Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths

Karen Armstrong’s “Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths” is a succinct historical portrayal of the city from its earliest know origins to the conclusion of her writing in 1996. Easily readable, the book captures the attention of the reader with the city in history, before it became Jerusalem. The historical account includes but is not limited to its Jewish, Christian, and Islamic history, much that seems to corroborate the Tanakh, the Old Testament, and the writings of Islam.It was interesting to learn of how the city, considered holy to many different religions and empires over the years, changed hands and was destroyed and rebuilt so often throughout the ages. Armstrong paints a clear picture of what the city was like when it was first made into the capital city known as Jerusalem including the role of David, the Jewish King of ancient BCE, had in building up and establishing the city as a center of government and religion. Even then, the city was diverse in its religious population and managed to have different sects and cults live among one another in the city. For the first time, under David’s rule, did a physical place become something ‘sacred’ to the Jewish nation. Under Solomon, David’s son and heir to the throne, the city was further built up and experienced a time of prosperity and harmony.Yet, as history proves for Jerusalem, success is often the precursor to downfall. The city was conquered by another empire and devastation of the city ensued. This pattern continued throughout history, as Armstrong makes clear in her book. The city continued to change hands between Israeli and Judean leadership as well as foreign rule. Because of this pattern, many different nations and religions came to settle Jerusalem over the years and have managed to either hold fast in the face of war and new rule or, in many cases, to resettle and reestablish themselves during times of transition.Knowing a little about Judaism and even less about Islam, I found Armstrong’s exposition of their history in Jerusalem as well as the insight into the various religions, cultures, and practices valuable to further the understanding of how this city became a holy city to all.In the latter half of the book, dealing with the Crusades and beyond, I began to see a thread of discontentment with Christianity, constantly painting it in negative light and criticizing its people as not portraying the scripture and lifestyle they preached and taught. While I have no doubt this was the case in many of the historical accounts of wars and governing leaders, I found it to be a bit over-critical of Christianity as a whole. Armstrong also narrowed her representation of Christian sects in the holy city throughout the 20th century, limiting her writings to mainly Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox accounts, excluding Protestants completely. After more in-depth look at author Karen Armstrong, one finds her cynicism of Christianity to be part of her history: a once-Catholic sister, Armstrong left the convent. One can deduce her well-versed understanding of Christian history and scripture as well as her separation from sisterhood bears on her writing.Still, the history of the city Jerusalem and the major faiths that occupied it throughout history and today are comprehensibly written and paint a vivid picture of the amazing holy city and some of its representative faiths. An enthralling book that kept me reading, I would suggest it to anyone with a love of history, faith, or geography, especially those who have a special place in their heart for Jerusalem.

I must preface this review by saying that I cannot judge the facts, causes, effects, or meanings (both religious and secular) of author Karen Armstrong's comprehensive history of Jerusalem. I'm a complete novice on the subject of this book. I read the book for enjoyment and to learn about Jerusalem's history. Having expressed my disclaimer, I found pluses and minuses to the book.First, the pluses. Armstrong has written an extremely detailed and comprehensive history of the city and area. The book is dense with facts, names, and details covering over 3000 years. She appears to me to be deeply knowledgable about the history and the three Abrahamic religions intertwined in this long story. Her writing is clear and I learned a lot.Now the minuses. Simply put, the book was a major struggle to wade through. Its simply too dense and long to be read enjoyably by the casual history reader. Armstrong assumes the reader has a passable knowledge of the history of the area, names of key players, and the three religions involved in the history. The book is much more of an academic treatise than a mass-market type read. (And that's okay!) She also spends a great deal of time on religious and moral contemplation, much of which does not advance the reader's historical understanding. It was like trying to read two books (history and religious philosophy) which had been mashed together. Finally, the author is way too wordy. If 20 words will do, she often would use 60 to make the point.I think this is an important book which will appeal to a segment of readers and as a reference. But it has a definite point of view and is simply too dense and long for many more casual readers like me.

I walked into this book having read several of Karen Armstrong's books, so I knew of her leanings that other reviewers have pointed out. Of course, if you are going to write about three major faiths, it is natural to expect some bias towards one of them. That aside, I found her history to be very interesting and helped put this city into a perspective I had not had before. She shows how an off the beaten path city became one of the most important places for three of the world's religions, and a contentious site of conflict. What Armstrong does well is to show the shifting lines that have occurred between areas of the city as various religious powers came to control. But more importantly she brings the various pieces of Jerusalem and puts them in a coherent organized narrative. Many of the places mentioned in the bible are put into perspective with each other, and their historical changes are traced over time. Even more useful is that the author generously includes maps throughout the book to show the changes and shifting lines of groups throughout time. As someone who knew little about the geography of Jerusalem, I found this to help keep all the players and movements straight. The book lags at points but overall moves very well through the centuries. This is an excellent overview history of this holy city and would be a very good introduction to the reader wishing to know more. It should not be the only book you read on the region, but rather use it as one view of the history which has brought us to the modern religious conflicts of the area.

It took a little while to get into this volume but once I had, I consistently read it to the end - and learnt a lot in the process. It is a very interesting book and helps to give a much clearer picture of why there is so much upheaval in that area nowadays as well as being a thoroughly researched and unbiased historical record. Would recommend it to anyone with an interest in Jerusalem and the Holy Land.

l really enjoyed this book and learned so much about the root of the current day difficultoes in the region.A superb well written account of the history of the city which is explained in a very clear style and would appeal to anyone who has a general interest and desire to learn more.

I have worked in the Near East for many years. I know a lot of people from the area but I had to read this book to understand the basis of the tensions. Karen has such an amazing ability to explain such a complex story and make it compelling to read. She is a truly remarkable women with a God given insight.

Thoroughly enjoyed ! Karen portrayed history with perspective and wish for lasting peace in future and vulnerability of the peace process.

I'm a long time fan of Karen Armstrong. A friend lent me this book and I had to have my own copy. Such erudition and knowledge written in a way that is within the grasp of the general reader. On practically every page (especially from the period of 600 BC through the early Islamic era) I was saying to myself "I didn't know that, I didn't know that".