates these problems to the developing thought systems and shows how their influence penetrated the minds of the seers, prophets, and philosophers who were at work throughout the turmoil. Most interestingly, she interconnects the ideas with each other, showing how similar circumstances and contacts created philosophies and religions which shared the same concerns and often advocated many of the same solutions.

The Great Transformation should be on the shelves of all who seek to better understand the origins of so much of our human cultural heritage.

60 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An admirable survey, but falls short as a synthesis, May 29, 2006

By	Jesse Steven Hargrave (Silver City, NM) - See all my reviews

Karen Armstrong has written many shorter books dealing with the history of specific religious traditions, and has earned wide respect for her learning and insights. In "The Great Transformation" she attempts a grand synthesis of many of these traditions.

She gives us richly detailed accounts of the flow of religious thought within four cultural geographies over a vast period of time, but centering on what is labeled the "Axial Age": from around the 10th century BCE to approximately 200 BCE. China, India, Greece, and Israel are the geographical loci of her account. She interweaves these accounts in chronological fashion, seldom drawing explicit parallels until she reaches her concluding chapter.

In her introduction however, Armstrong makes clear her intent and her thesis. She says that "we have never surpassed the insights of the Axial Age" and that "[t]he Axial sages have an important message for our time." A reader will naturally go forward wondering if she will succeed in convincing us of that age's cohesion and its relevance to our own.

The amount of information in this book of almost 500 pages is undeniably impressive. It is organized effectively and embeds over 25 maps and other clarifying tables. The Bibliography is excellent.

When describing one of the phases of religious thinking that rolled across the Indian subcontinent, Ms. Armstrong writes "To an outsider, this sounds frankly incredible - a series of abstract statements that are impossible to verify. ... The sages did not give us rational demonstrations of their ideas." This fairly describes most of what she presents. Although this kind of editorial comment is rare in the main text, that text makes clear that "rational demonstrations" are seldom what religious teaching is about. One notable omission in the book is any substantive reference to the cognitive processes that might have underlain the developments that she describes. Any book that purports to treat the early history of religious thought (she actually begins in the 17th century BCE), should at least touch on current research into the evolutionary and cognitive basis of such thought. This could have added significant clarity to the work.

In describing what Armstrong takes to be the deliberate lack of certainty in Socrates' teachings, she writes that "at this time of anxiety and war, people did not want to be confused ... They wanted certainty." Since the author's thesis is that the great spiritual advances she surveys were made at exactly those kinds of violent, high-stress times, a reader may begin to wonder how influential any of these movements were among the majority of the populace.

And this very suspicion undermines the synthesis that Armstrong is clearly trying to forge. In her reading of these widely dispersed movements, the common elements turn out to be these: "the abandonment of selfishness and the spirituality of compassion." She writes, "For them (the Axial sages), religion was the Golden Rule." This may not be banal, but it borders on the simplistic. It seems as if, faced with the complexity of each of the Axial traditions, she has had, in the end, to bleed out that complexity and reduce their insights to one which is notoriously easy to state (and apparently impossible for cultures as a whole to follow).

Near the end of her recounting of the Chinese Axial Age, she writes of the unease spawned by the great variety of spiritual movements that had developed. She writes that "many people felt confused and found it hard to choose between the different schools." A reader of "The Great Transformation" may wind up with similar feelings: the promised synthesis is not convincing and the great accumulation of detailed material is otherwise hard to digest. I will rely on the book's encyclopedic nature for future reference, but feel that the author allowed her hopes for cultural salvation to outpace what the narrative could support.