The gradual elimination of violence from religion is one of Armstrong's great themes. In India priests in the 9th century BC had revised the sacrificial rituals to purge them of any practices likely to lead to violence, paving the way toward the guiding Axial concept of harmlessness. In China, the concept of the ideal ruler changed from a warrior wielding magical powers to a serene, wise ruler whose daode (道德) or royal potency, "brought spiritual benefit to the people."
Armstrong tells a hopeful story. The Axial sages move humankind from a religious worldview mired in tribal loyalty and self-interest to an expansive spirituality that takes account of others. In writing of the Jains, circa 530BC to 450BC, she writes, "The new ideal was no longer merely to refrain from violence, but to cultivate a tenderness and sympathy that had no bounds."
Greece is the great exception. At a time when the Hebrew prophets were preaching monotheism, Greece opted for polytheism. In religion the Greeks were, in a sense, committed reactionaries. Their achievements lay in the fields of philosophy, ethics and science, and it was they who would lay the groundwork for what Armstrong calls the second great transformation, the scientific revolution of the 16th century that created the modern industrial world but that represents "a more mundane illumination." Armstrong gives them, and the West, a somewhat grudging two cheers.
"The Axial Age was a time of spiritual genius; we live in an age of scientific and technological genius, and our spiritual education is often undeveloped," she writes.
The Great Transformation concludes vaporously. Armstrong, noting that "we are living in a period of great fear and pain," makes a high-minded plea for the warriors and aggressors of the world to heed the teachings of the Axial Age, and for nations to adopt a more self-critical spirit in their dealings with one another. It is time, she argues, for the modern world to look backward and adopt the Axial ideals of "sympathy, respect and universal concern."
Well, all right, fine. But these sentiments, however lofty, seem squishy. The conclusion does a disservice to a splendid book. After an inspirational journey through more than two millennia of profound thought, struggle and enlightenment, the reader gets a fortune cookie at the end.
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