Spiritual Focus on Books April 18, 2011 Issue

Consider compassion: An evening with author Karen Armstrong

Kim Shippey

Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life
Karen Armstrong
Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2010
222 pages

“Preaching to the choir is fine,” said the doyenne of religious history, Karen Armstrong, as she spoke to an enthralled audience of 500 at Kehillath Temple in Brookline, Massachusetts, one evening in January. “The trouble is the choir isn’t singing!” A single deed of kindness, she said, could turn the world around.

Her audience had trudged through heavy snow on the coldest night of the year (and paid!) to hear her speak on the need for greater compassion in the world today, which is the subject of her latest book, Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life.

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Consider compassion: An evening with author Karen Armstrong

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