SEPTEMBER 7 2019 LISTENER 15
ideologically divided from one another in
this respect.”
That level of tribalism is growing. Most
of the world, Armstrong says, is becoming
more religious (the UK and New Zealand are
exceptions). “If you look at China and Russia,
where religion was banned for many years,
they are now coming back to all kinds of
religion.”
In 1969, after seven years as a sister in
the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, Arm-
strong turned her back on Catholicism. Her
intention, she wrote in 2009, was to have
“nothing whatsoever to do with religion”,but decades spent studying other religions
led her to “revise” her views. In 2008, she
founded the Charter for Compassion, an
international initiative seeking support from
practitioners of all religions for the so-called
golden rule, that we should treat others as
we want to be treated.
What concerns her now is not the rise of
religion in itself, but the fist-pounding, gun-
toting, scripture-waving fundamentalism
sprouting from a bed of biblical literalism,
ideological misuse, political fervour and the-
ological misunderstanding that has nothing,GE
TTY (^) I
MA
GE
S
STERS
American evangelicals
are seeking a return
to ancient biblical
laws, including slavery
and stoning.
life studying and writing about humanity’s
search for god.
And she is just warming up to the topic
of her latest book, The Lost Art of Scripture,
in which she argues that the original sacred
texts of religion – not just Christianity but
all religions – have been misread, misinter-
preted and misused to inflame selfishness,
bigotry and – as seen in the March attacks
in Christchurch – hatred.
“There’s a lot of inequity and literalistic
interpretation, which goes entirely against
the scriptural genre. I was brought up badly
as a Catholic child: we didn’t think Protes-
tants were going to go to heaven, never mind
Muslims or Jews. We are horribly tribal and
Humanity’s search
for god: Karen
Armstrong; above, a
painting of the First
Crusade siege of
Antioch.