A Modern Prophet

Karen Armstrong is a prophetess. In the true sense, she is a “seer”. The author of A History of God spoke on NPR the other day. The ex-nun described herself as a former “freelance monotheist”, though now that she has explored eastern traditions and been “nourished” by them, she is not sure she is that anymore. Not that she believes in a personal God. “The personal God just didn’t work for me,” she said. I’m so sorry He didn’t work harder. She certainly did, traveling along her tortured journey away from the Catholic Church, to an anti-religion hatred, and then, by “infinitesimally small” steps, back to a guarded, appreciative, quasi-relationship to something she chooses to call religion. That she overcame not only religion, but also anti-religion, and settled on whatever is between, can only be described as heroic, or maybe Hegelian, I’m not sure—but certainly not pious, nor intellectually sound. The heavy use of personal experience and anecdote in the formation of her beliefs about fundamental truths belies only one firm, clear belief: she, herself, and her feelings are the most important things in her life. Ennobling, really; perceptive of her to see that—well nigh prophetic. You wonder that I call her a prophet. I did not say of what—or of whom—a prophet she was.