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Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence, by Karen Armstrong
Ebook Download Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence, by Karen Armstrong
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Review
“Elegant and powerful. . . . Both erudite and accurate, dazzling in its breadth of knowledge and historical detail.” —The Washington Post“Consistently surprising and illuminating, Fields of Blood should be read by anyone interested in understanding the interaction of religion with violence in the modern world.” —The New Republic“Convincing. . . . Careful, fair and true.” —The New York Times Book Review “Makes a powerful case. . . . The argument is what matters, and hers is strong enough to change minds.” —The Christian Science Monitor“A compelling examination of the true forces underlying religious violence.” —The Huffington Post “Written in a lucid and fleet prose. . . . [Armstrong is] one of the keenest minds working on understanding the role religion plays in cultures around the globe.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune “Panoramic work. . . . Enjoyable and informative.” —Salon “A valuable, readable rebuttal of a pernicious contemporary myth. . . . Armstrong goes through the centuries and assorted cultures to demonstrate again and again how religious principles and religious leaders were co-opted to support warfare.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch “A tour-de-force of the history of the world’s major religions. . . . Fields of Blood is thought-provoking as it examines one of the more fascinating elements of human civilization.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette “Armstrong is doing us a great service. . . . We feel we are in the hands of an expert.” —The Guardian (London) “Riveting . . . [A] mighty offering . . . Armstrong is one of our most erudite expositors of religion.” —The Observer (London) “Provocative and supremely readable. . . . Bracing as ever, [Armstrong] sweeps through religious history around the globe and over 4,000 years to explain the yoking of religion and violence and to elucidate the ways in which religion has also been used to counter violence.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Epic in scale . . . A comprehensive and erudite study of the history of violence in relation to religion . . . An intriguing read, useful resource and definitive voice in defense of the divine in human culture.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A well-written historical summary of what have traditionally been viewed as ‘religious’ wars, showing convincingly that in pretty much all cases it was not so much religion as it was political issues that fueled the conflict.” —Library Journal (starred review) “Armstrong again impresses with the breadth of her knowledge and the skill with which she conveys it to us.” —Booklist (starred review)
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About the Author
Karen Armstrong 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 The Great Transformation, as well as a memoir, The Spiral Staircase. Her work has been translated into forty-five languages. In 2008 she was awarded the TED Prize and began working with TED on the Charter for Compassion, created online by the general public, crafted by leading thinkers in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. It was launched globally in the fall of 2009. Also in 2008, she was awarded the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Medal. In 2013, she received the British Academy’s inaugural Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Transcultural Understanding.
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Product details
Paperback: 528 pages
Publisher: Anchor; Reprint edition (September 15, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0307946967
ISBN-13: 978-0307946966
Product Dimensions:
5.2 x 0.9 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.2 out of 5 stars
312 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#302,280 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Karen Armstrong should not need another introduction. She left behind her life as a Roman Catholic nun to devote a lifetime studying world religion, and she becomes one of the greatest religious scholars that has ever lived in the process. She is now, in her own words, a "freelance monotheist", and it is reflected in her careful, respectful and unbiased way of writting on every different religion. This book is another testament on this deep care and her range of knowledge on the subject matter. Fields of Blood seemingly discusses every single violence conducted in the name of religion, from ancient societies like the Summerians, the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, Zoroastrians, Confucian, to the Abraham religion and the many religions in the Sub Continent, to the era of first secular states (the US and post-revolution France), until the rise of Zionism, the current "war on terror" era and the most recent rise of ISIS. Within this scope, she masterfully narrated on the politics, the struggles and the social interactions in each one of those eras, and explains us the gradual and intricate evolution of religion from the time religion, state and daily lives have not been separated yet, into the religion as we know it today.The book is so full of information and so airtight, however, that it can sometimes feel a little too complicated and unecessarily detailed. But I believe it is not meant to be memorised but rather to give us the big picture of how massively complex religious evolution is.As always, Ms Armstrong focused on the historical facts rather than the mystics or the folklores, and thus some may find the revelation in the book unsettling, such as the degree of editing the Bible experienced, or how Islamic Hadits were conveniently tailored, or the mysterious discovery of questionable scrolls containing the teachings of Moses for the Jews, despite the fact that during Moses' time in 8th century BC teachings were taught verbally rather than in writting - all of which have 1 underlying purpose: to match the rulers' political needs at the time. And this is the central thesis of the book, where all violence that are conducted in the name of religion are all ultimately man made. And the scripture-based justification that comes with them are nothing short of a political doctrine, not much different than the atheist doctrines by Hitler, Stalin and Mao.As Karen Armstrong herself puts it "terrorism is fundamentally and inherently political, even when other motives—religious, economic, or social—are involved. Terrorism is always about "power—acquiring it or keeping it." And so, according to one of the pioneering experts in the field, "all terrorist organizations, whether their long-term political aim is revolution, national self-determination, preservation or restoration of the status quo, or reform, are engaged in a struggle for political power with a government they wish to influence and replace."" Indeed, our main focus when it comes to religious violence should not be the religion, but what have happened in that specific occurance that created violence in the name of religion. And to that end, learning from this book, there seems to be a pattern where all root causes of violence eventually come from these 4 stages: 1. A group of minority are treated unfairly or even oppressed 2. A leader emerged among them to fight for their cause, which originally preach non-violence 3. Only to be crushed by those in power, pushing them further into the edge and force them to be radical 4. And so they launch their radical offensives, justifying their violent acts by (mis)quoting their Holy Book and fitting their oppressor into their doctrine (i.e. Infidels, the devil, etc).Karen Armstrong then elaborate, "the claim that the primary motivation of a terrorist action is political may seem obvious—but not to those who seem determined to regard such atrocious acts of violence as merely "senseless." Many of that view, not surprisingly, find religion, which they regard as a byword for irrationality, to be the ultimate cause." Questioning which religion is more violent than the other is, therefore, completely missing the point. Although she did admit that "this, of course, is not to deny that religion has often been implicated in terrorist atrocities." But nevertheless, "it is far too easy to make it a scapegoat rather than trying to see what is really going on in the world." There are thousands more words that can be written in this review, with thousands specific examples can be derived from this book. It is indeed the hardest review I've written so far, simply because there are so many great things about the book, and so many important points that I want to cover but could not possibly fit them all in just one short review. It is definitely one of my top 10 books to read to understand how the world really works. It is trully a masterpiece.
I enjoyed reading this scholarly effort and find myself in agreement with the author most of the time. She points out that while religion has often been blamed for wars and various other human evils, careful examination of historical facts clearly reveal that the root cause of war and other human acts of violence on large scales is politics. Religion, however, has often been waiting in the wings in the form of convenient ways to rally parts of society or to paint these acts with a sort of spiritual permission or encouragement. I gave the book 4 stars only because the author’s bias gradually became evident as the latter chapters evolved: those that discussed modern times. She was obviously quite critical of the US and its historical role in sowing the seeds of hatred in the middle east, particularly following 911, and even tacitly suggested that the US should have done nothing afterward in order to better counter terrorism. This chapter (Global Jihad) had a faintly apologetic feel to it, favoring the enemies of the US, referring to Bin Laden’s death, for example, as an “assassination,†and describing President Bush, with his “100 million evangelical Christians,†as having a “messianic streak.†She also too easily dismissed the role of Islam by pointing out that many of the more infamous terrorist attacks (including 911) have been carried out by people with little training or familiarity with the Quran. I was reminded of a limo ride I took from New York to New Jersey a few years after 911. My driver was Muslim and had been raised in Pakistan. We talked the whole way. At one point I asked him if he’s read the Quran. He told me that he hadn’t because he was illiterate, but he was a firm believer.
This ambitious work purports to examine "religion and the history of violence." I would recommend it for more than that, however. For its first 10 chapters (spanning the very beginnings of civilization to 1914), the book functions as a worthy introduction to world history for those who don't have the time to devote to the Durants' multi-volume "Story of Civilization." Yes, you do need to know a little about world history for this book to make sense, but anyone in college or later should be able to integrate it into their thinking.Armstrong's overall politics are clearly left-liberal, but she manages to fairly describe the role of religion in the majority of human history, when a sacred context was sought for all human activity. She describes how Western Enlightenment philosophers and European politicians turned religion into a private zone of inner beliefs and rarely action -- and then loses interest in the West. The last three chapters focus almost exclusively on the Middle East and South Asia as a sort of rebuttal to the received wisdom of unthinkingly pro-Western elites like Thomas Friedman and the early Andrew Sullivan.I frankly do not have time here to grapple with all the worthy arguments made in this book, although I have decided to join the discussion group at my father's church that reads one chapter a week, and may well use the book for a future discussion group at my own church. Armstrong's insight into the human condition is captured by this paragraph from the Afterword:"John Locke believed that the separation of church and state was the key to peace, but the nation-state has been far from war-averse. The problem lies not in the multifaceted activity that we call 'religion' but in the violence embedded in our human nature and the nature of the state, which from the start required the forcible subjugation of at least 90 percent of the population. As Ashoka discovered, even if a ruler shrank from state aggression, it was impossible to disband the army. The Mahabhrata lamented the dilemma of the warrior-king doomed to a life of warfare. The Chinese realized very early that a degree of force was essential to civilized life. Ancient Israel tried initially to escape the agrarian state, yet Israelities soon discovered that much as they hated the exploitation and cruelty of urban civilization, they could not live without it; they too had to become 'like all the nations.' Jesus preached an inclusive and compassionate kingdom that defied the imperial ethos, and he was crucified for his pains. The Muslim ummah began as an alternative to the jahili injustice of commercial Mecca, but eventually it had to become an empire, because an absolute monarchy was the best and perhaps the only way to keep the peace. Modern military historians agree that without professional and responsible armies, human society would either have remained in a primitive state or would have degenerated into ceaselessly warring hordes."The last sentence seems especially appropriate for Memorial Day -- we really do owe it all to the troops. Armstrong's last few chapters, particularly chapter 10, perfectly summarize how while many things have gotten better as a result of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, other things have gotten worse. The last three chapters argue that people in developing countries, especially those where the US is conducting military operations, owe their misery to the West and that we therefore reciprocally owe them some interest in their welfare and right to develop, according to the tenets of every religion in history. This sweeping review of the history of warfare, religion, and their relationship belongs on the bookshelf of anyone with an interest in these topics.
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