Karen Armstrong wishes to launch a Charter for Compassion based on the Golden Rule. Encouraging the Abrahamic faiths, along with those from the East, to move beyond simple Toleration and toward a true Appreciation of each other.
See her Ted.com talk for Information and a lesson in Compassion.
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/234
Be Blessed, Be Bold, Be Loved
A Free Spirit
/ October 10, 2009Armstrong’s particular theory comes through in her introduction to A Case for God. In my view, she comes very close to reducing religion to ethics, which is something liberal Protestantism has been criticized for doing. Take, for example, “God is love.” I interpret this as teaching that love is the source or basis of existence. Even though our acts of love (and feelings!…which Armstrong also discounts relative to conduct) involve “God is love” being actualized, there is also the sense irrespective of one’s conduct that existence itself is love. I take the transcendent wisdom of the latter to be just as important as conduct in religious terms. I’ve just posted a critique (http://deligentia.wordpress.com/2009/10/10/a-case-for-god/).