The Lost Art of Scripture: Rescuing the Sacred Texts by Karen Armstrong

This is a mishmash

The New Testament and Quran were routinely revised since ancient times and their message dramatically reinterpreted to meet the needs of the ever present. The art of scripture erased the past because the sacred text is known to be the Word of God, and it had to conform to the moral rules set in ancient times. Hence, Muslims are practicing the moral and social norms of ninth-century Arabian Desert, and the Quran and Hadith are used to justify acts of Jihad-terrorism as a religious duty. Muslim women deeply believe that God wants them to cover their head, and Christians use the Gospel of John 3:16 to recklessly convert others into the Christian faith. Force, coercion, savagery, and war was used to enforce Christian beliefs.

The take home message from this book is mixed; the author dwells on the role of myth, how it evolved, and why religions need it. She takes us back to very ancient times, about 40,000 years ago: Long before established religions came into existence to reconstruct the human faith systems. The author is known for her work on Abrahamic faiths, Old and New Testaments, and Islam. Her analysis of Hinduism covered mainly in one chapter; namely Chapter 2, falls too short for a good comparisons with religions of The Middle East. The author lacks a comprehensive competence in the vast field of Hinduism. The religious literature includes Vedas, Upanishads, the Epics, the Puranas, Bhagavad-Gita and the six Hindu philosophical systems that articulate this most ancient faith system. The earliest hymns of Rigveda are dated back to 1700 BCE.

The author’s work focuses on commonalities of religions and employs the need for compassion and often invoke political correctness. She is known to be overtly sympathetic to Muslims since they make the most demand from the Western societies to conform to Muslim sentiments and Islamic values.