Jerusalem, Karen Armstrong
Jerusalem, Karen Armstrong
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Jerusalem
One City, Three Faiths

Author: Karen Armstrong

Narrator: Karen Armstrong, Lisa Armytage

Unabridged: 21 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/24/2020


Synopsis

"SPLENDID . . . Eminently sane and patient . . . Essential reading for Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike."
--The Washington Post

Venerated for millennia by three faiths, torn by irreconcilable conflict, conquered, rebuilt, and mourned for again and again, Jerusalem is a sacred city whose very sacredness has engendered terrible tragedy. In this fascinating volume, Karen Armstrong, author of the highly praised A History of God, traces the history of how Jews, Christians, and Muslims have all laid claim to Jerusalem as their holy place, and how three radically different concepts of holiness have shaped and scarred the city for thousands of years.

Armstrong unfolds a complex story of spiritual upheaval and political transformation--from King David's capital to an administrative outpost of the Roman Empire, from the cosmopolitan city sanctified by Christ to the spiritual center conquered and glorified by Muslims, from the gleaming prize of European Crusaders to the bullet-ridden symbol of the present-day Arab-Israeli conflict.

Written with grace and clarity, the product of years of meticulous research, Jerusalem combines the pageant of history with the profundity of searching spiritual analysis. Like Karen Armstrong's A History of God, Jerusalem is a book for the ages.

"THE BEST SERIOUS, ACCESSIBLE HISTORY OF THE MOST SPIRITUALLY IMPORTANT CITY IN THE WORLD."
--The Baltimore Sun

"A WORK OF IMPRESSIVE SWEEP AND GRANDEUR."
--Los Angeles Times Book Review

About Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong is the author of numerous books on religious affairs, including Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions and The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism. Her work has been translated into forty languages, and she has written three television documentaries. Since September 11, 2001, she has been a frequent contributor to conferences, panels, newspapers, periodicals, and other media on both sides of the Atlantic on the subject of Islam. She lives in London.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Saadia on July 15, 2022

4.5 Stars Jerusalem has for centuries been a symbol, surrounded in people's mind (Jews, Christians and Muslims alike) with an aura of association that has made it sacred. They found their God in the Holy City and it thus became inseparable from their deepest selves. This makes it very difficult for t......more

Goodreads review by Nomad on January 16, 2012

An absolutely essential book if you want to have a prayer of understanding all the violence in the Holy Land. Whether you're Jewish, Christian, Muslim, not religious at all or belong to entirely different faith, this book puts the history out there in a full readable way. This is for a layperson, so......more

Goodreads review by Caitlyn on February 20, 2007

A bit biased, and almost too religiously oriented. Armstrong is a fantastically thorough author and is obviously knowledgeable about the material. For a non-religious reader, it's often difficult when she digresses into the secular diatribes. But the historical basis of the book is strong.......more

Goodreads review by Maya on March 10, 2008

Pertama, tentu saja saya kagum dengan ketekunan Karen Armstrong menuliskan buku yang kaya referensi ini. Buku ini mencoba mencari akar sejarah mengapa Jerusalem, sebuah kota di kawasan Timur Tengah, selalu diklaim dan diperebutkan oleh tiga agama besar, Islam, Kristen dan Yahudi. yang menarik, Karen......more

Goodreads review by Laurel on March 28, 2020

It's absurd to call this objective history. I am very sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians too, but a work of history is no place for politics. The author's own opinions were so obvious that I would be surprised if anyone could take this as a balanced perspective. On the other hand, the tex......more