The Lost Art of Scripture

‘Karen Armstrong has written an amazingly wide-ranging book, showing that the world’s religious texts can be a force for good today, rather than a cause of conflict. The scale of her knowledge never ceases to astonish’ – John Barton, author of A History of the BibleA triumph… Karen Armstrong is one of our great commentators on the sacred. In this book she explores the sacred texts with a scholar’s eye and an illuminating clarity suggesting how much their wisdom and lasting power are still needed today – Salley Vickers[The Lost Art of Scripture] takes us on a glorious journey… Armstrong is the most articulate and generous-hearted exegete of religion writing in English at the present time – AN Wilson * New Statesman *Rich and wide-ranging… [The Lost Art of Scripture] makes a fascinating read… a treasure chest of social and religious history. Armstrong’s lucid prose makes her many-stranded story remarkably straightforward to follow… a learned and stimulating book – Teresa Morgan * Tablet *A remarkable book by a remarkable writer… the author’s mission is urgent in the light of the uses to which the world’s scriptures are sometimes put – Rev Dr Neil Richardson * Methodist Recorder *The Lost Art of Scripture… exhibits [Armstrong’s] well-known and admired characteristics as a writer: an ability to be both authoritative on all the major faiths…a reasoned insistence that religion today is misunderstood, as much by the religious as by their critics; and a passionate appeal to our fractious and fractured world to embrace religion’s core message…compassion and respect for others – Peter Stanford * Sunday Times *Magisterial … a dazzling accomplishment, a reflection of an encyclopaedic knowledge of comparative religion and of a wisdom about spirituality in the human species * New York Times Book Review *Exhilarating, challenging and curiously comforting… [The Lost Art of Scripture has] been written not only with intellectual rigour and an accessible turn of phrase, but also with love – Lucy Winkett * Prospect *One of our best living writers on religion * Financial Times *Karen Armstrong is a genius – A.N. Wilson

Karen Armstrong is one of the world’s leading commentators on religious affairs. She spent seven years as a Roman Catholic nun but left her teaching order in 1969 to read English at St Anne’s College, Oxford. In 1982, she became a full-time writer and broadcaster. She is the author of 16 books and has been awarded with honours and prizes across the globe, including the British Academy’s inaugural Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for improving transcultural understanding in 2013.