M&M (Review)
Nima Hazini
Millenium*
Nima
--
American Historical Review
VOLUME 105 NUMBER 3 June 2000
Review by Merlin Schwartz, p. 1049
Juan R. I. Cole. Modernity and the Millennium: The Genesis of the Baha'i
Faith in the Nineteenth-Century Middle East. New York: Columbia University
Press. 1998. Pp. xi, 254. Cloth $47.50, paper $19.50.
In this carefully researched and perceptive work, Juan R. I. Cole proposes
to look at the Western, Enlightenment idea of modernity through "new eyes":
that is, through the eyes of Baha'ism, particularly those of the leadership
of the movement during the formative period of its history. The basis for
Cole's selection of Baha'ism as the lens through which to view the idea of
modernity is nowhere spelled out explicitly, perhaps because his reasons
are largely implicit in his analysis of the encounter between the two.
Baha'ism arose in the Middle East and remained socially and, to some
extent, spiritually close to its historical roots; at the same time, its
religious character, and especially its millenarian stance, enabled it to
distance itself from its religious past and to view that past indeed, the
whole of the past in a critical light. Baha'ism saw itself as the
culmination of the earlier monotheistic traditions, both as fulfillment and
as corrective. At least in terms of its own self-understanding, early
Baha'ism represents an orientation that is neither Eastern nor Western. In
the analysis and critical assessment of modernity, Baha'ism does indeed
offer interesting possibilities and perspectives.
Cole's examination of the Western notion of modernity focuses on a
number of key issues, among them: religious freedom and the relationship of
religion to the state; political absolutism and democracy; nationalism and
the state; and patriarchy and gender relations. Cole devotes an entire
chapter to a discussion of each of these complex issues. He insists on
viewing Baha'ism, especially during its formative period, as a tradition in
flux or, one might say, as a set of general principles and values that had
to be fleshed out, refined, and adjusted in response both to changing
conditions and to the perspectives of other intellectual and spiritual
traditions. This seems clearly to have been the view of the early leaders
of the movement, including Baha'ullah himself. Within the context of these
qualifications, Baha'ism did come to define its position vis-a-vis the
critical issues posed by Enlightenment modernity. On a number of the
principles to which Enlightenment modernity was committed, Baha'ism
declared itself in essential agreement: for example, on the question of the
separation of "church" and state, the primacy of the individual conscience,
gender equality, and the rule of law.
But if Baha'ism did come to endorse many of the characteristic ideas
and values of modernity, Baha'ism did find some aspects of modernity,
especially some of the larger historical consequences that followed, or
that seemed to follow, from its implementation profoundly troubling. The
idea of an autonomous reason, and what Baha'ism saw as the repressive
potential of a reason freed from the constraints of a transcendental frame
of reference, raised serious questions at both the theoretical and
practical levels. The industrialization of war and the enlarged destructive
capacity of the modern army, all developed within the framework of
modernity, had led to violence and death on a scale without precedent in
the history of humankind. These and other reservations, articulated
repeatedly in the early literature of the movement, led Baha'is
increasingly to reject modernism's emphasis on the primacy of reason and
its secularism its Jacobin tendencies and to call for the integration of
a
religious dimension into the framework of Enlightenment modernism. Baha'ism
insisted that only a religious dimension is capable of providing the kind
of constraints that the secularist and rationalist aspects of modernist
doctrines need to protect them against excess a concern dramatically
underscored by the events of the modern period. To the degree that Cole
endorses this Baha'i emphasis on the importance of a religious dimension,
some readers will undoubtedly see the present work as in part an apologia
for religion. Whether one agrees with the position articulated in this work
or not, one must concede that Cole has raised a set of issues that demand
careful, critical attention.
This reflective and insightful work is based on an impressive array of
primary (in some cases unpublished) sources, not to mention a very large
body of secondary, interpretative studies, as will be seen from the notes
and the bibliography at the end of the work. It is an important study that
will commend itself especially to those who are concerned with modernist
doctrine, Baha'i responses to that doctrine, and the implications of both
for a fuller understanding of important facets of Middle Eastern history,
especially during the last decades of the nineteenth century.
Merlin Swartz
Boston University
Nima Hazini
a religious dimension,
>some readers will undoubtedly see the present work as in part an apologia
>for religion. Whether one agrees with the position articulated in this work
>or not, one must concede that Cole has raised a set of issues that demand
>careful, critical attention.
I LOVE IT! Funny how this reviewer actually thinks that M&M is a carefully
crafted apologia of the Baha'i faith.
cheers,
Nima
John Timothy Hall
Bahaism is just another "revealed" metta-narrative like all the others.
It was trying to one up Islam and Christianty but seems to have failed,
miserably. There is nothing outside the text, Bahai or otherwise. Religion
is just the way one relates to his or her existance. Spirituality, on the
hand, and lead to a genuine mystical experience and enlightenment. As the
Buddha was fond of saying: "Be a lamp unto yourself." The Truth is not to
be found in any text, but inside one's own heart.
Johanna
--
Goldbond really works!
Thirinel
is Might and Magic -- the title of a long series of role-playing games.
Come to think of it, perhaps there is a lot of role-playing going on here.
;-)
Alma -- known as Thirinel or Aelyria in roleplaying circles.
Nima Hazini wrote in message <8vpk5f$pct$1...@gnamma.connect.com.au>...
Dr. Herbert West
"Nima Hazini" <lotu...@wxc.com.au> wrote in message
news:8vqilp$5qc$1...@gnamma.connect.com.au...
> >To the degree that Cole endorses this Baha'i emphasis on the importance
of
> a religious dimension,
> >some readers will undoubtedly see the present work as in part an apologia
> >for religion. Whether one agrees with the position articulated in this
work
> >or not, one must concede that Cole has raised a set of issues that demand
> >careful, critical attention.
>
> crafted apologia of the Baha'i faith.
An apologia for religion in a modernist framework isn't the same thing as an
apologia for the Baha'i Faith.
Thanks for the review.
John
Nima Hazini
Dr. Herbert West <whoop...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:faDU5.19026$6W1.1...@news.flash.net...
>An apologia for religion in a modernist framework isn't the same thing as
an
>apologia for the Baha'i Faith.
Obviously you have not read the book.
>Thanks for the review.
No thanks for your ridiculously acinine comment.
cheers,
Nima