Westar Institute

Institutional Affiliation
Charter Member

Karen Armstrong

Institutional Affiliation

Credentials

Biography

Karen Armstrong is one of the most provocative, original thinkers on the role of religion in the modern world. Formerly an instructor at London’s prestigious Leo Baeck College for the Study of Judaism, she is author of the international best seller, The History of God. Armstrong is a former Roman Catholic nun who left the convent to pursue a degree in modern literature from Oxford University. She has since taught Modern Literature at London University and served as head of the English Department in a girls’ secondary school.During 1983, Armstrong worked in the Middle East on a six-part TV series on the life and work of St. Paul, which was shown on Britain’s Channel Four Television. Her other television work has included Varieties of Religious Experience (1984), in which she interviewed people of different faiths, Tongues of Fire (1985), in which she discussed religious poetry, and in 1996,the PBS series “Genesis: A Living Conversation,” with Bill Moyers. https://www.westarinstitute.org/store/what-is-religion-av/

• Muslim Public Affairs Council’s Media Award, 1999

Academic Appointments
Professional Service