Karen Armstrong | |
|---|---|
 Armstrong in 2016 | |
| Born | (1944-11-14)14 November 1944 (age 81) Wildmoor,Worcestershire, England |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Alma mater | St Anne's College, Oxford |
| Website | |
| CharterForCompassion.org | |
Karen Armstrong (born 14 November 1944) is a British author and commentator known for her books oncomparative religion.[1] A former Roman Catholicreligious sister, she went from a conservative to a more liberal andmystical Christian faith. She attendedSt Anne's College, Oxford, while in the convent and graduated in English. She left the convent in 1969.[1] Her work focuses on commonalities of the major religions, such as the importance ofcompassion and theGolden Rule.
Armstrong received the US$100,000TED Prize in February 2008. She used that occasion to call for the creation of aCharter for Compassion, which was unveiled the following year.
Armstrong was born at Wildmoor,Worcestershire,[2] into a family of Irish ancestry who, after her birth, moved toBromsgrove and later toBirmingham. In 1962, at the age of 17, she became a member of theSisters of the Holy Child Jesus, a teachingcongregation, in which she remained for seven years. Armstrong says she sufferedphysical andpsychological abuse in the convent; according to an article inThe Guardian newspaper, "Armstrong was required tomortify 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 atreadle machine with no needle for a fortnight."[3]
Once she had advanced frompostulant andnovice to professed nun, she enrolled inSt Anne's College,Oxford, to study English. Armstrong left her order in 1969 while still a student at Oxford. After graduating with aCongratulatory First, she embarked on aDPhil on the poetAlfred Tennyson. According to Armstrong, she wrote herdissertation 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.[4] 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 undiagnosedtemporal lobe epilepsy.[5][6][7]
Around this time she was lodged withJenifer andHerbert Hart, looking after their disabled son, as told in her memoirThe Spiral Staircase.[4]
Armstrong is unmarried.[8]
Although she had once described herself as a "freelancemonotheist," more recently she said, "I wouldn't even call myself a monotheist anymore. ... If anything, I'm aConfucian, I think."[9][10]
In 1976, Armstrong took a job teaching English atJames Allen's Girls' School inDulwich while working on a memoir of herconvent experiences. This was published in 1982 asThrough the Narrow Gate to excellent reviews. That year she embarked on a new career as an independent writer andbroadcastingpresenter. In 1984, the BritishChannel Four commissioned her to write and present atelevision documentary on the life ofSt. Paul,The First Christian, a project that involved traveling to theHoly 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. InA History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest ofJudaism,Christianity andIslam (1993), she traces the evolution of the three majormonotheistic traditions from their beginnings in theMiddle East up to the present day and also discussesHinduism andBuddhism. As guiding "luminaries" in her approach, Armstrong acknowledges (inThe Spiral Staircase and elsewhere) the late CanadiantheologianWilfred Cantwell Smith, aProtestant minister,[11] and the Jesuit fatherBernard Lonergan.[12] In 1996, she publishedJerusalem: One City, Three Faiths.
Armstrong'sThe Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions (2006) continues the themes covered inA History of God and examines the emergence and codification of the world's great religions during the so-calledAxial Age identified byKarl Jaspers. In the year of its publication Armstrong was invited to choose her eight favourite records forBBC Radio'sDesert Island Discs programme.[13] She has made several appearances on television, including onRageh Omaar's programmeThe Life of Muhammad. Her work has been translated into forty-five languages.[14] She was an advisor for the award-winning,PBS-broadcast documentaryMuhammad: Legacy of a Prophet (2002), produced by Unity Productions Foundation.
In 2007 theIslamic Religious Council of Singapore invited Armstrong to deliver the MUIS Lecture.[15]
Armstrong is a fellow of theJesus Seminar, a group of scholars and laypeople which attempts to investigate the historical foundations of Christianity. She has written numerous articles forThe Guardian and for other publications. She was a key advisor onBill Moyers' popularPBS series on religion, has addressed members of theUnited States Congress, and was one of three scholars to speak at the UN's first ever session on religion.[16] She is a vice-president of the British Epilepsy Association, otherwise known asEpilepsy Action.
Armstrong, who has taught courses atLeo Baeck College, arabbinical college and centre for Jewish education located inNorth London, says she has been particularly inspired by theJewish 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'sethicalalchemy. It's about behaving in a way that changes you, that gives you intimations of holiness and sacredness."[17] She maintains that religiousfundamentalism is not just a response to, but is a product ofcontemporary culture[18] and for this reason concludes that, "We urgently need to makecompassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcendselfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential tohuman 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."[19]
Awarded the $100,000TED Prize in February 2008, Armstrong called for drawing up aCharter for Compassion, in the spirit of theGolden Rule, to identify shared moral priorities across religious traditions, in order to foster global understanding and a peaceful world.[20] It was presented inWashington, D.C. in November 2009. Signatories includeQueen Noor of Jordan, theDalai Lama,Archbishop Desmond Tutu andPaul Simon.[21]
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.[22]
In 1999 Armstrong received theMuslim Public Affairs Council's Media Award.[23][24][25]
Armstrong was honoured by the New York Open Center in 2004 for her "profound understanding of religious traditions and their relation to the divine."[26] She was elected aFellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2005.[27]
She received an honorary degree as Doctor of Letters byAston University in 2006.[28]
In May 2008 she was awarded theFreedom of Worship Award by theRoosevelt Institute, one of four medals presented each year to men and women whose achievements have demonstrated a commitment to theFour Freedoms proclaimed by PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt in 1941 as essential to democracy:freedom of speech and ofworship, 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 ofspirituality."[29]
She also received theTED Prize 2008.[30]
In 2009 she was awarded the Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize by theUniversity of Tübingen.[31]
Armstrong was honoured with theNationalencyklopedin's International Knowledge Award 2011[32] "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 byQueen's University (Kingston, Ontario).[33]
On 30 November 2011 (Saint Andrew's Day), Armstrong was made honorary Doctor of Letters by theUniversity of Saint Andrews.[34]
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.[22]
In 2013, she was awarded theNayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding by theBritish 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".[35]
On 3 June 2014, she was made an honorary Doctor of Divinity byMcGill University.[36]
In 2017 Armstrong was bestowedPrincess of Asturias award in recognition of her investigations into world religions.[37]
Armstrong was described by philosopherAlain 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".[38]The Washington Post referred to her as "a prominent and prolific religious historian".[39]Laura Miller ofSalon described her as "arguably the most lucid, wide-ranging and consistently interesting religion writer today".[40] Juan Eduardo Campo, author of theEncyclopedia of Islam (2009), included Armstrong among a group of scholars who he claimed currently conveyed a "more or less objective", as opposed topolemical, view of Islam and its origins to a wide public.[41] After the11 September attacks she was in great demand as alecturer, pleading forinter-faith dialogue.[42]
Armstrong has been criticised as misunderstanding theology and medieval history, especially in conservative publicationsFirst Things andNational Review.[43][44]
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