Inspirational Quotes by Karen Armstrong (English Religious Historian)

Karen Armstrong (b.1944) is an English religious historian and author of books on religion. She is widely considered one of the leading commentators on the subject. Her books about the world’s religions explain that their power lies not in dogma but in enduring truths.

Born in Wildmoor, Worcestershire, England, Armstrong entered a Roman Catholic convent at age 17. After seven years, she became a nonbeliever, telling her journey in Through the Narrow Gate (1981.) Armstrong graduated with a degree in literature from Oxford. She taught modern literature at the University of London before becoming the head of the English department at a girls’ school. By 1982, she had become a freelance writer and commentator, and her new profession slowly led her back to the matter of religion.

Armstrong authored and presented a six-part television documentary series on the life and work of the Apostle Paul (1983.) She then went on to create other television series, including Varieties of Religious Experience (1984,) Tongues of Fire (1985,) and Genesis: A Living Conversation (1996.)

Armstrong’s work concentrates on commonalities of the principal religions, such as the essence of compassion and the Golden Rule. Since 9/11, her works on Islam, Muhammad: A Western Attempt to Understand Islam (1991,) A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (1993,) and The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (2000,) have become best-sellers.

Armstrong’s books include Beginning the World (1983,) The Gospel According to Woman: Christianity’s Creation of the Sex War in the West (1986,) The End of Silence: Women and the Priesthood (1993,) The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions (2006,) The Case for God (2009,) Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence (2014,) and The Lost Art of Scripture: Rescuing the Sacred Texts (2019.)

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