I just returned from a fabulous long walk along an open field (believe it or not behind a hotel) in Texas.  I took my iPhone and listened to podcasts of the program Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippet.

Her interview with religion writer and “amateur theologian” Karen Armstrong was excellent.  I’m a big fan of Karen Armstrong.  I think she’s done for religion in the 21st century what Carl Sagan did for science in the 1980s.   Armstrong calls herself a “freelance monotheist” and says that the root of the world’s religious traditions is compassion.