Former nun turned author urges more compassion
Fear and pain are at the root of fundamentalist terrorism, says religious historian Karen Armstrong.
by Rick Waters '95
Religious historian said: "Compassion is a challenge. It demands a constant intellectual and moral effort to go beyond selfishness."
Karen Armstrong doesn't place the blame of 9/11 on policies,
individuals or even hate of the Western world. According to Armstrong,
a lack of compassion for the outside world brought upon the events of
that day, and many of the world's struggles.
"If you deny the
pain of the world, that pain will come to you in a terrible, distorted
form," Armstrong said Tuesday night in the Brown-Lupton University
Union Ballroom.
It was one of numerous pleas from Armstrong
stressing the importance of compassion worldwide, especially with
advances in global communication. She delivered a 50-minute address on
religion's place in our world titled, "Religion in an Age of Terror:
Perils and Possibilities."
"Unless there is a full recognition
of the ubiquity of pain, we cannot, in the Buddhist sense, begin our
religious quest," Armstrong said. "We can not practice the compassion
that is essential for enlightenment, for the experience of what we call
'God,' for Nirvana, Brahma or Tao unless we recognize that pain that
lies at the heart of human life."
It was a strong stand in an
address filled with many, and was devoid of humor or crowd interaction.
Armstrong's tone was mostly intense, stressing the importance of making
worldwide change.
Last year, Armstrong won an award that she plans to use to make that change.
A
British author and a former Catholic nun, Armstrong is known for her
writings on comparative religion. More recently, Armstrong was awarded
one of three 2008 TED Prizes, a $100,000 award provided to grant a "One
Wish to Change the World," according to the Technology, Entertainment,
Design Web site.
The wish was revealed at the TED Conference to
be a "Charter of Compassion." Armstrong brought Christian, Muslim and
Jewish leaders together to create the charter, which would apply shared
moral priorities to foster greater global understanding, much like she
stressed in her speech. The charter will be unveiled Nov. 12.
Armstrong told a packed crowd that this generation is at a crossroads.
"It
seems to me that we can either select those aspects of our
intellectual, moral and spiritual traditions that speak of hatred,
division, contempt and exclusiveness or we can select those that speak
of compassion and make them work," Armstrong said.
She said the
Charter of Compassion will reflect those ideas, and provide a ground
work of ideas from all religious traditions with how to see the inherit
humanity in all peoples.
Armstrong has written 20 books according to
religion department chair David Grant, and is currently on a book tour
for her newest work, "The Case for God." In his introduction, Grant
revealed that the book will appear at number 10 on The New York Times nonfiction bestseller list in its first week of publication.
In
it, Armstrong argues for a new way to look at Christianity that is
closer to mysticism and draws the line of major shift in religious
thought at the times of Isaac Newton and William Paley. She argued that
the "natural theology" of Newton and Paley created a scientific warrant
for belief in a creator God - a major misstep in her eyes.
Armstrong
argues that religion has been trying to find its grounds as a
scientific study ever since, and was thrown for a loop with Darwin's
theory of evolution.
As the address closed, Armstrong made a call for the audience to show compassion to those of other beliefs.
"It
is when things are hard that we understand the depth and importance of
our religious traditions," Armstrong said. "Compassion is a challenge.
It demands a constant intellectual and moral effort to go beyond
selfishness. But if we apply it, as the world religions tell us, we get
enhanced perception of mind and body and heart. And we can save our
troubled world."
On the Web:
http://www.ted.com/talks/karen_armstrong_let_s_revive_the_golden_rule.html