Armstrong - Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions

Acknowledgments

My thanks, as always, to my literary agents Felicity Bryan, Peter Ginsberg, and Andrew Nurnberg; and to my editors Jane Garrett, Robbert Ammerlaan, and Toby Mundy, who had the idea for this book. Their continued support and friendship has been a source of immense blessing and joy. I must also thank Michele Topham, Carole Robinson, and Jackie Head in Felicity Bryans office for their constancy, patience, and kindness in helping me through the daily vicissitudes of a writers life, and Emily Molanphy and Alice Hunt, assistants to Jane and Toby, who are such thoughtful intermediaries. As ever, I owe a great debt of gratitude to the production team at Knopf, whose passion for accuracy and elegance is quite indispensable: Chuck Antony (copyeditor), Patrice Silverstein and Chuck Thompson (proofreaders), Claire Bradley Ong (production), Anthea Lingeman (designer), David Lindroth (mapmaker), and Ellen Feldman (production editor). And even though their input is still to come at this writing, I can-not forget my friends in the publicity departments, Sheila Kaye, Francien Schuursma, and Sheila OShea, who I know will promote the book with their usual dedication and generosity. Finally, I could not have completed this book without the love and practical support of my cousin, Jenny Wayman.

But this book is dedicated to Mitchell and Geraldine Bray, who understand the meaning of compassion, with my sincere and heartfelt gratitude.

ALSO BY KAREN ARMSTRONG

Through the Narrow Gate: A Memoir of Life In and Out of the Convent

Beginning the World

The First Christian: St. Pauls Impact on Christianity

Tongues of Fire: An Anthology of Religious and Poetic Experience

The Gospel According to Woman: Christianitys Creation of the Sex War in the West

Holy War: The Crusades and Their Impact on Todays World

The English Mystics of the Fourteenth Century

Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet

A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths

In the Beginning: A New Interpretation of Genesis

The Battle for God

Islam: A Short History

Buddha: A Penguin Life

The Spiral Staircase

A Short History of Myth

A Note About the Author

KAREN ARMSTRONG spent seven years as a Roman Catholic nun in the 1960s but left her teaching order in 1969. She studied English literature at Oxford University, earning the degrees of B.A. and M. Litt. Since then she has taught modern literature at the University of London, headed the English department in a girls public school, and taught part-time at the Leo Baeck College for the Study of Judaism and the Training of Rabbis and Teachers. Since 1982, she has devoted her life to writing, lecturing, and broadcasting on religious affairs.

Her books include Through the Narrow Gate; Holy War: The Crusades and Their Impact on Todays World; Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet; A History of God; Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths; In the Beginning: A New Interpretation of Genesis; The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism; Islam: A Short History; and Buddha. Her work has been translated into forty languages. She is also the author of three television documentaries and took part in Bill Moyerss television series Genesis. In 1999 she was awarded the Muslim Public Affairs Council Media Award.

Since September 11, 2001, she has been a frequent contributor to conferences, panels, newspapers, periodicals, and other media on both sides of the Atlantic on the subject of Islam and fundamentalism. She lives in London.

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