An excellent book about a tough subject

books:


	• Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths Karen Armstrong Ballantine Books, 1997 - 512 pages average customer review:based on 26 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

Jerusalem CD: One City, Three Faiths

There is nothing like an author reading her or his own text. The expression, exclamations, pauses, all where it is supposed to be; conveying exactly what the author means. It would have been better however, if the tracks were broken down into chapters. It is easier that way especially if you like to download them on to your i-pod. (Hence I ranked it 4 star and not 5).
The text is phenomenal. I wish it was not abridged. It is true that Karen Armstrong has not adopted the much prevalent anti Muslim rhetoric. Having said that, I really do not think that she portrayed any ethnic or religious group better or worse than the other. She presents historical facts (as factual as history has been recorded)and leads the listener / reader to draw their own conclusion. It unravels a few mysteries behind ongoing unrest in the middle east. Not only it provides us with a better insight in the current conflicts, and also enables us to hypothesize plausible solutions (though none are easy).

for more information click here

An excellent book about a tough subject

An excellent book about a tough subject. I learned a lot about this history of the city that me and my people aspire to become the capital of the Palestinian State.

One conclusion that struck me at the end of this spiritual quest, because this is more than a history of a city, Karen rightly concludes that a religion based on hatred of others is a self destructive. This is what the history of this tells us. That's why Jews and Christians have lost this city before to others. That doesn't mean Muslims automatically deserves this city. It means that only when this city is open to all, then this city and its rulers will live in peace.

I highly recommend this book for all.

for more information click here

Highly informative, yet entertaining!

This book provides a very balanced view of the factors leading to the present day situation in Jerusalem. Although somewhat heavy on the religious influences, not inappropriately so, since this is what made Jerusalem what it is today. I would have liked to have learned more about the situation with the Armenians in that quarter of the city throughout the turmoil of the last few hundred years. The many maps of the changing city were outstanding. Excellent!

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

"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

for more information click here