Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with fast, free delivery
Amazon Prime includes:
Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
- Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
- Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
-40% $17.99$17.99
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: FindAnyBook
$11.07$11.07
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: Southland Charm LLC
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
OK
Audible sample Sample
The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions Hardcover – March 28, 2006
Purchase options and add-ons
Armstrong traces the development of the Axial Age chronologically, examining the contributions of such figures as the Buddha, Socrates, Confucius, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the mystics of the Upanishads, Mencius, and Euripides. All of the Axial Age faiths began in principled and visceral recoil from the unprecedented violence of their time. Despite some differences of emphasis, there was a remarkable consensus in their call for an abandonment of selfishness and a spirituality of compassion. With regard to dealing with fear, despair, hatred, rage, and violence, the Axial sages gave their people and give us, Armstrong says, two important pieces of advice: first there must be personal responsibility and self-criticism, and it must be followed by practical, effective action.
In her introduction and concluding chapter, Armstrong urges us to consider how these spiritualities challenge the way we are religious today. In our various institutions, we sometimes seem to be attempting to create exactly the kind of religion that Axial sages and prophets had hoped to eliminate. We often equate faith with doctrinal conformity, but the traditions of the Axial Age were not about dogma. All insisted on the primacy of compassion even in the midst of suffering. In each Axial Age case, a disciplined revulsion from violence and hatred proved to be the major catalyst of spiritual change.
- Print length496 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherAlfred A. Knopf / Random House
- Publication dateMarch 28, 2006
- Dimensions6.72 x 1.55 x 9.56 inches
- ISBN-100375413170
- ISBN-13978-0375413179
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Frequently bought together
Similar items that may ship from close to you
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Bookmarks Magazine
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.
From Booklist
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
“Armstrong at her best–translating and distilling complex history into lucid prose that will delight scholars and armchair historians alike.”
–Lauren F. Winner, The Washington Post Book World
“Her conviction, passion and intelligence radiate throughout the book, making us feel the urgency of the ideas it seeks to convey.”
–Charles Matthews, Baltimore Sun
“A tour de force. . . . She has dedicated herself to understanding the most prominent world faiths and explaining them to a secular/postsecular society."
–Jane Lampman, The Christian Science Monitor
“Perhaps her most ambitious work. . . . Without overlooking the differences between religions, Armstrong emphasizes their common call for compassion.”
–Lisa Montanarelli, San Francisco Chronicle
“A lucid, highly readable account of complex developments occurring over many centuries. . . . A splendid book.”
—William Grimes, The New York Times
“An utterly enthralling reading experience. . . . This book ranks with A History of God as one of her finest achievements.”
—Booklist
“In her typical magisterial fashion, she chronicles these tales in dazzling prose with remarkable depth and judicious breadth.”
—Publishers Weekly
"The Great Transformation can serve the needs of new readers interested in a popular work that synthesizes scholarship. . . . [U]seful to anyone seeking an integral sense of world religions."
—The Globe and Mail
"Karen Armstrong is a genius."
—A. N. Wilson, author of Jesus: A Life
"Armstrong is a lucid writer with a knack for synthesizing vast quantities of research."
—The Globe and Mail
"Armstrong’s writing continues to offer a religious mirror and a cultural vision."
—Amazon.com
"Armstrong has a dazzling ability: she can take a long and complex subject and reduce it to the fundamentals, without oversimplifying."
—The Sunday Times
“Armstrong’s erudition is truly impressive. . . . Few people are better qualified to explain that what so often divides us ought to unite us instead.”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Broad, eloquent storytelling.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“Her conviction, passion and intelligence radiate throughout the book, making us feel the urgency of the ideas it seeks to convey.”
—New York Sun
“This could very possibly be one of the greatest intellectual histories ever written.”
—Library Journal (starred review)
“A book of the magnitude of The Great Transformation can only be considered authoritative.”
—Charleston Post & Courier
“On prominent display in this book are Armstrong’s usual virtues–wide knowledge, meticulous research, a superb appreciation for the beauty and power of religious and philosophical ideasls, and general readability.”
—Shambhala Sun
“This magisterial work, continuing Karen Armstrong’s mission to explore the place and purposes of religions in the modern world, follows in the stream of her books on Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddaism.”
—Spirituality & Health
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
THE AXIAL PEOPLES
(c. 1600 to 900 BCE)
The first people to attempt an Axial Age spirituality were pastoralists living on the steppes of southern Russia, who called themselves the Aryans. The Aryans were not a distinct ethnic group, so this was not a racial term but an assertion of pride and meant something like “noble” or “honorable.” The Aryans were a loose-knit network of tribes who shared a common culture. Because they spoke a language that would form the basis of several Asiatic and European tongues, they are also called Indo-Europeans. They had lived on the Caucasian steppes since about 4500, but by the middle of the third millennium some tribes began to roam farther and farther afield, until they reached what is now Greece, Italy, Scandinavia, and Germany. At the same time, those Aryans who had remained behind on the steppes gradually drifted apart and became two separate peoples, speaking different forms of the original Indo-European. One used the Avestan dialect, the other an early form of Sanskrit. They were able to maintain contact, however, because at this stage their languages were still very similar, and until about 1500 they continued to live peacefully together, sharing the same cultural and religious traditions.
It was a quiet, sedentary existence. The Aryans could not travel far, because the horse had not yet been domesticated, so their horizons were bounded by the steppes. They farmed their land, herded their sheep, goats, and pigs, and valued stability and continuity. They were not a warlike people, since, apart from a few skirmishes with one another or with rival groups, they had no enemies and no ambition to conquer new territory. Their religion was simple and peaceful. Like other ancient peoples, the Aryans experienced an invisible force within themselves and in everything that they saw, heard, and touched. Storms, winds, trees, and rivers were not impersonal, mindless phenomena. The Aryans felt an affinity with them, and revered them as divine. Humans, deities, animals, plants, and the forces of nature were all manifestations of the same divine “spirit,” which the Avestans called mainyu and the Sanskrit-speakers manya. It animated, sustained, and bound them all together.
Over time the Aryans developed a more formal pantheon. At a very early stage, they had worshiped a Sky God called Dyaus Pitr, creator of the world. But like other High Gods, Dyaus was so remote that he was eventually replaced by more accessible gods, who were wholly identified with natural and cosmic forces. Varuna preserved the order of the universe; Mithra was the god of storm, thunder, and life-giving rain; Mazda, lord of justice and wisdom, was linked with the sun and stars; and Indra, a divine warrior, had fought a three-headed dragon called Vritra and brought order out of chaos. Fire, which was crucial to civilized society, was also a god and the Aryans called him Agni. Agni was not simply the divine patron of fire; he was the fire that burned in every single hearth. Even the hallucinogenic plant that inspired the Aryan poets was a god, called Haoma in Avestan and Soma in Sanskrit: he was a divine priest who protected the people from famine and looked after their cattle.
The Avestan Aryans called their gods daevas (“the shining ones”) and amesha (“the immortals”). In Sanskrit these terms became devas and amrita. None of these divine beings, however, were what we usually call “gods” today. They were not omnipotent and had no ultimate control over the cosmos. Like human beings and all the natural forces, they had to submit to the sacred order that held the universe together. Thanks to this order, the seasons succeeded one another in due course, the rain fell at the right times, and the crops grew each year in the appointed month. The Avestan Aryans called this order asha, while the Sanskrit-speakers called it rita. It made life possible, keeping everything in its proper place and defining what was true and correct.
Human society also depended upon this sacred order. People had to make firm, binding agreements about grazing rights, the herding of cattle, marriage, and the exchange of goods. Translated into social terms, asha/rita meant loyalty, truth, and respect, the ideals embodied by Varuna, the guardian of order, and Mithra, his assistant. These gods supervised all covenant agreements that were sealed by a solemn oath. The Aryans took the spoken word very seriously. Like all other phenomena, speech was a god, a deva. Aryan religion was not very visual. As far as we know, the Aryans did not make effigies of their gods. Instead, they found that the act of listening brought them close to the sacred. Quite apart from its meaning, the very sound of a chant was holy; even a single syllable could encapsulate the divine. Similarly, a vow, once uttered, was eternally binding, and a lie was absolutely evil because it perverted the holy power inherent in the spoken word. The Aryans would never lose this passion for absolute truthfulness.
Every day, the Aryans offered sacrifices to their gods to replenish the energies they expended in maintaining world order. Some of these rites were very simple. The sacrificer would throw a handful of grain, curds, or fuel into the fire to nourish Agni, or pound the stalks of soma, offer the pulp to the water goddesses, and make a sacred drink. The Aryans also sacrificed cattle. They did not grow enough crops for their needs, so killing was a tragic necessity, but the Aryans ate only meat that had been ritually and humanely slaughtered. When a beast was ceremonially given to the gods, its spirit was not extinguished but returned to Geush Urvan (“Soul of the Bull”), the archetypical domestic animal. The Aryans felt very close to their cattle. It was sinful to eat the flesh of a beast that had not been consecrated in this way, because profane slaughter destroyed it forever, and thus violated the sacred life that made all creatures kin. Again, the Aryans would never entirely lose this profound respect for the “spirit” that they shared with others, and this would become a crucial principle of their Axial Age.
To take the life of any being was a fearful act, not to be undertaken lightly, and the sacrificial ritual compelled the Aryans to confront this harsh law of existence. The sacrifice became and would remain the organizing symbol of their culture, by which they explained the world and their society. The Aryans believed that the universe itself had originated in a sacrificial offering. In the beginning, it was said, the gods, working in obedience to the divine order, had brought forth the world in seven stages. First they created the Sky, which was made of stone like a huge round shell; then the Earth, which rested like a flat dish upon the Water that had collected in the base of the shell. In the center of the Earth, the gods placed three living creatures: a Plant, a Bull, and a Man. Finally they produced Agni, the Fire. But at first everything was static and lifeless. It was not until the gods performed a triple sacrifice—crushing the Plant, and killing the Bull and the Man—that the world became animated. The sun began to move across the sky, seasonal change was established, and the three sacrificial victims brought forth their own kind. Flowers, crops, and trees sprouted from the pulped Plant; animals sprang from the corpse of the Bull; and the carcass of the first Man gave birth to the human race. The Aryans would always see sacrifice as creative. By reflecting on this ritual, they realized that their lives depended upon the death of other creatures. The three archetypal creatures had laid down their lives so that others might live. There could be no progress, materially or spiritually, without self-sacrifice. This too would become one of the principles of the Axial Age.
The Aryans had no elaborate shrines and temples. Sacrifice was offered in the open air on a small, level piece of land, marked off from the rest of the settlement by a furrow. The seven original creations were all symbolically represented in this arena: Earth in the soil, Water in the vessels, Fire in the hearth; the stone Sky was present in the flint knife, the Plant in the crushed soma stalks, the Bull in the victim, and the first Man in the priest. And the gods, it was thought, were also present. The hotr priest, expert in the liturgical chant, would sing a hymn to summon devas to the feast. When they had entered the sacred arena, the gods sat down on the freshly mown grass strewn around the altar to listen to these hymns of praise. Since the sound of these inspired syllables was itself a god, as the song filled the air and entered their consciousness, the congregation felt surrounded by and infused with divinity. Finally the primordial sacrifice was repeated. The cattle were slain, the soma pressed, and the priest laid the choicest portions of the victims onto the fire, so that Agni could convey them to the land of the gods. The ceremony ended with a holy communion, as priest and participants shared a festal meal with the deities, eating the consecrated meat and drinking the intoxicating soma, which seemed to lift them to another dimension of being.
The sacrifice brought practical benefits too. It was commissioned by a member of the community, who hoped that those devas who had responded to his invitation and attended the sacrifice would help him in the future. Like any act of hospitality, the ritual placed an obligation on the divinities to respond in kind, and the hotr often reminded them to protect the patron’s family, crops, and herd. The s...
Product details
- Publisher : Alfred A. Knopf / Random House; First Edition (March 28, 2006)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 496 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0375413170
- ISBN-13 : 978-0375413179
- Item Weight : 1.86 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.72 x 1.55 x 9.56 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #629,332 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #824 in General History of Religion
- #880 in Comparative Religion (Books)
- #1,100 in History of Religions
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Karen Armstrong is the author of numerous other books on religious affairs-including A History of God, The Battle for God, Holy War, Islam, Buddha, and The Great Transformation-and two memoirs, Through the Narrow Gate and The Spiral Staircase. Her work has been translated into forty-five languages. She has addressed members of the U.S. Congress on three occasions; lectured to policy makers at the U.S. State Department; participated in the World Economic Forum in New York, Jordan, and Davos; addressed the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington and New York; is increasingly invited to speak in Muslim countries; and is now an ambassador for the UN Alliance of Civilizations. In February 2008 she was awarded the TED Prize and is currently working with TED on a major international project to launch and propagate a Charter for Compassion, created online by the general public and crafted by leading thinkers in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, to be signed in the fall of 2009 by a thousand religious and secular leaders. She lives in London.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviews with images
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Karl Jung is not the one who coined the term Axial Age. It was Karl Jaspers.
Furthermore, the review is sensationalistic and misses the key points of Armstrong's work.
"It's not what one may expect from a book about the development of the world's religions: 'Crouched in his mother's womb, he lay in wait for his father, armed with a sickle, and the next time Uranus penetrated Gaia, he cut off his genitals and threw them to the earth.' However, the Greek myth of Cronus clearly illustrates Armstrong's main thesis, that the 'simultaneous' development of the world's religions during what Karl Jung called the axial age, is a direct result of the violence and chaos, both physical and spiritual, of past civilizations. Armstrong, a former nun turned self-described 'freelance monotheist,' has enough background and personal investment in the material to make it come alive. Her delivery is crystal clear, informative and, though somewhat academic, easy for the layman to understand. Her voice is straightforward yet wrought with palpable concern. This reinforces the book's goals of creating a clear understanding of where religious developments have come from and explaining how today's 'violence of an unprecedented scale' parallels the activities that created the 'axial age' in the first place."
In The Great Transformation (TGT) Armstrong meticulously, but without losing energy, explores the emergence of the pivotal religions of the world that emerged from c. 900 to c. 200 BCE. Her treatment is, first of all, historical and cultural, with emphases upon India (Hinduism and Buddhism), China (Taoism and Confucianism), the Middle East (Judaism), and ancient Greece.
Although Armstrong often is tagged as a comparative religion scholar/writer, she is less interested in comparing religions (comparisons almost always devolve into value assessments that fuel competitive approaches to religion) than she is showing how diverse histories and cultures leave us with deep resonances of religious and spiritual awareness.
Those resonances--including ritual, kenosis (emptying), knowledge, suffering, empathy, and concern for everybody--provide the clues to a careful reader to help understand how regional/cultural/historical expressions of religion finally transcended those beginnings and became viable across cultures and eras in history.
The transformation suggested in the book's title is kaleidoscopic. From time to time and from place to place the resonances emerge from particular circumstances and move toward universally recognized traits of authentic, transformative religions.
A delight found in each chapter is Armstrong's judicious use of primary sacred texts--yes, including Homer's epics and the Greek dramatists broad ouvre--that contextualize the values of religion without attempting to put all religions in one proverbial pot.
Finally, TGT begins with reflections upon recent history (e.g., the fall of the Twin Towers in 2001) and the rise of the perceived certainties of science and technology that have had the effect of muting the myths and mysteries found in the history of religions. Armstrong's closing parenthesis, "The Way Forward," holds out the hope those seeking to survive the twenty-first century might find, again, the values of myth and mysteries from ancient and contemporary flowerings of Axial Religion.
Dr. Armstrong starts the book from when the first humans began to resemble an Axial movement. The book’s organization is a bit different from others, since each chapter encompasses a central theme rather than a certain people. Slowly but surely, the book starts to pick up and cover different messages for each period of time. For example, there is one chapter that discusses the notion of self-kenosis, which is the process of emptying all the thoughts from one’s mind and submitting to a divine will.
While I do wish that Armstrong could’ve organized each chapter or part by each separate culture, I do understand why she didn’t do so. It makes sense to want to see what each culture’s beliefs were at a certain time period. The supporting evidence was laid out well, and usually at the end of each chapter, she would relate the evidence to how significant it was to the Axial Age.
After reading this book, I can definitely say that I recommend “The Great Transformation” to anyone who is interested in seeing how early religions and philosophies were all intertwined in one form or another. It is a very interesting read, and Armstrong does a fantastic job with laying down her arguments and specifying certain areas of uncertainty.
Top reviews from other countries
And experience with amazon.in is really rewarding...