Reading Response 3

Karen Armstrong chapters 1-4 After having read the first 4 chapters of the book, you learn a lot about the author and her main intentions for the reader. Though I am giving my opinion after the fact that we had class and discussed this in detail, I came to the conclusion combining others' opinions, that she devotes her novel to equality and sharing the truth in an unbiased manner from her point of view on the controversial subject of Israel/Palestine. In the first chapter we get a lay down of what to expect from the book. a description in the form of a timeline describes the conquerors and the conquered dating back to 3200 BC. One problem I immediately picked up on with the explanation that Karen gave for Jerusalem was the fact that Religion played the biggest role in the occupation of the city from the beginning of time until now. The mentioning of geographic location was only vaguely touched on by Armstrong a little at the beginning. The highlands were described as being an unusual place for a city to develop in the first place, when in reality if you look at what she said, it wasn't until after 1200 BC when the "village/town" transformed into a city in itself. The reason for the religious influence though is from what was said mainly in chapter one of "One City, Three Faiths." repeatedly at the end of the chapter she mentioned the Israelites journey to Jerusalem from the hardship of Egyptian slave masters. It was said that they conquered the holy land by force which is the issue I would like to bring up. Armstrong mentions that it was probably a false statement to say that they conquered instead of convert. People flocked from all around according to Karen because of their desire to avert slavery and hardship from other regions and cities surrounding Jerusalem. I don't believe that religion even played a role in this process. freedom can be gained without moral intensity and desire of divinity to accomplish a goal. People migrated to Jerusalem for safety and protection, and whether or not religion was used as a vice to control and convert the immigrants I believe personally, to be untrue, though Armstrong puts a great influence and majority of her first four chapters convincing us it is so.