Albert wrote:
M Chase wrote:
Nevertheless, even in Secret of Divine Civilization, Abdul-Baha
misunderstands the historical context of the Enlightenment reaction
against the power of Roman Catholic ecclesiastics.
Would you like to flesh out your statement, so I could follow it?
In the Arab Near East in the nineteenth century, a number books of the
French Enlightenment philosophers; such as Voltaire, Montesquieu,
Rousseau; had been translated into Arabic. Their ideas were actively
debated by Arabs in their struggle to come to terms with the modern
world, characterized by one historian as the "Arab Awakening."
Increasingly more Arabs visited Europe and they came away with the sense
that the Near East was quite backward materially in comparison. There
was a desire of some Arabs to adopt European scientific techniques to
promote development and modernization. At the same time, many Arabs
were skeptical of the foreign importation of European ideals that seemed
antithetical to Islam.
The Enlightenment is an incredibly rich historical period that I can
only superficially touch upon. An outstanding history of this period is
that written by historian Peter Gay of Yale. Ecclesiastic power was
seen as supporting despotic rulers, and there was a desire to separate
church and state. This marks the beginning of modern secular society
based on rationalism supported by science with the subsequent decline of
religion. Arabs perceived European secularism as materialism and
actively hostile to religion. For some European atheists this was the
case, but others were simply opposed to the overwhelming power that
corrupt ecclesiastics exerted in matters of state. Voltaire, for
example, was a deist, who worried about the development of materialism
as a consequence of secularism. However, as these ideas were debated in
the Near East, they were inadequately understood and characterized by
extremes, which distorted the complex history and motivations that
brought these changes about.
Abdul-Baha's comments concerning Enlightenment philosophers is
consistent with other Arab opinions of the time, that these philosophers
were godless and materialistic who glorified nature and human reason at
the expense of religion. However, these simplistic, extreme views
characterizing the majority of popular Arab opinion do not accurately
reflect the historical complexity and context. Marleen
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