The Bible: A Biography

[Lawrence Bryan]

I think you may be right about her sympathies, Bekah. Certainly if I  
were a believer, I'd find Islam a lot easier to believe than the Old  
or New Testament.

I haven't read the three books you mentioned but I did the two you  
haven't read. While not a hagiography, her book on Muhammad seems  
sympathetic; but that could be because our constant inundation with  
screeds about evil Islamic terrorists makes any neutral approach seem  
like trading with the enemy. She does go over some of the criticisms  
such as him changing the traditions about his adopted son so he could  
marry his adopted son's wife after she was divorced. No doubt Muhammad  
was a smart and charismatic man but also very human and susceptible to  
all human desires.

It's been so long since I read her History of God, I can't make any  
meaningful comments on it.

Lawrence

On Feb 8, 2009, at 8:49 PM, Bekah wrote:

> Karen Armstrong  writes well researched, carefully thought out and  
> wonderfully intelligent histories of religion.  She's a fine author  
> although a bit on the dry side.   I've read
>
> The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions  
> (2006)
> The Spiral Staircase (2004)
> Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths (1996)
>
> I'm very curious to read The Bible: A Biography but also A History  
> of God and maybe Muhammed.
>
> If pushed,  I'd say her sympathies are with Islam although she was  
> born, raised and educated Catholic,  an ex-nun in fact - or novice  
> (that story is in The Spiral Staircase).
>
> Bekah
>
>
> On Feb 8, 2009, at 6:40 PM, Henry Musikar wrote:
>
>> Thanks for the tip'o the hat, Dave.  Looks really good.  I'm gonna  
>> buy it from (ahem) at Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/bible-a-biography
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Dave Monroe
>> Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 6:50 PM
>> To: pynchon -l
>>
>> Armstrong, Karen.  The Bible: A Biography.  New York: Grove, 2007.
>>
>> http://www.groveatlantic.com/grove/bin/wc.dll?GroveProc~book~5241
>>
>> See esp. Ch. 5, "Midrash" ...
>>
>> http://books.google.com/books?id=nHuVPKRUGNUC
>>
>>
>
>