Book Review
I will be eternally grateful to our colleague Brigid Limerick for loaning me this book,“The Lost Art of Scripture - Rescuing the Sacred Texts” by Karen Armstrong. A world renowned religious writer, Armstrong outlines the development of scriptural texts in China, India, Israel and Europe over 3 millennia.
Some of her themes are:
· Scripture is not static; it is built and added to over time
· Scripture was developed and used in early traditions as part of ceremonies that also involved song, dance, chanting and other right-brained activities.
· Scripture is not history. Authors used symbolism, allegories, poetry and other literary techniques to convey meaning. Scripture is therefore open to multiple interpretations, depending upon the cultural, political and social circumstances of the individual reader.
· In the West, recent centuries have downplayed the mythical (right-brained) in favour of the rational (left-brained), diminishing the value of Scripture.
· There has also been the emergence of fundamentalism based on individual pieces of Scripture, read literally and taken out of context. War and terrorism are often justified on this basis.
To be honest, the book was a hard slog, particularly as I was unfamiliar with many of the terms used in the Chinese, Indian and Jewish traditions. Nevertheless, it reinforced my view that the religious traditions have far more in common than they have differences.
The book also led me to researching Karen Armstrong and discovering the Charter for Compassion, a four paragraph aspirational statement written by Armstrong in 2009 and signed by millions of people, including the Dalai llama and Desmond Tutu. It can be found at https://charterforcompassion.org/
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