000			03006cam a22003497i 4500
005			20240716124141.0
008			190204s2019 enk b 001 0 eng
020			_a9781847924322
020			_a1847924328
020			_a9781847924315
020			_a184792431X
040			_aAU@ _cAU@ _erda
082	0	4	_a208.2 _bK A R
100	1		_aArmstrong, Karen, _d1944- _eauthor.
245	1	4	_aThe lost art of scripture : _brescuing the sacred texts / _cKaren Armstrong.
246	3	0	_aRescuing the sacred texts
264		1	_aLondon : _bThe Bodley Head, _c2019.
300			_ax, 549 pages.
336			_atext _btxt _2rdacontent
337			_aunmediated _bn _2rdamedia
338			_avolume _bnc _2rdacarrier
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 465-494) and index.
505	0		_aCosmos and society -- Israel: remembering in order to belong -- India: sound and silence -- China: rites first, spirits second -- Mythos -- New story; new self -- Empathy -- Unknowing -- Canon -- Midrash -- Embodiment -- Recitation and Intentio -- Ineffability -- Logos -- Sola Scriptura -- Sola Ratio -- Post-Scripture.
520			_aToday the Quran is used by some to justify war and acts of terrorism, the Torah to deny Palestinians the right to live in the Land of Israel, and the Bible to condemn homosexuality and contraception. The significance of Scripture--the holy texts at the centre of all religious traditions--may not be immediately obvious in our secular world but its misunderstanding is perhaps the root cause of most of today's controversies over religion. In this timely and important book, one of the world's leading commentators on religious affairs examines the meaning of Scripture. Today holy texts are not only used selectively to underwrite sometimes arbitrary and subjective views: they are seen to prescribe ethical norms and codes of behaviour that are divinely ordained--they are believed to contain eternal truths. But as Karen Armstrong shows in this fascinating trawl through millennia of religious history, this peculiar reading of Scripture is a relatively recent, modern phenomenon--and in many ways, a reaction to a hostile secular world. For most of their history, the world's religious traditions have regarded these texts as tools for the individual to connect with the divine, to transcend their physical existence, and to experience a higher level of consciousness that helped them to engage with the world in more meaningful and compassionate ways. Scripture was not a 'truth' that had to be 'believed.' Armstrong argues that only if the world's religious faiths rediscover such an open and spiritual engagement with their holy texts can they curtail the arrogance, intolerance and violence that flows from a narrow reading of Scripture as truth.
650		0	_aReligions.
650		0	_aSacred books
650		0	_aReligion and culture.
650		7	_aReligion and culture. _2fast
650		7	_aReligions. _2fast
650		7	_aSacred books. _2fast
942			_2ddc _cBK
999			_c4286 _d4286