Comments | da_lj: Karen Armstrong, prophets & sages

da_lj

Karen Armstrong, prophets & sages

Apr 01, 2006 21:24

This afternoon I went to a talk on The Great Transformation, the latest book by Karen Armstrong. It was an OK talk, though quite short. She started talking at 2pm, started taking questions at 2:30; and finished up for book-signing at 3pm. I think perhaps it was the shortest talk I've ever paid money to go to. It's a shame because it would've ( Read more... )

judaism, buddhism, review, book, christianity

Comments 10

dpolicar April 2 2006, 03:06:52 UTC

It's tremendously hard work to be compassionate, and I don't think people can do it very effectively with our civilization in the state it's in.

When do you think civilization was in a state that allowed people to be effectively compassionate?

da_lj April 2 2006, 03:34:10 UTC

Has it ever been particularly? I don't think so.

dr_tectonic April 2 2006, 08:17:10 UTC

Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I think with practice being compassionate is not that hard.

But maybe we're talking about different things -- it's much easier to be compassionate in a passive/reactive way than a pro/active way.

da_lj April 2 2006, 13:58:21 UTC

I think we're talking about the same thing.

I was talking (well, ranting) about the majority of north americans, who don't find it as easy as you or I- or I'm sure anyone else who sees this on their friends page.

You know. Them.

Bleh. I'm not feeling very coherent pre-coffee today; and I expect I have a 90% chance of stepping on everybody's toes on this pretty Sunday morning. So I'm gonna stop here.

melted_snowball April 3 2006, 08:45:13 UTC

I think it's very easy to abruptly fail at being compassionate: to normally manage at it, and then get frustrated and push that stupid (#$*%) out of your way who's blocking your way onto the subway train or whatever.

And certainly, it's not what we're trained to do: we're trained to be selfish by much of society...

arcticturtle April 2 2006, 14:29:00 UTC

Interesting... and, in a sense, it's all along a single axis. Simple paganism was always mostly about taboos, regulations, (separating) identities, and manipulating the supernatural through commerce-like transactions. That's what all the prophets of the "Axial Age" were pushing against, and so much of what we complain about now in religion is nothing more than those tendencies pushing back.

da_lj April 2 2006, 16:27:41 UTC

Huh. That is interesting. I really don't know very much about old paganism- can you recommend a trustworthy source for learning more about this?

He said, opening a few new cans of worms.

melted_snowball April 3 2006, 08:46:31 UTC

This comes back to what Spong was arguing about in his talk that we saw last summer. (Of course, he also argues for a post-theist Christianity, which doesn't really make sense to me, but still, the similarities are striking.)

da_lj April 3 2006, 15:19:08 UTC

Ah, good point.

One of the sponsors of Karen Armstrong's talk, 'The Centre for Progressive Christianity' (progressivechristianity.ca), is holding a conference in May (titled 'Religionless Christianity') with Spong as keynote, and Rick Mercer doing a presentation of 'Bigger than Jesus'. I'm planning to read their materials on the plane.

she 's not the first anonymous May 29 2006, 19:43:54 UTC

to say these things . my favorite author, erich fromm, mentioned the rabbi, buddha, ect. and further, went on to say, AND I QUOTE, " you must lose your own ego before you can walk with god . " . - erich fromm . thanks, for giving me this opportunity . fromm is/was ( died in 1980 ) a social psychologist that branced of of freud . his most popular book, " the art of loving " was written/published in 1956 . i don 't know that she/karen armstrong mentions fromm ; however, she mentions every word, thought and deed that he did in any of his fifteen books written . thanks . laura