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The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions

Karen Armstrong

4.03 · Rating details · 3,523 ratings · 264 reviews

In the ninth century BCE, the peoples of four distinct regions of the civilized world created the religious and philosophical traditions that have continued to nourish humanity to the present day: Confucianism and Daoism in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, monotheism in Israel, and philosophical rationalism in Greece. Later generations further developed these initial In the ninth century BCE, the peoples of four distinct regions of the civilized world created the religious and philosophical traditions that have continued to nourish humanity to the present day: Confucianism and Daoism in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, monotheism in Israel, and philosophical rationalism in Greece. Later generations further developed these initial insights, but we have never grown beyond them. Rabbinic Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, for example, were all secondary flowerings of the original Israelite vision. Now, in The Great Transformation, Karen Armstrong reveals how the sages of this pivotal "Axial Age" can speak clearly and helpfully to the violence and desperation that we experience in our own times.

Armstrong traces the development of the Axial Age chronologically, examining the contributions of such figures as the Buddha, Socrates, Confucius, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the mystics of the Upanishads, Mencius, and Euripides. All of the Axial Age faiths began in principled and visceral recoil from the unprecedented violence of their time. Despite some differences of emphasis, there was a remarkable consensus in their call for an abandonment of selfishness and a spirituality of compassion. With regard to dealing with fear, despair, hatred, rage, and violence, the Axial sages gave their people and give us, Armstrong says, two important pieces of advice: first there must be personal responsibility and self-criticism, and it must be followed by practical, effective action.

In her introduction and concluding chapter, Armstrong urges us to consider how these spiritualities challenge the way we are religious today. In our various institutions, we sometimes seem to be attempting to create exactly the kind of religion that Axial sages and prophets had hoped to eliminate. We often equate faith with doctrinal conformity, but the traditions of the Axial Age were not about dogma. All insisted on the primacy of compassion even in the midst of suffering. In each Axial Age case, a disciplined revulsion from violence and hatred proved to be the major catalyst of spiritual change. ...more

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Published April 10th 2007 by Anchor (first published March 9th 2006)

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Jul 22, 2011 William2 rated it really liked it

Shelves: uk, 21-ce, nonfiction, spirituality, religion, history

Karen Armstrong takes great mountains, virtual Everests, of wretched scholarly prose and turns them into something highly readable. She is a first-rate disseminator and popularizer of the history of religion. The Great Transformation reviews the history of what Karl Jaspers famously termed the "Axial Age." During this period, roughly 900-200 B.C.E., the foundations for all of our present religious traditions were laid down: Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Jainism, Judaism, the other monotheism Karen Armstrong takes great mountains, virtual Everests, of wretched scholarly prose and turns them into something highly readable. She is a first-rate disseminator and popularizer of the history of religion. The Great Transformation reviews the history of what Karl Jaspers famously termed the "Axial Age." During this period, roughly 900-200 B.C.E., the foundations for all of our present religious traditions were laid down: Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Jainism, Judaism, the other monotheisms, etc. For example, she follows the Aryans from the Caucasus onto the Gangetic Plain and unfolds the story of proto-Hindu culture there. Similarly, she writes of the pre-Biblical development of what would become Judaism, and so on for all the relevant faiths. These are stories I have never come across elsewhere. Leave it to Armstrong to see this gap in common knowledge of religious history and seek to fill it. What she has undertaken here is of enormous scope. To write the proto-history and then the history of all the Axial faiths is not just ambitious, it is an effort that astonishes the reader as he watches it unfold. I recommend all Armstrong's books but especially The Case for God (also reviewed here) and A History of God. What marks her prose is tremendous empathy. Her portraits of the various Axial Age peoples are stunning in their range and complexity. It is a very dense book, but loaded with fascinating information for the patient reader. Armstrong believes that there is much to be learned from our religious history. Properly understood it is both a cautionary tale and an indication of how very much we need spirituality in our lives. To paraphrase Jean-Paul Sartre, without it we are left with a great "God-shaped hole" in our lives. Christopher Hitchens (R.I.P.) and Richard Dawkins think we can discard it. I disagree. This is an integral part of our evolution as a species and we have much to learn from it. (Note: The other writer of excellence in this field I'm familiar with is Elaine Pagels. She, too, has a number of wonderful books but it is her The Gnostic Gospels (also reviewed here) that is her summa.) Highly recommended! ...more

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Oct 13, 2013 P.J. Wetzel rated it liked it

I came to be aware of this book through my research for my distant future fantasy/sci-fi novel series 'Eden's Womb'. I wanted to understand the origin and evolution of mankind's religious journey in order to project a plausible future. That's a tall order, of course, but for me the study was a fascinating journey. I started by reading Huston Smith's iconic 'The World's Religions' and then began to delve deeper.

Along the way I had a little epiphany: It seemed that many major faith traditions/inst ...more

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Jan 25, 2008 John rated it really liked it

Shelves: history-of-religion

The Great Transformation argues that the core religious/philosophical traditions of several major civilizations -- China, India, Greece, and Israel -- emerged at about the same time, for the same reasons, and were preoccupied with the same ideas. The time is what philosopher Karl Jaspers called the Axial Age, the period from approximately 700-200 B.C. when these civilizations all developed philosophical or religious tenets that emphasized what we might now call inner spiritual development rather The Great Transformation argues that the core religious/philosophical traditions of several major civilizations -- China, India, Greece, and Israel -- emerged at about the same time, for the same reasons, and were preoccupied with the same ideas. The time is what philosopher Karl Jaspers called the Axial Age, the period from approximately 700-200 B.C. when these civilizations all developed philosophical or religious tenets that emphasized what we might now call inner spiritual development rather than abasement before omnipotent deities. The reason, Armstrong suggests, is that each of these societies was seeking a way beyond the incessent violence that marked their existence. As for the ideas, they have become cliches but are no less powerful for that: first, do unto others as you would have them do unto you; and second, be the change you wish to see in the world. Armstrong concludes that from these concepts, explored in different places and for somewhat different reasons, emerged Confusianism, Buddhism, classical Greek philosophy, and rabbinical Judaism (she considers the core precepts of both Christianity and Islam to be mere latter-day variations on rabbinical Jewish thought, with few innovations to contribute to that philosophical tradition).

Much as I enjoy reading early religious history, I'll confess that I don't have the background to evaluate Armstrong's argument on its merits. It's certainly compelling -- and given my own leanings (which are pretty vague, but could be said to be triagulated by agnosticism, unitarianism, and secular humanism), the argument that religion is at its best when it emphasizes personal growth rather than proper worship of the correct Sky God is one I'm inclined to favor. I did find myself wondering whether Armstrong was overstating the extent to which these complex philosophies had an impact on their own societies, as well as the extent to which they displaced, even temporarily, traditional religious emphasis on pleasing and/or appeasing an external deity. In addition, her final chapter -- aimed at today's fundamentalists of all faiths -- spends more time celebrating Christianity's and Islam's connections to Axial Age tradition than exploring why those connections seem, more and more, a minor part of both faiths (at least as professed by their loudest adherents).

Still, this was a thought-provoking read and, while slow going at times, one I found rewarding. A final word of praise: the book contains many useful maps and an excellent glossary, both of which are essential to a work like this but, I find, are too rarely included. Bravo to Armstrong and her publisher for providing them; they really help. ...more

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Dec 17, 2010 Nicholas Whyte rated it did not like it

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1541807.html

This is a rather brave attempt to wring significance out of the fact that Confucius, the Buddha, Socrates and Jeremiah all lived at about the same time, between them causing a revolution in the way in which humans relate to the universe in philosophy and religion. It did not completely work for me. I found Armstrong's account of the evolution of the Old Testament as a product of the Jews' exile in Babylon pretty compelling, and we have a couple more of h http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1541807.html

This is a rather brave attempt to wring significance out of the fact that Confucius, the Buddha, Socrates and Jeremiah all lived at about the same time, between them causing a revolution in the way in which humans relate to the universe in philosophy and religion. It did not completely work for me. I found Armstrong's account of the evolution of the Old Testament as a product of the Jews' exile in Babylon pretty compelling, and we have a couple more of her books on the shelves which I am looking forward to reading now. Her description of ancient Greek thought, which I gave tutorials on many years ago, seemed decent enough and made a very interesting claim about the importance of Sophocles in particular and Greek theatre in general as giving people a new way to talk about and think about the world. But her Indian sections were rather dull, and her Chinese sections very dull indeed, coming alive respectively only with the appearance of the main characters, the Buddha and Confucius. It is my fault more than hers, but I felt completely adrift in Chinese geography; various kingdoms with unfamiliar and confusingly similar names, and no obvious relationship to the present day geography which I know a little better.

And I was not convinced by the book's overall thesis, which seems to be that the near-coincidence of lifespan of the four main characters is a particularly interesting fact. It is true, but rather dull, to note, for instance, that James Marsters and Sophie Aldred were born on the same day. I think it is a little more interesting that Alexander Hamilton and the Duchess of Devonshire were born and died within two years of each other, because both were engaged in politics, and particularly in relations between England and America, at the same time. But Armstrong doesn't seriously argue that there was any influence, or even much in the way of common roots, between her four main characters, so we get four completely different stories (only two of which are interesting) chopped across each other with various totally disparate incidents lumped together purely because they happened at roughly the same time. It did not really work for me. ...more

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Jul 14, 2012 Megan Kiekel rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction, history, religion

This textbook covers the beginnings and transformation of the major world religions through the Axel Age, from 1600 BCE to 220 BCE, plus an epilogue that brings the history into the current time.

I borrowed this from our friend Steve last fall, and I haven’t had enough brain cells to absorb this much information until now. This was the textbook from one of his religion classes in undergrad (he’s a genius grad school engineer now), and he passed it on to me because he knew I’d love it. I have to g This textbook covers the beginnings and transformation of the major world religions through the Axel Age, from 1600 BCE to 220 BCE, plus an epilogue that brings the history into the current time.

I borrowed this from our friend Steve last fall, and I haven’t had enough brain cells to absorb this much information until now. This was the textbook from one of his religion classes in undergrad (he’s a genius grad school engineer now), and he passed it on to me because he knew I’d love it. I have to give this copy back to Steve, but I’m totally buying it for reference. (For the record- I did not read an entire textbook in a month. I was reading this well into October as well).

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I needed a clear head to read it; it’s a lot of information to take in. But it is amazing to trace the changes in philosophies and religious practices over time with the changes in human development. Each chapter is broken into four parts: one focusing on each of the major Axel Age peoples in China, Greece, India, and Jerusalem.

This was an introduction to this information for me, so I’m not really able to fully criticize the biases or limitations of this text. Armstrong did seem to have a strong detachment from the information, except when she was drawing her main points in the introduction and final chapter. All history texts, of course, are an argument: the author chooses which information to include and which to leave behind in order to strengthen their points and persuade the reader to their way of thinking. It is impossible to be objective when writing about history because of the vast amount of information out there. Armstrong obviously focused on what tied the major world religions together and made connections between their individual developments over the age. A book could probably just as easily be written on the differences of these religions.

I’d love to come back to this after I know more.

P.S. If you dislike religious history that is not written from a theological standpoint, then you may find this work offensive. ...more

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Nov 07, 2016 Tim Pendry rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ancient-world, classical-civilisation, history-of-philosophy, history, history-of-science, middle-eastern, classics, east-asian, south-asian, cultural-studies

The core of this book is a solid account of the 'spiritual' traditions of four great civilisations (the Hellenistic-Pagan; the Judaean; the South Asian; and the Chinese) during the thousand or so years before the end of the third century BC. As far as it goes, it is an excellent and coherent narrative.

But I have my doubts. The story sometimes seems shoe-horned not only into the contention that all four cultures saw a first axial age that defined Old World culture until a second 'axial age' in th ...more

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Feb 26, 2012 Jason rated it it was amazing

Karen Armstrong looks beyond doctrine to find a common core in the religious and philosophical traditions that emerged during the years 900 to 200 BCE - an era the German philosopher Karl Jaspers called the Axial Age. All around the world at the time, people were trying to address the question of violence and endless war.

What she found in the writings of the great thinkers and sages of Confucianism and Daoism in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, Judaism and the precursors of Christianity i ...more

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Mar 28, 2015 Sarahj33 rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-books, lifestyle, religion

So I bought this book about three years ago at a street festival in Michigan when I was on a big non-fiction kick. I never got past the first couple of chapters because the writing felt pretty dense and seemed to assume that I had a background knowledge of things like the Assyrian Empire and the Book of Deuteronomy. I still don't know anything about those things, but I decided to give the book another go as part of my quest to actually read all the books that are languishing on my shelves before So I bought this book about three years ago at a street festival in Michigan when I was on a big non-fiction kick. I never got past the first couple of chapters because the writing felt pretty dense and seemed to assume that I had a background knowledge of things like the Assyrian Empire and the Book of Deuteronomy. I still don't know anything about those things, but I decided to give the book another go as part of my quest to actually read all the books that are languishing on my shelves before buying any new ones.

And somehow, this book was exactly the book I needed to be reading right now. If you've been keeping up with the news lately, it can feel like a lot of things are going wrong in the world, and organized religions in some form are implicated in a lot of the world's problems. So to open a book and read about lots of very smart people from 500 BCE seeing the same problems and actually coming up with solutions is very comforting. Obviously the solutions didn't last forever, but I've come away from this book convinced that we can learn a lot from the sages of the Axial Age.

The basic idea of The Axial Age is that around the same time, many of the world's religions took profound leaps forward in terms of incorporating ethical systems into their traditions - new ethical systems that were based on the Golden Rule, non-violence, and the suppression of ego. These systems also took the fascinating position that, although they never denied the existence of a god, they thought it was counter productive to try to define "God" when God is by nature undefinable. It would be much more appropriate to spend your energy leading a good life than worrying about whether Yahweh was more powerful than Baal. Armstrong writes clearly and concisely, weaving together different stories in a well organized but intricate web. I ended up changing my mind about the writing being too dense and requiring too much outside knowledge - it is easy to follow her arguments and conclusions even if you don't know anything about Vedic texts or the Chinese classics.

This book doesn't claim to be a panacea for all the world's problems, but to me it felt like it could be. Armstrong doesn't deny the various problems of the Axial traditions - the Greek Axial Age never really coalesced, the Chinese tradition split into several splinter groups, basically all the Axial sages completely ignored women, etc. And, of course, none of them could really make it last for more than a few hundred years. But overall the message of the book is hopeful. These guys were on to something, and it shows that even if religion is part of the problem, it can also be part of the solution. ...more

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May 10, 2020 Corina Anghel rated it it was amazing

I started reading this book on Easter, because although I am not religious, I wanted to celebrate the spirituality of the Holiday. It was absolutely fascinating to read the history of the four most popular religions of the world and it was so interesting to discover that:
- the Christian God's (and Islams's Allah's) story dates long back, evolving from the story of Yahweh, a warrior god who later on "started" to also support people with their crops and "became" omniscient and omnipresent when the I started reading this book on Easter, because although I am not religious, I wanted to celebrate the spirituality of the Holiday. It was absolutely fascinating to read the history of the four most popular religions of the world and it was so interesting to discover that:
- the Christian God's (and Islams's Allah's) story dates long back, evolving from the story of Yahweh, a warrior god who later on "started" to also support people with their crops and "became" omniscient and omnipresent when the Jews were exiled to Babylon and had to leave their physical temple;
- the Greeks didn't receive too much support and guidance from their Gods who seemed to mirror the same challenges they were going through so instead they focused on asking questions, analyzing and on dialogue which soon enough resulted in the invention of democracy, philosophy and scientific interest;
- the Hindus started focusing on themselves and invented meditation and the Buddhist practices when some wise scholars changed the sacrificial rituals, replacing the violence in them with an inward focus. Instead of sacrificing an animal they would pretend to sacrifice themselves and that, in exchange would make them feel they are one with the Gods. Soon, they realized they can achieve Nirvana by themselves and a lot of them renounced the normal life to go on quests of finding their true selves (sure, that is not within reach to everybody so the majority of the population still had a strong connection to the old Gods, or just practiced yoga and various forms of more simple meditation);
- the Chinese people, with a strong cult of the ancestors, were much more pragmatic and focused more on the present life than on the past or future, their rituals explained up to the utmost details were means to show how one should live the best of life. I like how they believed that spirituality and "heaven" is something that you can bring on Earth rather then something you need to reach for.

My summary is, of course, over-simplified. What is interesting is to see how these religious and spiritual practices evolved depending on the period, on what happen in people's lives and what were their needs in certain times. In our contemporary, highly scientific, world, when people focus on their own individuality, it is no wonder that so many people from western countries are now drawn to the spiritual practices of the yogis rather than the religious christian rituals and the figure of an almighty God.

What all the sages from the Axial Age* had in common and what Karen Armstrong tried to show is that they all "put the abandonment of selfishness and the spirituality of compassion at the top of their agenda". No matter if their beliefs were secular or religious as long as they made people act compassionately and to "honor the stranger" they were "skillful".

The book is sometimes a challenge to follow as there are so many concepts and historical figures mentioned and you really want to remember all (I took a lot of notes). I admire the author so much for having the skill and knowledge to put everything together so comprehensively and, on top of that, because in 2009 she created a Charter for Compassion, an umbrella for people to engage in collaborative partnerships worldwide to do good.

* Axial Age = is a term coined by German philosopher Karl Jaspers in the sense of a "pivotal age", characterizing the period of ancient history from about the 8th to the 3rd century BCE, the time in which all foundations that underlie current civilization came into being. ...more

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Dec 07, 2009 Charles Matthews rated it really liked it

We can be almost certain that somewhere, at this very moment, someone is committing an act of violence in the name of God. That troubling realization underlies this book, an attempt to reach back 2,500 years and more, to survey our earliest attempts to establish systems of belief that promise a release from human strife.

Karen Armstrong's "great transformation" took place in what the philosopher Karl Jaspers called "the Axial Age" – roughly seven centuries, starting around 900 B.C., in which the We can be almost certain that somewhere, at this very moment, someone is committing an act of violence in the name of God. That troubling realization underlies this book, an attempt to reach back 2,500 years and more, to survey our earliest attempts to establish systems of belief that promise a release from human strife.

Karen Armstrong's "great transformation" took place in what the philosopher Karl Jaspers called "the Axial Age" – roughly seven centuries, starting around 900 B.C., in which the foundations were laid for Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism, as well as for such later faiths as Christianity and Islam and for secular inquiries into the nature of being and the good life. In discrete corners of the world -- places we now know as Greece, Israel, India and China – thinkers developed new concepts of human beings' relationship to God and to one another.

This was the age of great texts: the Hebrew scriptures; the Upanishads, Bhagavad-Gita and Mahabharata; the Analects of Confucius; the dialogues of Plato. All of them stressed the primacy of doing good. As Armstrong sums it up, "First you must commit yourself to the ethical life; then disciplined and habitual benevolence, not metaphysical conviction, would give you intimations of the transcendence you sought."

The Golden Rule -- do unto others as you would have them do unto you -- recurs through all four of the traditions Armstrong surveys. "The Axial sages put the abandonment of selfishness and the spirituality of compassion at the top of their agenda," she writes. "For them religion was the Golden Rule. They concentrated on what people were supposed to transcend from – their greed, egotism, hatred, and violence."

What makes the emergence of this "spirituality of empathy and compassion" more striking, and earns it the designation of "great transformation," is that in all four regions, Armstrong observes, it was "rooted in fear and pain." Brutal tribal warfare was the rule at the opening of the Axial Age, and religion was very much a matter of trying to make sure – through ritual and sacrifice and other means of subjugation to a mysterious higher power -- that you had a god on your side who was stronger than the other guy's god. Armstrong's often fascinating intellectual history shows how a new attitude toward God and humanity emerged from these bellicose origins, a belief that "Heaven was not simply influenced by the slaughter of pigs and oxen, but by compassion and justice."

The transformation was brought about by a variety of thinkers whose ideas Armstrong presents with a welcome lucidity. There is, for example, the biblical author or editor – "or, more probably, a school of priestly writers and editors," Armstrong notes – whom scholars identify as "P." Armstrong shows how, in the opening chapter of Genesis, P transformed the creation myth, which in most traditions was presented as a titanic struggle, into a story of calm mastery: "There was no fighting or killing. God simply spoke a word of command: 'Let there be light!' … P methodically extracted aggression from the traditional cosmogony."

Other sages recognized that religious dogma was itself a cause of strife. Confucius "discouraged theological chatter," Armstrong tells us. "Instead of wasting time on pointless theological speculation, people should imitate the reticence of Heaven and keep a reverent silence. … The ultimate concern was not Heaven but the Way." The Buddha, Armstrong says, even went so far as to deny the existence of "an authoritative, overseeing deity," because it "could become another prop or fetter that would impede enlightenment. … But his rejection of God or gods was calm and measured. He simply put them peacefully out of his mind."

"The Great Transformation" is likely to irk scholars and specialists who object to an amateur, a former nun with degrees in English literature, venturing onto their turf. The book does seem over-ambitious in its attempt to survey four distinct cultures over a span of seven centuries about which reliable documentation is scant and what little is known has been overlaid with interpretation and speculation. Armstrong often glosses over the economic, social and political forces that underlie the transformation. She's much more focused on what was thought than on why it was thought. And there are good reasons to object to her overuse of phrases like "a time of transition." We're always in some kind of transition, after all – history is not a row of little fixed and stable boxes between which human beings scurry, doffing old ideas and putting on new.

But above all else, this is a book that aims to still the noise of our own troubled time. Since Sept. 11, 2001, Armstrong has been a frequent commentator in the media on matters of belief, particularly on the emergence of militant fundamentalism. Her book is a defense of the healing power of religion in an age when many have concluded, as she puts it, "that religion itself is inescapably violent or that violence and intolerance are endemic to a particular tradition." She reminds us that the Axial sages lived "in violent societies like our own. What they created was a spiritual technology that utilized natural human energies to counter this aggression." Armstrong's conviction, passion and intelligence radiate throughout the book, making us feel the urgency of the ideas it seeks to convey.

...more

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Jun 21, 2010 Nathan rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: sociology, franklin-library, history

Beginning with an exploration of Asian religious tradition, Karen Armstrong gradually moves to a general, and rather generic, call for religious tolerance. She focuses exclusively on the religious traditions of the Asian continent, notably Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism, and while she does a cracking good job of it (her explication of Buddhist belief was the clearest I've ever read), she does so to the neglect of the contributions of the West to religious thought, notably Catholicism and post-Re ...more

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Apr 05, 2015 Dawn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2015, authors-women, audiobook, history, non-fiction, religion

Much as I’d like to just leave my review to one word, fascinating, I don’t think that would be sufficient.
So, this book left me feeling just a bit uneducated as I know practically nothing about all but one of the religions discussed but I did find it curious, as obviously the author has, that all three would have such similar ideas at approximately the same time. The progression of each religion based on their geographical area and societal influences as well as their ultimate conclusions, whic ...more

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May 24, 2010 Cliff rated it really liked it

A bit dry but very well researched.

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Dec 09, 2019 Becca rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction

Armstrong is quickly becoming one of my favorite religious thinkers. Here, she gives a history of the evolution of religious concepts from ancient times through the Axial Age when the ideals governing the world's societies were developed, taking us into the development of religion and philosophy in Asia, Eurasia, India, and the Middle East. I've been waiting to read a book like this practically my whole life, and while I certainly learned plenty, I now have even more questions: What about the an ...more

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Jan 14, 2019 Jill Hudson rated it liked it

I was surprised by the many gushing reviews this book has received. Yes, it is a useful survey of the emergence and development of several world religions, and a very readable introduction to their characteristics. It also makes a strong case for mutual understanding and tolerance. But for me it just doesn't do 'what it says on the tin'. It offers no real explanation of why so many similar ideas emerged in different cultures at a similar time, though on the cover it says it is going to. Why were I was surprised by the many gushing reviews this book has received. Yes, it is a useful survey of the emergence and development of several world religions, and a very readable introduction to their characteristics. It also makes a strong case for mutual understanding and tolerance. But for me it just doesn't do 'what it says on the tin'. It offers no real explanation of why so many similar ideas emerged in different cultures at a similar time, though on the cover it says it is going to. Why were so many of Plato's ideas so reminiscent of Hinduism? What were the links between the two? We never find out; and what is more, the similarities between the various religions and philosophies are stressed rather too simplistically at the expense of the differences. Armstrong implies that metaphysical beliefs simply weren't important to the 'Axial sages', whose insights she boils down to not much more than 'The Golden Rule' which she says has never been improved upon. In fact Jesus' statement of this 'rule' goes way beyond most of its previous formulations, in that most other sages stated it in its 'negative' form ('Don't do to others what you wouldn't want them to do to you') whereas Jesus', positive, version is much, much more challenging ('Do to others what you would have them do for you'). She claims that 'loving your neighbour' is pretty much all that true religion entails, forgetting that loving God is seen as equally important, not only by Jesus but by the Jewish 'Shema' and by the champions of many other faiths as well. Belief in God is not an optional extra; genuine compassion and transformation are only attainable when God's grace indwells us, not as a result of 'discipline'. Furthermore neither Christianity, rabbinic Judaism nor Islam emerged in Armstrong's 'Axial Age' (900-200BCE) at all, so she has to perform some dodgy sleight of hand to force them to fit into her framework. She is also guilty of some vague, generalised statements unbacked up by evidence and almost worthy of Philomena Cunk (e.g. 'In the ancient world it was generally permissable to eat only meat that had been sacrificed ceremonially in a sacred area'(!) - p161). I think I would have enjoyed this book more if its blurb hadn't made all sorts of extravagant claims which the content doesn't live up to. ...more

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Jan 19, 2015 Miroku Nemeth rated it really liked it

I have mixed feelings about this book. It's a perspective on history that is interesting in many ways, but very misleading in others. The attribution of nonviolence to peoples who were violent is really quite inexplicable if it was actually a historical analysis of the theoretical "axis age" (that this is a problematic construction is actually borne out by the tortured argument structure of the book), but it is a recurrent theme she uses to support her thesis throughout the 500 and some odd page ...more

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Feb 21, 2012 Kathy rated it it was amazing

I read this book after reading Armstrong's wonderful book, "The Spiral Staircase." As a person who has never studied religious history, I lack the context for assessing Armstrong's treatment of the Axial Age during which major religions evolved versions of the Golden Rule. Her writing is very clear and easy to read, and she provides extensive documentation and explanations at the back. For me, the book was a captivating journey through a dimension of history that has fueled my curiosity. She sti ...more

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Jul 13, 2013 AC Fick rated it it was amazing

Armstrong is informed and informative without ever being didactic or preachy. This book, given the vast scope of its subject matter -- across time and space -- is infinitely readable, while always being detailed, specific, and accurate.

If you're intrigued by or interested in the history of the major religious and faith-based traditions in the world, this book is rewarding reading.

In fact, this ought to be required reading for all students of humanity; everyone, every last one of us, ought to rea ...more

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Jun 27, 2011 Lori rated it it was amazing

I have read this two times and now am having it read to me in bed by my husband, a release for gut centered pacifists pained by all these wars.

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Apr 18, 2011 Tom rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, non-fiction, philosophy

It took a long time to finish this book, but it is worth the effort. In its scope and importance, it reminds me of Ideas: from Fire to Freud, another very worthwhile book. However, this one is more focused and, in some ways, more original.

Armstrong deals with what the historian Karl Jaspers calls the Axial Age (that period between 900 and 200 BC) during which the major philosophical and religious traditions that exist today, began. She follows developments in this regard in 4 distinct regions an ...more

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Jul 28, 2020 Thomas rated it really liked it

Shelves: religion, history

While it is very easy here to lose the forest for the trees, The Great Transformation is a fine popular account of comparative religion. What drives the book is the idea that there was an Axial Age that spanned several cultures which could have had little to no contact with each other, and that this age was marked by peace-seeking and empathy after millenia of tribal warfare. This is vastly oversimplying the notion first put forth by Karl Jaspers, which Armstrong uses as a frame without really a ...more

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Jan 22, 2011 Sean rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

"The Great Transformation: The Beginnings of Religious Traditions" is the sort of scholarship you can come to expect from Karen Armstrong, an independent scholar from Britain who writes extensively on religious topics. She is able to take quite complicated issues and ideas and his able to make them accessible to a wider audience. This really is the biggest job of a scholar, whether independent or attached to a university- to be able to communicate your thoughts and ideas in a coherent way. If yo "The Great Transformation: The Beginnings of Religious Traditions" is the sort of scholarship you can come to expect from Karen Armstrong, an independent scholar from Britain who writes extensively on religious topics. She is able to take quite complicated issues and ideas and his able to make them accessible to a wider audience. This really is the biggest job of a scholar, whether independent or attached to a university- to be able to communicate your thoughts and ideas in a coherent way. If you can do this to a massive audience of non-academics, all the better. In this regard, Karen Armstrong is in many ways second-to-none.

"The Great Transformation" describes a theoretical period in history known as the "Axial Age," which according to her estimations ran from about 900 BCE to 200 BCE (with extensions into the Common Era). During this time period of immense change and characterized by violence and trauma, nearly all of the worlds major religious or philosophical traditions got their starts, from Israelite Monotheism to Vedic Religions to Chinese Religions to Greek Philosophy. Its a very broad theory they implies that humanity as a whole had reached a certain point by this time period to need a new form of religiosity and spirituality and therefore, this transition happened in a number of places simultaneously. For Armstrong, the transition to Axial Age religions involved an evolving sense of self and an acute awareness of suffering and pain. These religions gave their followers the tools to live in chaotic times and make sense of the rapid changes surrounding them. There is also the sense that the religious journey is one that forced the follower to acknowledge the impermanence of things and the difficulty of knowing the divine. What these faiths did was to encourage their followers towards a certain "knosis" of the divine, or to a sense of truths and ideas which are not able to be articulated. This is the sort of knowledge that cannot be taught but knowledge acquired through living and practice.

The book has some amazing ideas and deserves a high rating for the audacity to try to synthesize almost 1,000 years of complex history and philosophy from four different areas. The information is fascinating and clearly aimed for a modern audience- whom she tries to encourage at the end to take the lessons from these thinkers and apply them to the modern world. However, I cannot rate this higher for a number of reasons. First is that while the information is extremely useful and interesting, it suffers from a real lack of organization. The book is arranged chronologically and thematically but within chapters, there is really jumping between the four regions. I do not think that she chose the order of the content randomly but her chain of logic is hard to discern. I also think that by trying to connect these movements so closely, she risks making them seem like they were in extremely close contact and that their developments were in one logical stream. It is a very tricky line to balance and I feel at times, she gets trapped in the idea of the Axial Age. What I may consider doing in the future is reading all of the material for one area at once to be able to connect the sections across chapters. Second is that I am not sure how much I buy into the Axial Age theory. The evidence is compelling but I am wary of "all-encompassing" theories of religion. We must be careful not to allow the theory to overtake what I would call the organic nature of religion.

As a new scholar of religion myself, I can agree with this theory on a basic level. I think that this new conception of humanity was a logical development of religion and shows one way that humans can react to profound change. An axial mindset would be useful in the modern world and I think this book goes a long way to remind us of these essential truths founded by these seekers so many years ago. ...more

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Jul 21, 2017 Mary Ellen rated it really liked it

Karen Armstrong's scholarly exploration of the Axial Age was esoteric at times, and I found her discussion of Christianity to be surprisingly lacking, but ultimately I loved how she rounded it all out with a discussion of how compassion and the Golden Rule is the heart of all the world's religious traditions. Very inspiring. ...more

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Dec 15, 2007 Adam rated it it was amazing

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
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 sympat From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
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.

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.
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Jan 09, 2010 Mark Gowan rated it liked it

I like reading Karen Armstrong's books. This book is a travel through religious history, especially that of the Judaism and Christianity. It includes Islam, but not to the same extent. The book seems centered around the 'axial' age of religions; that is, the movements,mostly early on, that defined religious belief as a changing phenomenon motivated by individual betterment, rather than traditional acceptance of socially defined belief.

The book starts with the Aryans, around 1600 B.C.E and takes ...more

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Nov 03, 2016 Daniel Seifert rated it liked it

Shelves: religious-studies, reference, history

Armstrong, a religious historian in her own right, discusses four Axial cultures under that while they are not synchronic developments/transformations in human development, they are great Axial figures (900 BC to 200 CE) such as Zoroaster in Persia, Buddha in India, and Laozi and Confucius in China. Wile I am not a ride reader of history, I found helpful this rich background to my familiarity with Rabbinic Judaism, Christianity, and Islam that are categorized as “latter day flowerings of the Axi Armstrong, a religious historian in her own right, discusses four Axial cultures under that while they are not synchronic developments/transformations in human development, they are great Axial figures (900 BC to 200 CE) such as Zoroaster in Persia, Buddha in India, and Laozi and Confucius in China. Wile I am not a ride reader of history, I found helpful this rich background to my familiarity with Rabbinic Judaism, Christianity, and Islam that are categorized as “latter day flowerings of the Axial Age,” and other creative traditions who gave us, e.g., the Pali canon, the Greek tragedies, or the Tao.

Like any tradition or history, Armstrong delivers a disjunctive, raggedness in her telling. For example she echoes her sympathies for Aristotle who had “a better understanding of traditional spirituality than Plato” and was “more comfortable with emotions” than his master. While later writing a lament that “unfortunately,” Aristotle “made an indelible impression on Western Christianity.”

Anyone who has read Armstrong's books (e.g., A History of God) knows she seeks understanding the enduring relevance of the traditional teachings handed down and to retrieve their authentic import--to “bring the best insights of modernity to the table” with the ultimate outcome of such efforts being “recreation” of the “Axial vision.” She propels in her quest the gradual discovery of interiority, a move away from tribalism and ritualism as the “great transformation” marking the Axial Age. Perhaps the end of the text provides a sense of this aim in an appeal to mutual understanding and tolerance “in a tragic world, where, as the Greeks knew, there can be no simple answers."

With the themes of The Great Transformation, she ends with an inspiring call for a return to the Axial Age principles of human compassion, selflessness, and a desire to avoid inflicting harm as a remedy for many of today’s social and religious ills, a fitting way to leave with us with "The Way Forward." ...more

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May 05, 2017 Laura rated it it was amazing

I loved this book. I have read a lot of Karen Armstrong's work and love the way she explains religion in a scholarly and yet respectful manner for every religious tradition. However, this was my favorite by far. I got lost in her descriptions of the mindset, culture, and beliefs of the peoples of the Axial Age. It was fascinating to visit Ancient Greece, China, India, and Israel. I just couldn't get enough and would have read on another 400 pages.

Sometimes at the end of Armstrong's work she see ...more

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Jan 15, 2018 Bonnie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history

An excellent book if you're interested in religion or history, or some perspective on the confusing state of affairs in the world today. Ms. Armstrong explains in depth the changes that occurred in four main civilizations from around 1000 years before and until around 500 years into the common era. The peoples she studies are the Israelites, the Greeks, Indian and Chinese, during times of upheaval for each of them. In general she shows how for each of these groups a greater understanding of indi ...more

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Oct 21, 2016 JJ Lehmann rated it really liked it

Shelves: in-collection

Although I'm not quite convinced on the concept of an Axial age, it is quite fascinating that so many giants of the religion world arose around the same time. In my opinion, it seems that because of the violence and desperation of the time or perhaps both made the populace open to, and the ground fertile for, the rise of spiritually intelligent people to combat this dukkha. It just seems to easy to connect them all.
That said, every academic field of study needs a person that can popularize its ...more

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Jun 05, 2010 Chris rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: religion

Originally I tried to read this one as an old fashioned book. However, I found it difficult to find the time to dedicate to it. While it is a very interesting read, it was a slow read for me. I needed time to let the concepts and the history sit in my mind.

Then I decided to get the audiobook version of it. (Thank you Audible.com!) Driving back and forth to work turned out to be a great time to absorb this tome.

It ties in directly to Armstrong's 'Charter for Compassion'. Listening to it felt lik ...more

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About Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong

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Karen Armstrong, a comparative religion specialist is the author of numerous books on religion, including The Case for God, A History of God, The Battle for God, Holy War, Islam, Buddha, and Fields of Blood, as well as a memoir, The Spiral Staircase.

Her work has been translated into 45 languages. In 2008 she was awarded the TED Prize and began working with TED on the Charter for Compassion, ...more

Books by Karen Armstrong

A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness

The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism

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