'An amazingly wide-ranging book showing that the world's religious texts can be a force for
good today' John Barton author of A History of the BibleIn our increasingly secular world
holy texts are at best seen as irrelevant and at worst as an excuse to incite violence hatred
and division. The Quran the Torah and the Bible are often employed selectively to underwrite
arbitrary and subjective views. They are believed to be divinely ordained they are claimed to
contain eternal truths. But as Karen Armstrong a world authority on religious affairs shows
in this fascinating journey through millennia of history this narrow reading of scripture is a
relatively recent phenomenon. Armstrong argues that only by rediscovering an open engagement
with their holy texts will the world's religions be able to curtail arrogance and intolerance.
And if scripture is used to engage with the world in more meaningful and compassionate ways we
will find that it still has a great deal to teach us.'Magisterial... A dazzling accomplishment'
New York Times'Glorious... Armstrong is the most articulate and generous-hearted exegete of
religion writing in English at the present time' A.N. Wilson New Statesman
