Fundamentalism Is Here to Stay

Biographical

Read Karen Armstrong's biography on the TED Web site.

Bill Moyers interviewed Karen Armstrong on her life and life's work, including her Charter for Compassion. Printable interview transcripts are available on the site.

Consider this profile of Armstrong on the Islam for Today Web site.

This article in Britain's The Guardiandescribes Armstrong's path to a life as a religious writer.

Cultural

The Charter for Compassion is a movement to restore compassionate thinking and action to modern life. Karen Armstrong launched this effort with help from her 2008 TED prize.

Explore Bill Moyers's series on faith and reason. He introduces his audience to several major religious thinkers of today in addition to Karen Armstrong.

Armstrong mentions Bob Jones University in "Fundamentalism Is Here to Stay." She also references Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority.

In "Fundamentalism Is Here to Stay," Armstrong writes, "Thus fundamentalism does not represent a clash between civilizations, but a clash within civilizations." These words are referring to a controversial article published in 1993 by a highly regarded political scientist, Samuel P. Huntington. Listen to what linguist Noam Chomsky has to say about Huntington's ideas. You may find it illuminating to research how others have reacted to Huntington’s assertions.

Browse this list of banned books and the rationale for banning them. Which books on the list were banned for reasons relating to fundamentalism?

Bibliographical

You may find that the introduction to Karen Armstrong's book, The Battle for God, sheds light upon this essay.

Karen Armstrong's Ted Talk touches upon her path to writing about religion. In this talk, she describes her hope that religion will become a force for harmony in the world. She stresses the presence of the "Golden Rule" in varied religions.

Similarly, listen to Karen Armstrong advocate bringing back the "Golden Rule" in a later TED talk.

In this salon.com interview, Armstrong speaks about many aspects of religion, including the afterlife, fundamentalism, and how individuals view God.

Terri Gross interviewed Karen Armstrong for National Public Radio's Fresh Air. Armstrong speaks about her book, The Case for God.

Armstrong's book on Buddha was reviewed in Salon in 2001.

The Guardian keeps an archive of articles by Karen Armstrong. Numbering over 40, the articles illustrate the range and development of her work.