Preview "Fields of Blood" in a new window.

Fields of Blood

Book Description

It is the most persistent myth of our time: religion is the cause of all violence. But history suggests otherwise. Karen Armstrong, former Roman Catholic nun and one of our foremost scholars of religion, speaks out to disprove the link between religion and bloodshed.

* Religion is as old as humanity: Fields of Blood goes back to the Stone Age hunter-gatherers and traces religion through the centuries, from medieval crusaders to modern-day jihadists.

* The West today has a warped concept of religion: we regard faith as a personal and private matter, but for most of history faith has informed people’s entire outlook on life, and often been inseparable from politics.

* Humans undoubtedly have a natural propensity for aggression: the founders of the largest religions – Jesus, Buddha, the rabbis of early Judaism, the prophet Muhammad – aimed to curb violence and build a more peaceful and just society, but with our growing greed for money and wealth came collective violence and warfare.

* With the arrival of the modern all-powerful, secular state humanity’s destructive potential has begun to spiral out of control. Is humanity on the brink of destroying itself?

Fields of Blood is a celebration of the ancient religious ideas and movements that have promoted peace and reconciliation across millennia of civilization.



In The Press


About the Author


Read on Your Favourite Devices

to find out more



Ebook Permissions

to find out more

About this Ebook

File formats
This ebook is available in:
The publisher has not yet supplied format information.
Pre-order formats shown are based on publisher intent and may change before release.
File sizes shown are an approximation. The actual download size will vary based on the application you use to read the book.
Publisher
Published
; Copyright:
ISBNs
Title
Series
Author
;
Edition
Imprint
Language
Number of Pages
Page count shown is an approximation provided by the publisher. The actual page count will vary based on various factors such as your device's screen size and font-size.