Karen Armstrong: The Gentle Voice of God

I admire the works of Karen Armstrong tremendously. The first of her books that I read was A History of God, back in 1996. I found it scholarly but at the same time extremely readable. It surveys our conception of God across time and civilizations, treating the reader to a satisfying intellectual panorama that ranges from pagan beliefs of Semitic tribes to the "God is Dead" ethos of 20th century existentialists. A respected media personality now, she has been very prolific over the years, writing books that elucidate the inter-relationships between the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The interesting thing about Karen Armstrong is that she is a former Catholic nun. Her autobiographical book, Through the Narrow Gate details the path that led her to spend many years in a Catholic convent to be trained as a nun and her ultimate disillusionment and parting of ways with the institution. She subsequently completed her Bachelor's degree in literature from Oxford University and pursued a career in teaching.

Her works are laden with well-researched details and they contribute greatly to inter-faith understanding especially among followers of the religions of Abraham. Some may argue that she perhaps has an axe to grind against Christianity given the bitterness of her convent years. But from reading her books, one can see that she strives earnestly to correct some of the biases and prejudices that the Western world has about the non Judeo-Christian world, namely the Muslim one.

I am such a big fan of hers that I even bought the audio versions of her books - read by the author herself - because she is also a joy to listen to. Her British "schoolmistress voice" is at once soothing, learned and inspiring, never once descending into lecture-room dullness. I regularly switch on one of her tapes during bedtime (like how some people lull themselves to sleep by watching TV); often "listening" to half of it in my sleep. If some of the theories about sleep-learning are true, then I would have become quite an expert on Semitic religions already.

Whether awake or asleep, I intend to continue keeping Karen Armstrong as a regular staple of my reading diet.