Product Description

Britain's greatest religious historian chronicles the rise and rise of fundamentalism. One of the most potent forces bedevilling the modern world is religious extremism, and the need to understand it has never been greater. Focusing in detail on Protestant fundamentalism in the United States, Jewish fundamentalism from sixteenth century Spain onwards and Muslim fundamentalism over the last four hundred years, Armstrong examines the patterns that underlie fundamentalism. These evolve from the clash between the conservative pre-modern mind that is governed by a love of myth, and the progressive rational society that relishes change. Fundamentalists view the contemporary world with horror, rejecting its claims to truth, and a state of war now exists over the future of our culture. They are not terrorists, rather, they are innovative, existing in a symbiotic relationship with an aggressive modernity, each urging the other on to greater excess. The Battle for God is original in its thesis and in its understanding; as a history of religious ideas it is fascinating, and as an explanation of one of the most destabilizing forces at large in the world today it is extraordinary.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36669 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
About 40 years ago popular opinion assumed that religion would become a weaker force and people would certainly become less zealous as the world became more modern and morals more relaxed. But the opposite has proven true, according to theologian and author Karen Armstrong (A History of God), who documents how fundamentalism has taken root and grown in many of the world's major religions, such as Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Even Buddhism, Sikhism, Hinduism and Confucianism have developed fundamentalist factions. Reacting to a technologically driven world with liberal Western values, fundamentalists have not only increased in numbers, they have become more desperate, claims Armstrong, who points to the Oklahoma City bombing, violent anti-abortion crusades, and the assassination of President Yitzak Rabin as evidence of dangerous extremes.

Yet she also acknowledges the irony of how fundamentalism and Western materialism seem to urge each other on to greater excesses. To "prevent an escalation of the conflict, we must try and understand the pain and perception of the other side," she pleads. With her gift for clear, engaging writing and her integrity as a thorough researcher, Armstrong delivers a powerful discussion of a globally heated issue. Part history lesson, part wake-up call, and mostly a plea for healing, Armstrong's writing continues to offer a religious mirror and a cultural vision. --Gail Hudson

Review
'The quality of this remarkable book lies as much in its detail as in its sweeping vision' Daily Telegraph 'Armstrong displays all her usual talents: she has an eye for colourful evidence, a wonderful gift for clarity of exposition and an unerring sense of pace and voice and narrative.' Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Literary Review

Philip Ziegler
Fundamentalism cannot be put down by force. If it is to be defeated, it must first be understood

Customer Reviews

How to understand fundamentalism
I am reading this book with as much interest and excitement as any I have for some time. It is an absolute must for broad-minded and especially non-religious people who want to understand tha nature and history of modern Fundamentalism. What is quite remarakable is the way the author integrates religious history with both past and contemporary political, social and economic history.
After a remarkable introduction she concentrates on four 'case studies', namely Iran, Egypt, Judaism and the USA. Althouugh she has obviously a special interest in Shii Islam, each of her studies is dramatic in the things one learns from it.
The book is also a remarkable work of research and scholarship.
Each day, I open the newspaper, and there is something there that is more easily understood from this book.
In fact, I believe, one of most important History books of modern times.

Be afraid, be very afraid...
To put this short review into context, I guess I could broadly describe myself as a "secular humanist" - the type of person loathed and despised by fundamentalists of all creeds. I might also add, that till the sickening events of September 2001, I new little about global politics and even less about world religions. Of all the books I've read since then, this is the one that has best helped me to understand just how this tragedy - and other terrorist outrages committed by fundamentalists of differing religious persuasions - could actually have happened. In view of the fact that the book was published in year 2000, this in itself is quite a commendation.

As a non-academic, I must admit that I found the book quite challenging in places, and I would have appreciated the inclusion of a more extensive glossary. However, this is a minor criticism of what is clearly a outstanding piece of work, which really does merit all the plaudits it's received to date from the professional book reviewers. Flipping back through the book, I see that I've hardly left a page unmarked - there are so many passages that merit highlighting.

For all its brilliance though, I did find this book profoundly disturbing. Just discovering, for example, that such a high percentage of North Americans believe that the Bible is literally true was bad enough; but then to realise that extremists from all the major monotheisitic religions revel in the prospect of universal suffering and global destruction, was more than a little worrying.

I would imagine that this book is unlikely to be widely read within the fundamentalist communities which form the foci of the work. This is a great pity, because it just might help some of these people to see the wood for the trees, and to appreciate the fact that "no religious doctrine or practice can be authentic if it does not lead to practical compassion" (P 322).

a compelling historicopolitical analysis of fundamentalism
Once again Karen Armstrong has produced a work of amazing erudition by exploring one of the most salient political phenomenon of our era.She traces the roots of modern religious Fundamentalism in the different historical experiences of secular modernity by the three monotheistic faiths.She reveals the common strands which have shaped these fierce reactions against the hegemony of the secular.She pointedly shows how, what she calls "mythos",is masquerading as "logos"and eventually degenerates into Ideologies of hatred and exclusion. Her analysis of recent political events in the Middle East and in America is illuminating.This is the voice of reason showing sagacity and sympathetic understanding. It is truly a remarkable book which is likely to get a much wider readership outside the UK.It deserves to be translated both into Arabic and Hebrew.