Clipmarks | Karen armstrong Clips

Clip: Laudville

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 13:58:51 GMT

clipped by: altaloman

Karen's Wish:

"I wish that you would help with the creation, launch and propagation of a Charter for Compassion, crafted by a group of leading inspirational thinkers from the three Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and based on the fundamental principles of universal justice and respect."

Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong: Charter for Compassion

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 23:11:06 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: 2008 TED Prize wish

Clip Source: www.ted.com

As she accepts her 2008 TED Prize, author and scholar Karen Armstrong talks about how the Abrahamic religions -- Islam, Judaism, Christianity -- have been diverted from the moral purpose they share to foster compassion. But Armstrong has seen a yearning to change this fact. People want to be religious, she says; we should act to help make religion a force for harmony. She asks the TED community to help her build a Charter for Compassion -- to help restore the Golden Rule as the central global religious doctrine.

Karen Armstrong is a provocative, original thinker on the role of religion in the modern world. Read full bio »

Tags: religion, karen armstrong, video

What is the TED Prize?

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:22:02 GMT

clipped by: Fast T friend
clipper's remarks: Wishes big enough to change the world

Clip Source: www.tedprize.org

The TED Prize was created as a way of taking the inspiration, ideas and resources that are generated at TED and using them to make a difference. Although the winners receive a prize of $100,000 each, that's the least of what they get. The real prize is that they are granted a WISH. This is the forum to help make their wishes come true. Learn More

2008 TEDPrize Winners

Karen Armstrong

"I wish that you would help with the creation, launch and propagation of a Charter for Compassion

Dave Eggers

I wish that you - you personally and every creative individual and organization you know - will find a way to directly engage with a public school

Neil Turok

"My wish is that you help us unlock and nurture scientific talent across Africa

, so that within our lifetimes we are celebrating an African Einstein."
Tell Me More

Tags: ted, prize, wishes

Karen Armstrong on Islam and War

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 13:10:41 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.islamicamagazine.com

Karen Armstrong was a Catholic nun for seven years before leaving her order and going to Oxford. Today, she is amongst the most renowned theologians and has written numerous bestsellers on the great religions and their founders. She is one of the 18 leading group members of the Alliance of Civilizations, an initiative of the former UN General Secretary, Kofi Anan, whose purpose is to fight extremism and further dialogue between the western and Islamic worlds.

There is far more violence in the Bible than in the Qur'an; the idea that Islam imposed itself by the sword is a Western fiction, fabricated during the time of the Crusades when, in fact, it was Western Christians who were fighting brutal holy wars against Islam.

The divisions in our world are not the result of religion or of culture, but are politically based. There is an imbalance of power in the world, and the powerless are beginning to challenge the hegemony of the Great Powers

Tags: karen armstrong, islam

Karen Armstrong will make the ‘Case for God’ in Noble Lectures

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:21:59 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Among Armstrong’s recent work is a re-writing of her biography of the Prophet Muhammad, newly titled “Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time.” She said on New York public radio in 2006, that “I have rewritten my biography of the Prophet Muhammad, based on the latest research — he was not a warrior, but he found himself, like many of the Axial Age sages, in a violent society and he eventually brought peace to the region by practicing a daring policy of nonviolence worthy of Gandhi. He stopped the violence and went into Mecca unarmed and forced the Meccans to negotiate with him, accepting terms that his followers thought were disgraceful.” She has just completed work on her latest book, “The Bible: A Biography,” due out in November.

Clip Source: www.news.harvard.edu

Acclaimed author and religious historian Karen Armstrong will present “The Case for God” during the three-day William Belden Noble Lectures at the Memorial Church Nov. 13-15 at 8 p.m

Armstrong, the author of some 20 books, including the best-selling “A History of God” and “The Battle for God,” is renowned for her ideas about the similarities between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, and what unites the three monotheist faiths. She points out that each has in common the image of a single supreme being who was revealed to the Prophet Abraham, each is historically linked to Jerusalem, and each, during the past few years, has seen within it the rise of a rigid and conservative group within their faith that has formed in reaction to the changing modern world.

Tags: karen armstrong, religion, islam, christianity, judaism, author, scholar

Books To Read This Weekend -- Part 3

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 18:49:08 GMT

clipped by: Bookyards

Clip Source: bookyards.blogspot.com

Have some free time .... here are some books to read this weekend.

Every Second Counts by Lance Armstrong

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

History of God by Karen Armstrong

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

We All Die Naked by James Blish

What Is Death? A Scientist Looks At The Cycle of Life by Tyler Volk

Message In A Bottle by Nicholas Sparks

Piranias by Harold Robbins

The Art Of Ancient Egypt by Edith Watts

Buddhism -- Essentials Of Insight Meditation by Venerable Sujiva

Previous: "Books To Read This Weekend -- Part 1"
"Books To Read This Weekend -- Part 2"

Tags: lance armstrong, lord of the flies by william golding, piranias bu harold robbins, satanic verses by salman rushdie

The Muslim prophet born in Bethlehem - Karen Armstrong

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 21:34:53 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

The Muslim prophet born in Bethlehem

The story of Jesus held a special place within early Islam. There is no need for a clash of civilisations

Karen Armstrong
Saturday December 23, 2006
The Guardian

This story may surprise people in the west, who have regarded Islam as the implacable enemy of Christianity ever since the crusades, but it is salutary to recall it during the Christmas season when we are surrounded by similar images of the Virgin and Child. It reminds us that the so-called clash of civilisations was by no means inevitable. For centuries Muslims cherished the figure of Jesus, who is honoured in the Qur'an as one of the greatest of the prophets and, in the formative years of Islam, became a constituent part of the emergent Muslim identity. <P>There are important lessons here for both Christians and Muslims - especially, perhaps, at Christmas. The Qur'an does not believe that Jesus is divine but it devotes more space to the story of his virginal conception and birth than does the New Testament, presenting it as richly symbolic of the birth of the Spirit in all human beings (Qur'an 19:17-29; 21:91). Like the great prophets, Mary receives this Spirit and bears Jesus, who will, in his turn, become an ayah, a revelation of peace, gentleness and compassion to the world. <P>The Qur'an is horrified by Christian claims that Jesus was the "son of God", and depicts Jesus ardently denying his divinity in an attempt to "cleanse" himself of these blasphemous projections. Time and again the Qur'an insists that, like Muhammad himself, Jesus was a perfectly ordinary human being and that the Christians have entirely misunderstood their own scriptures. But it concedes that the most learned and faithful Christians - especially monks and priests - did not believe that Jesus was divine; of all God's worshippers, they were closest to the Muslims (5:85-86).</P>

Tags: karen-armstrong, islam, christianity, article

Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition and Modernity

Sat, 23 Dec 2006 06:37:56 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.sacredweb.com

Sacred Web is publication devoted to the study of Tradition and modernity. The journal aims to identify Traditional "first principles" and their application to the contingent circumstances of Modernity.

Sacred Web is published bi-annually. Articles, reviews and letters to the editor can be emailed to the editor, M. Ali Lakhani.

I am always delighted to receive the latest issue of Sacred Web because, so often, I come across such deeply revealing and enlightening articles, rich in content and diverse in subject matter.
His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales

Sacred Web provides scholarly and inspiring access to a form of spiritual understanding that is very little understood in our modern society but which is of the greatest importance for our time. Its varied and excellent articles give the reader an insight into the deeper dimensions of our contemporary problems, bringing to life and giving contemporary relevance to the issues of our day.
Karen Armstrong,
Professor at Leo Baeck College, and acclaimed author (“A History of God”)

Along with Sophia, Sacred Web is the most important journal in the English language devoted to the study of tradition. Furthermore, it is unique in its interest in the consequences of confrontation between tradition and modernity, an issue which lies at the heart of so many aspects of the life of humanity today.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr,
University Professor of Islamic Studies, The George Washington University

Tags: sacred-web, spirituality