Suggestions for a Second Axial Age
Author: Karen Armstrong
Amazon (DVD only): Karen Armstrong: Suggestions for a Second Axial Age
Description
From Westar Institute’s Spring 2008 meeting.
Karen Armstrong looks at the experience of transcendence as it was conceived and expressed in all of the great world religions during the Axial Age of antiquity (c. 700-200 BCE). She examines the various ways transcendence was understood in later generations and discusses the modern dilemma of faith, asking whether we are now in the throes of a Second Axial Age.
Karen Armstrong is the author of numerous other books on religious affairs—including A History of God, The Battle for God, Holy War, Islam, Buddha, and The Great Transformation—and two memoirs, Through the Narrow Gate and The Spiral Staircase. Her work has been translated into forty-five languages. She has addressed members of the U.S. Congress on three occasions; lectured to policy makers at the U.S. State Department; participated in the World Economic Forum in New York, Jordan, and Davos; addressed the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington and New York; is increasingly invited to speak in Muslim countries; and is now an ambassador for the UN Alliance of Civilizations. In February 2008 she was awarded the TED Prize. She lives in London.