Karen Armstrong believes that we can find deep inspiration from the Axial Age, a period pivotal to the spiritual development of humanity. From about 900 to 200 BCE, the great world traditions came into being: Confucianism and Daoism in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, monotheism in Israel, and philosophical rationalism in Greece. During this age of intense creativity, sages pioneered an entirely new kind of human experience, showing us what a human being should be. What mattered in the essential spirit of the Axial Age was not what you believed in, but how you behaved, living a compassionate life with morality at its heart. In The Great Transformation, Karen explores the rapid spiritual evolution of the four Axial peoples and shows us how to rediscover the spirit of compassion that lies at the core of all our traditions.
486pp, 128mm x 198mm, illus. in b&w, softback, 2007