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Dear Kazeh,
Thank you for sharing this. Also, I'm cutting
and pasting some of my thoughts from a post to the list a couple of years ago,
I'm not certain whether or not you saw it because it was at the bottom of a
longer post on a different subject. Also, Susan reminded me back then
that it is based on the Christian story of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus.
After I looked up the story the fact that the sleepers in the cave of Ephesus
fled there after taking on idol worshippers resonates with the Allegory of the
Cave in Plato's Republic, with the Surih of the Cave, Elijah in the cave, and
Baha'u'llah pointing to the myster of the Cave in Seven Valleys. Have you
run across any other commentaries similar to Sadiq's?
Patti
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I found that Kazeh had previously called
attention to Socrates' allegory of the Cave in the Republic but the discussion didn't cover the issue of idolatry.] The "something else" I referred to is Baha'u'llah's comment that "He dissuaded men from worshipping idols and taught them the way of God . . . ." I think we could maybe learn something by taking a look at the shadows on the wall in the allegory of the cave in The Republic(8). Socrates shows two types of shadows on the wall. The first type of shadow is the moving shadow created by "statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials [idols]" being carried along a wall. The other type of shadow is that of the human figures living in the cave. Their legs and necks are chained so that they cannot move, all they can see are their own shadows or the shadows of the figures being carried along the wall behind them. Behind both the chained human beings who can see only the shadows and the ones who are carrying idols is a fire which casts the light to create the shadows. We have prisoners in a strange "prison-house". Above it all, the cave has a mouth opening toward the light. It appears from Socrates' descriptions that the only escape from the cave is not an easy path. Rather, the ascent toward the light is one along which the prisoner is prodded, compelled and dragged up to the light where he discovers that the fire is actually the light of the sun (which is actually an allegory for the divine "the idea of good" (or God) toward which souls are hastening). I think that by portraying the moving idols Socrates is addressing your question about "When one calls the good evil, what hope can there be?" At the base, self-interested, selfish level, humans tend to shift the ideas of religious virtue from "Spirit" to "flesh" in whatever way is convenient to justify their wants. When we are down in the cave [at least on the left hand side of the cave(9)] human perception is limited (in scriptural terms eyes are shut, ears are stopped and hearts are hard). Later in the dialogue Socrates notes that, from the viewpoint of one who had been outside the den one might note that: "if they [the inhabitants of the cave] were in the habit of conferring honours among themselves on those who were quickest to observe the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before and which followed after, and which were together; and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future, do you think that he would care for such honours and glories, or envy the possessors of them?" In the realm of darkness, good can be mistaken for evil. It is only through an outside force (I think as Baha'is we might say the intervention of God) that the humans are released from the darkness. It is in the light (of God's guidance, the Covenant) that the idols are exposed for what they really are. The virtues, according to Socrates include courage, bravery, love, and self-control; however, any attempt to define them on human terms ends in aporia-confusion. However, I think it's interesting to note how closely Socrates virtues echo Paul's "fruits of the Spirit", in other words something from beyond the realm of human reason and exact definition. Without divine guidance, they can be shifted for us to see good as evil or light as dark. Then, ignoring the issue of the "dependency theme" one might go from Socrates' cave to the scriptures to look further at the issues of perception: light, dark caves (or prisons), sleep in the dark, seeing, hearing, understanding, etc. Job appears to be rich in many of these themes, for example "I should have slept . . . with kings and counsellors of the earth"(10). In other words the kings and counselors of the earth were "asleep", if Socrates was aware of this idea, and trying to illustrate it, perhaps it is one reason why scholars today have such a problem with any "earthly" definition of Socrates' philosopher king. The earthly kings are stuck in the dark, so they obviously could not guide others to the light. Also, the issue of being caught in chains and/or a strange prison in the dark is found in the Bible in Job: "Why is light given to a many whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?"(11); in Isaiah: "they are hid in prison houses"(12); and Lamentations: "He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light . . .He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy."(13) I think it is particularly interesting that in Isaiah it is the Lord who will "make darkness light". "God is the light of the heavens and the earth; His light is as a niche
in
which is a lamp, and the lamp is in a glass, the glass is as though it were a glittering star; it is lit from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the east nor of the west, the oil of which would well-nigh give light though no fire touched it,-light upon light!-God guides to His light whom He pleases; and God strikes out parables for men, and God all things doth know." You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, use subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web - http://list.jccc.edu/read/?forum=bahai-st News - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Public - http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] |
