全球暢銷書《神的歷史》（A History of God）作者、2008年TED大獎（Ted Prize）得主
著名比較宗教學者凱倫．阿姆斯壯，在新作《血田》中全面性探討宗教與暴力的關聯。
※《出版人週刊》選書，美版首刷印量15萬冊
人類社會本質上就帶有暴力，
雖然宗教常成為我們的代罪羔羊，但真正該做的是為此感到悲傷。
一個世俗化的民主國家，並不比宗教化的國家更愛好和平，
暴力是文明社會的兩難，每個人都置身其中。
我們無法澈底改變我們社會的本質，
但是不是能有一種不同的路徑，讓人們以更仁慈、更有同理心的方式生活在一起？
早在西元前兩百多年，印度的阿育王就發現，他既要推行慈悲的法，但為了維持國家穩定，卻又不能解散他的軍隊。古代以色列人原本想逃出農業國家，回歸部落文化，但他們很快就發現，儘管他們對於城市文明的剝削痛深惡絕，卻不能沒有它。
人類最早的宗教便是植基於生命必須依賴暴力才能生存的悲劇事實上，希望能幫助我們面對這個無解的難題。
但矛盾的是，歷史發展至今日，宗教反而經常被視為是各種紛擾的起因。
宗教真的該為人類的暴力負責嗎？宗教是如何被誤認以至走到現今這一步？
該如何認清暴力、宗教與人類社會的關係？
政治脫離宗教，真的為世界帶來和平了嗎？或者只是陷入一種缺乏剎車的極端？
在暴力在所難免的政治世界裡，非暴力真的有可能實現嗎？
現代性讓社會暴力的規模更為龐大，世俗化的民主國家，並不比一個宗教化的國家更愛好和平，甚至還缺乏剎車。作者爬梳了各個文化傳統中，包含佛教、中國儒教、道教，西方基督宗教，跨越四千多年的宗教歷史，不但為宗教在人類社會中的角色提出有力的抗辯，更為人類社會暴力的本質提供了思考的出路。
【書封故事】
當人類的鋤頭第一次揮向土地，大地就開始流血，從此，農田成了血田。
亞伯是牧羊的；該隱是種地的……
二人正在田間，該隱起來打他兄弟亞伯，把他殺了。
耶和華問該隱說：「你兄弟亞伯在哪裡？」
他說：「我不知道。我豈是看守我兄弟的嗎？」
耶和華說：「你做了什麼事呢？你兄弟的血有聲音從地裡向我哀告。」
《創世記》 4:2,8-10
各界齊聲推薦
•傳統上被視為是『宗教』戰爭，實際上絕大部分不是宗教，而是政治所導致的衝突，本書針對這段歷史做了很好的總結。——《圖書館期刊》
•發人省思，非常好讀。作者的探尋讓人耳目一新。她綜覽全球以及四千多年來的宗教歷史，解釋了宗教和暴力如何被套在一起，同時，也闡明宗教被用來對抗暴力的種種作法。——《出版人周刊》
•如史詩般壯闊，博學且廣泛的歷史研究，研究暴力與宗教的關係。…引人入勝的讀物充滿神在人類文化中最強而有力的抗辯。——《科克斯評論》

"An admirable and impressive work of synthesis that will give insight and satisfaction to thousands of lay readers."
THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
In this stunningly intelligent book, Karen Armstrong, one of Britain's foremost commentators on religious affairs, traces the history of how men and women have perceived and experienced God, from the time of Abraham to the present. From classical philsophy and medieval mysticism to the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the modern age of skepticism, Karen Armstrong performs the near miracle of distilling the intellectual history of monotheism into one superbly readable volume, destined to take its place as a classic.

這是一本關於世界三大一神宗教歷史的書。作者凱倫．阿姆斯壯(Karen Armstrong)以她切身的宗教條持體驗和淵博的宗教史知識，試圖在對照猶太教、基督教和伊斯蘭教一神觀念演變的基礎上，重新反省檢討西方這個代表終極真實與意義的符號，在過去四千年人類歷史中的功過得失，並喚起有識之士，共同思考它對當前普遍瀰漫著深沈無意義感的世俗社會，所能提供的撥亂反正之道。全書以猶太人從巴比倫的異教偶像崇拜，逐漸轉型到史無前例的真正一神概念為開端，按著討論基督教與伊斯蘭教，如何在這個革命性觀念的基礎上，重新塑造適合他們自己社會和政治環境需求的一神概念。在鋪陳過三大一神教的基本理念與架構後，作者開始轉向三大宗教後期的發展情形，從古典哲學、中世紀神秘主義，到宗教改革、啟蒙時期，以至現代的懷疑主義，每一章節均兼顧三大宗教，在同一時期或方向的對比介紹。在書末結語討論到一神概念的未來時，更強調以史為鑑對創造二十一世紀新信仰的重要性。作者客觀處理這個題材的寫作態度，兼容並蓄地照顧到現代多元文化背景下各次級團體的關懷，企圖以相對客觀的人文主義觀點，把絕對超越的一神概念，當成是人類歷史經驗來考察的構思。本書主題內容雖然局限在西方三大一神教的範圍，但在基本的精神上，卻是以整體人類文化的終極關懷為依歸的。

The enormous popularity of books by Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and others shows that despite the religious revival that is under way in many parts of the world, there is widespread confusion about the nature of religious truth. For the first time in history, a significantly large number of people want nothing to do with God. In the past people went to great lengths to experience a sacred reality that they called God, Brahman, Nirvana or Dao; indeed religion could be said to be the distinguishing characteristic of homo sapiens. But now militant atheists preach a gospel of godlessness with the zeal of Christian missionaries in the age of faith and find an eager audience. What has happened? Karen Armstrong argues that historically atheism has rarely been a denial of the sacred itself but has nearly always rejected a particular conception of God. During the modern period, the Christians of the West developed a theology that was radically different from that of the pre-modern age. Tracing the history of faith from the Palaeolithic Age to the present, Armstrong shows that until recently there was no warfare between science and religion. But science has changed the conversation. The meaning of words such as belief, faith, and mystery has been entirely altered, so that atheists and theists alike now think and speak about God - and, indeed, reason itself - in a way that our ancestors would have found astonishing. Why has the modern God become incredible? Has God a future in this age of aggressive scientific rationalism? Karen Armstrong suggests that if we draw creatively on the insights of the past, we can build a faith that speaks to the needs of our troubled and dangerously polarized world.

Over 700,000 copies of the original hardcover and paperback editions of this stunningly popular book have been sold. Karen Armstrong's superbly readable exploration of how the three dominant monotheistic religions of the world—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—have shaped and altered the conception of God is a tour de force. One of Britain's foremost commentators on religious affairs, Armstrong traces the history of how men and women have perceived and experienced God, from the time of Abraham to the present. From classical philosophy and medieval mysticism to the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the modern age of skepticism, Armstrong performs the near miracle of distilling the intellectual history of monotheism into one compelling volume.

Moving from the Paleolithic age to the present, Karen Armstrong details the great lengths to which humankind has gone in order to experience a sacred reality that it called by many names, such as God, Brahman, Nirvana, Allah, or Dao. Focusing especially on Christianity but including Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Chinese spiritualities, Armstrong examines the diminished impulse toward religion in our own time, when a significant number of people either want nothing to do with God or question the efficacy of faith. Why has God become unbelievable? Why is it that atheists and theists alike now think and speak about God in a way that veers so profoundly from the thinking of our ancestors?
Answering these questions with the same depth of knowledge and profound insight that have marked all her acclaimed books, Armstrong makes clear how the changing face of the world has necessarily changed the importance of religion at both the societal and the individual level. And she makes a powerful, convincing argument for drawing on the insights of the past in order to build a faith that speaks to the needs of our dangerously polarized age. Yet she cautions us that religion was never supposed to provide answers that lie within the competence of human reason; that, she says, is the role of logos. The task of religion is “to help us live creatively, peacefully, and even joyously with realities for which there are no easy explanations.” She emphasizes, too, that religion will not work automatically. It is, she says, a practical discipline: its insights are derived not from abstract speculation but from “dedicated intellectual endeavor” and a “compassionate lifestyle that enables us to break out of the prism of selfhood.”

The idea of a single divine being - God, Yahweh, Allah - has existed for over 4,000 years. But the history of God is also the history of human struggle. While Judaism, Islam and Christianity proclaim the goodness of God, organised religion has too often been the catalyst for violence and ineradicable prejudice. In this fascinating, extensive and original account of the evolution of belief, Karen Armstrong examines Western society's unerring fidelity to this idea of One God and the many conflicting convictions it engenders. A controversial, extraordinary story of worship and war, "A History of God" confronts the most fundamental fact - or fiction - of our lives.

No religion in the modern world is as feared and misunderstood as Islam. It haunts the popular imagination as an extreme faith that promotes terrorism, authoritarian government, female oppression, and civil war. In a vital revision of this narrow view of Islam and a distillation of years of thinking and writing about the subject, Karen Armstrong’s short history demonstrates that the world’s fastest-growing faith is a much more complex phenomenon than its modern fundamentalist strain might suggest.

凱倫．阿姆斯壯(Karen Armstrong)以德國哲學家雅斯培所提出的「軸心時代」概念闡述從西元前九世紀至二世紀，人類文明從四個不同地域誕生出足以影響人類一切的世界傳統，這影響涵蓋了宗教、哲學、知識、心理以及人文歷史等方面，直到今天軸心時代所開啟的智慧仍然影響著人們的生活。
中國的儒家學說和道教、印度的印度教和佛教、以色列的一神教，還有希臘的哲學理性主義。後代人繼承並將它們發揚光大，但是我們永遠不能超越前人的思想，即便是猶太教、基督教、伊斯蘭教也都是在以色列猶太人思想上的再發展。
《大蛻變》深刻揭示出如何利用「軸心時代」聖人們的預言切實地幫助我們經歷當今的暴力與絕望。作者按照年代順序追溯了「軸心時代」的巨大發展，介紹了諸如佛陀、蘇格拉底和孔子、孟子、耶利米、奧義書神秘教派、優里庇德斯等重要人物對人文歷史發展所做出的傑出貢獻。在當時史無前例的暴力中，「軸心時代」的宗教信仰卻逐步具有原則性的，並形成強烈的影響力。作者整理出軸心時代的宗教信仰上，即便強調的重點有所不同，但其共同的特點是呼籲摒棄自私自利的觀念、懷有同情憐憫之心。作者認為，針對恐懼、絕望、憎恨、暴力，聖人給予同時代的人們以及我們留下了兩種非常重要的建議：首先必須樹立個人責任感和自我批評的原則，其次必須將它們付諸行動。

Over 700,000 copies of the original hardcover and paperback editions of this stunningly popular book have been sold. Karen Armstrong's superbly readable exploration of how the three dominant monotheistic religions of the world - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - have shaped and altered the conception of God is a tour de force. One of Britain's foremost commentators on religious affairs, Armstrong traces the history of how men and women have perceived and experienced God, from the time of Abraham to the present. From classical philosophy and medieval mysticism to the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the modern age of skepticism, Armstrong performs the near miracle of distilling the intellectual history of monotheism into one compelling volume.

Karen Armstrong gives an account of her experiences as a Roman Catholic nun. She describes her childhood, her progress at school and her admission into the order of St Ignatius in 1962 and - via Oxford University and an English literature degree - out of it again seven years later. She depicts a brutal and medieval convent system prior to reform by the Second Vatican Council, where postulates had to erase their sense of self in order to be worthy as a bride of Christ. To achieve this, the sisters were forbidden to have friendships, were prohibited from speaking for 22 hours a day, had to undergo self-denunciation sessions in front of the other members of the convent, use scourges to dampen sexual desires and endure clothing, food and accommodation virtually unchanged since the dark ages. What began as Armstrong's desire for discipline and self-mastery rapidly became an assault on every aspect of her individuality. Exhausted by guilt, frustrations and loneliness, she slid first into anorexia and then into complete mental and physical collapse. Finally she obtained a place at Oxford University, and her reintegration into the world began.

This brilliant, readable synthesis of the history of mythology and the function it serves to humanity is the launch title of the groundbreaking publishing event, The Myths. ôHuman beings have always been mythmakers.ö So begins Karen ArmstrongÆs concise yet compelling investigation into what it is, how it has evolved, and why we still so desperately need it. She takes us from the Paleolithic period and the myths of the hunters right up to the ôGreat Western Transformationö of the last five hundred years and the discrediting of myth by science. The history of myth is the history of humanity, our stories and beliefs, our curiosity and attempts to understand the world, which link us to our ancestors and each other. Myths help us make sense of the universe. Heralding a major series of retellings of international myths by authors from around the world, ArmstrongÆs characteristically insightful and eloquent book serves as a brilliant and thought-provoking introduction to myth in the broadest sense -- and explains why if we dismiss it, we do so at our peril.

From one of the most original thinkers on the role of religion in the modern world, a profound exploration of the spiritual power of nature—and an urgent call to reclaim that power in everyday life.
"Much has been written on the scientific and technological aspects of climate change.... But Armstrong’s book is both more personal and more profound. Its urgent message is that hearts and minds need to change if we are to once more learn to revere our beautiful and fragile planet." —The Guardian
Since the beginning of time, humankind has looked upon nature and seen the divine. In the writings of the great thinkers across religions, the natural world inspires everything from fear, to awe, to tranquil contemplation; God, or however one defined the sublime, was present in everything. Yet today, even as we admire a tree or take in a striking landscape, we rarely see nature as sacred.
In this short but deeply powerful book, the best-selling historian of religion Karen Armstrong re-sacralizes nature for modern times. Drawing on her vast knowledge of the world’s religious traditions, she vividly describes nature’s central place in spirituality across the centuries. In bringing this age-old wisdom to life, Armstrong shows modern readers how to rediscover nature’s potency and form a connection to something greater than ourselves.

Hur har människor under skilda tider uppfattat Gud? Hur har de tre monoteistiska religionernas format och ändrat sin föreställning om Gud? Hur har dessa trosinriktningar påverkat varandra? Hur har olika människor tolkat begreppet Gud?

Karen Armstrong ger här en utförlig och gedigen redogörelse för varje tids och varje generations bild av Gud. Hon går från Abraham fram till våra dagar och ställer även frågan: Har Gud någon framtid?

På ett briljant sätt väver författaren samman historia, filosofi samt religions- och kulturhistoria. Hon ger bakgrunden till mycket av vår nutida världsuppfattning och förståelse för den roll som religionen och Gudsuppfattningen spelat och spelar i de olika kulturerna.

Karen Armstrong fördd 1944, anses vara en av världens främsta religionshistoriker. Hon tillbrungade sju år som nunna i ett romerskt-katolskt kloster på 1960-talet, och därefter studerade hon i Oxford och är numera författare på heltid. Hon har skrivit femton böcker.

一位無父無母的沒落貴族，如何挽救躁動不安的阿拉伯世界？
全球最負盛名的宗教學者，闡述這位被誤解的偉大導師
橫跨歐亞非的伊斯蘭文明的奠基者、十六億穆斯林的精神寄託，
一部有血有肉、平凡中窺見偉大的先知傳記

西元六世紀末，阿拉伯半島的居民面臨了嚴峻的多重危機。隨著駱駝商隊興起，游牧民族放棄了沙漠中朝夕難保的生活，在麥加這個商業大城裡定居下來。經濟的發達讓他們有了自信，卻也變得驕傲、貪婪。他們拋棄了傳統精神中最可貴的群體精神，貪財忘義，棄貧苦弱勢與失去父親守護的孤兒寡母於不顧，同時卻保留部落規範中最僵化的一面，為了捍衛宗族的尊嚴與利益不惜逞凶鬥狠，無視於普遍的人性價值。部落與部落之間的劫掠征戰、階級鴻溝的擴大迫使人人自危。青年人對祖輩的教導也疑竇漸生……

穆罕默德出生於統治麥加的古萊須族，但不幸家道中落、父母早歿，因此自幼體恤底層之艱困。與其他有志之士一般，他對當時的危機憂心忡忡、苦思對策，也從基督教與猶太教的經義中獲得啟發。在西元610年的「命定之夜」裡，他在一場神祕經驗中得天使之助領受真主話語，教導人們應該對良心負責，對同胞博愛，對真主順服。但保守的傳統勢力無法接受這位沒落貴族的顛覆性思想，施以暴力攻擊、經濟封鎖，最終逼迫穆罕默德逃亡。然而，他在麥地那創建的穆斯林社群的迅速擴張，不僅證明了他的智慧與美德、奠定了伊斯蘭教的基礎，更永遠的改變中東世界與人類歷史。

本書由當代最具盛名的宗教學者凱倫．阿姆斯壯所撰。本世紀初以來，因九一一事件與塔利班政權，世人對伊斯蘭教的扭曲日益熾烈，一個原先強調內省、慈愛、和平的宗教，被塗抹上一層與其宗旨完全背道而馳的形象。這不僅無助於族群之間的和解共生，也剝奪我們向這位先知學習的機會。有感於此，阿姆斯壯女士特別以深入淺出的筆法勾勒穆罕默德平凡中見偉大的一生，以提綱挈領的史實來彰顯伊斯蘭的真諦。透過考察穆罕默德本人的言行，我們不僅能澄清所有對伊斯蘭可能有的誤會，身處極端主義再起、民粹當道的躁動時代，我們也將從中獲得平靜與力量。