Karen Armstrong on the Axial Age [audio 4min]

In her new book, The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions, historian and former nun Karen Armstrong writes about the religions that emerged during the"Axial Age" (a phrase coined by the German philosopher Karl Jaspers). This is the era when many great sages appeared, including the Buddha, Socrates, Confucius, Jeremiah and the mystics of the Upanishads. In an interview with Steve Paulson — to be broadcast in full on"To the Best of Our Knowledge" on June 6th — Armstrong says that all of these sages were reacting to the violence and warfare that was prevalent at the time. She sees striking parallels to our own violent world today. Paulson has published a transcript of the interview in the online magazine Salon.