A Historian's Faithful Account [Karen Armstrong/Relativist]

Washinton Post ^ | March 29, 2006 | By Sally Quinn

[BlackVeil]

NEW YORK -- After she left the convent, Karen Armstrong called herself an atheist. "I used to hate religion," she says. "I loathed it in my angry days."

Seventeen books later, she is recognized as one of the great religious historians, and she has reconsidered her label. She regards herself to be deeply religious but with no denomination. "Sometimes I call myself a freelance," she says in her melodious English accent. "I can't see any one of the great religions as superior to others. . . . I'm seeking to make sense of life, looking for its meaning and how we can have a better humanity."

[BlackVeil]

"Once Rejecting Religion, Karen Armstrong Now Sees It as a Guidepost"

[Uri’el-2012]

After she left the convent, Karen Armstrong called herself an atheist. "I used to hate religion," she says. "I loathed it in my angry days."

It is so sad that she never knew Y'shua.

Blessed are You, O L-rd Our G-d , King of the Universe

b'shem Y'shua

[Uri’el-2012]

Abba
Father,
King of the universe
I pray send your Ruach haKodesh
to breath on the soul of Karen Armstrong
in her hour of need.
Breathe on Karen and draw her nearer to you.
I pray that if it be your will have her come to know your Son
I ask these things in the
Holy Name of Your Son
The Word of G-d:
B’Shem Y’shua haMashiach
Amain and amain  

[BlackVeil]

That is a very spiritual and charitable prayer.

I do get the impression that Karen A. does need prayers and to be uplifted - as do we all.

[T.L.Sink]

The salient fact is where she is NOW, no where she used to be in her atheistic/agnostic phase.
Nearly all the great saints of Christianity led lives of depravity, godlessness and selfishness before their conversion. From St.Augustine thru St.Francis, Ignatius Loyola, to the present -- all were reprobates until their conversion. Oscar Wilde expressed this reality best: "Every saint has a past and every sinner a future."

[VeritatisSplendor]

She certainly is not a Christian. Sort of all-faiths-have-validity-God-within-each-of-us-quasi-Buddhist maybe.

And if you read the article, she admires religious Americans except for the religious right, who are defined by the Left Behind fans, and have a psychiatric disorder.

And she knows Islam is a peaceful religion, much less violent over a 1500 year history than Christians have been.

Mrs VS

[LordBridey]

She certainly is not a Christian. Sort of all-faiths-have-validity-God-within-each-of-us-quasi-Buddhist maybe.

You nailed it. For her, the purpose of religion is to improve the condition of man while on Earth, not to prepare him for his ultimate demise. Particularly telling was her despair at age 45. Not until she achieved literary acclaim from her writing did she feel that her life had any meaning.

Also, I wonder how she can make the case that the Axial Age was an age at all given its 700 year length and the combination of different cultures. It seems she is creating a history to fit that fits her philosophy.