Abdul-Baha bashes Enlightenment philosophers like the rest of his
contemporaries. The Enlightenment and those associated with it, when
studied in detail and as individuals, reveal a much greater diversity of
thought and cannot all be reduced to the simplistic stereotype of
glorifying nature and reason at the expense of religion. Rejection of
corrupt clerical influence and power is not the same thing as the
complete rejection of religion. Not only was this lost on Abdul-Baha,
but it was lost on the majority of Arab commentators who were
contemporaries of Abdul-Baha. The most convincing evidence of this is
provided by Arab historians who have written on the history of the Near
Eastern reception and response to the introduction of European ideas and
culture. Many Arabs simply equated secularism and science with
materialism and atheism. Perhaps poor translations played a role, but
there was outright misinformation and misinterpretation as well. This
was certainly the case with the early Arab discussions surrounding
evolution, which again mirror in many respects Abdul-Baha's own
comments. I have a list of sources for the paper I am working on if you
are interested. Marleen
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Dear Marleen,
I've studied the Enlightenment in some depth and I have to say my
perception of it is closer to Abdu'l-Baha's than yours. I think it did
glorify nature and human reason at the expense of religion. There were
some good reasons for them to do this, but I don't think that fact was
lost on Abdu'l-Baha.
I have a bigger problem with the way that Abdu'l-Baha presents the
Reformation in that same book. But Khazeh has suggested this may be
the result of a mistranslations. The same may be true of those
passages dealing with the Enlightenment.
warmest, Susan
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