Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths- Chapters 8-9

I am still indecisive about my feelings towards Armstrong's novel. One side of me is interested with the historical aspect of the novel however, I wish we would learn more about the present times of Jerusalem. I understand that the novel is developing but in my mind it is developing to slow. I feel as if the novel is dragging on and on.

One thing that struck me in these chapters was Armstrong's statements and development of the oppressive approach taken by the Christians towards the  Jews. Through out these chapters Armstrong gives subtle hints then at the end she directly states that the Jews were discriminated against.

The most memorable statement in these chapters was the Jewish belief that, “God created a single man at the beginning of time to teach us that whoever destroyed a single human life would be punished as though he had destroyed the whole world; similarly, to save a life was to redeem the whole world.” I find this statement powerful in times such as these because people as a whole have forgotten and/or neglected the respect of others. We as a society need to accept the fact that everyone may not have the same values or beliefs that we do and that difference doesn't make them any lesser a person than ourselves.