BOOKS
Good and Evil, Scribner, 1953
Eclipse of God, Harper, 1952
The Prophetic Faith, Macmillan, 1949
Hasidism, Philosophical Library, 1948
I and Thou, Scribner, 1937; 1952
None who has met Professor Martin Buber will deny him the predicate of greatness. For here is a man who has led a long life in a perpetual dialogue with—since to name the partner would mean to overawe believers without convincing agnostics, let us say: with the word of God, with the Bible. To show the kind of give and take implied by such a partnership. let us quote his interpretation of the first verse of the Psalter (ashrei ha’ish): this does not mean “blessed the man” as a wish or as a promise but states the hidden happiness of the proven ones (the tsuddikim), balancing and outbalancing all worldly unhappiness.
Hasidic piety and clear logical thinking, scholarship and a poet’s gift for shaping language into a tool of beauty and precision: it takes the mind of a Cherub to perform such a union—a name also prompted by the fact that like a Cherub with a Sword, Martin Buber has been warding off encroachments upon the terrain of religion.
In the debate between Martin Buber and C. G. Jung, it is notable that their initial positions have so much in common. It seems at first sight, that they could easily come to terms regarding the process of “individuation” or the integration of evil. But their ways part where one acknowledges archetypes as the carriers of psychic power, whereas the other acknowledges the Creator as hiding and revealing himself, as the One eternally present, but present in flashes only (“I will be there as I will be there,” Exodus, 3,14.)
Professor Buber’s definition of religious life as a dialogue (between the undivided I and the boundless Thou) cuts across the boundary lines of Christianity and Judaism, and is invaluable if we want to distinguish the religious attitude from that of the philosopher or scientist, or that of any pseudo-religion. It also helps to explain that “eclipse of God” under which we are laboring: it is the “I-It” relation, monstrously inflated, which prevents that “I” from saying “Thou.” How long will darkness last? Eclipse is not Extinction, the change may come any time, perhaps tomorrow. One feels tempted to add: it will come when a man, disabused with the “good life” on earth and the control of the Finite, turns again to the Infinite and remembers Life Eternal. But this most powerful incentive to religion is not mentioned by Professor Buber, in line with Jewish tradition which does not want man’s heart to turn to God for any other reason than love and obedience. It is the teacher in him who at this point silences the philosopher; for he does not want “to impart an opinion, but to teach the way.”
Helen Adolf
By Louis Gardet. Paris: Editions Alsatia, 1953, 181 pages. Paperback, 480 francs.
This book, the fourth in a series of nine being published under the direction of Jacques Maritain and entitled as a series, “Sagesse et Culture,” is a very valuable and stimulating addition to the literature concerning both mysticism and world religions. Mr. Gardet, its author, is a Catholic theologian whose fields of special interest are Islam and comparative theology.
The thesis of the book is one that has up to now not been widely explored. It is that instead of there being only one form of mysticism, the same everywhere and underlying all the various forms of religion, there are actually two forms. The one is that of the Hindu mystic whose experience is genuine as the experience not of God Himself but of the pure essence of the ultimate Self of the mystic. The other form, found in monotheistic religions, does truly reach an experience of God.
These two forms of the mystical experience are, we are informed, entirely different in their foundations, acts, and terms. The former is reached through very definite techniques; the latter comes through grace alone. But a difference is to be noted also within the monotheistic religions themselves, for ideally mystical theology and dogmatic theology ought to form a unity. Yet, in fact, only in Christianity (that is, in Roman Catholic Christianity) is dogmatic theology capable of ascending the heights of the mystical and of finding unity with mystical theology. Mr. Gardet does not tell us in detail. where he finds this point of unity but he points to the fact that only in Christianity do we have the Incarnate Word and the One and Triune God.
Brief but pertinent and informative discussions are presented of Moslem, Indian, Jewish, and Christian mysticism and these are followed by sharply-drawn vignettes of four Moslem mystics: Raba’l, Bistami, Hallaj, and Ibn al-Farid.
I should like to recommend strongly that members of our Conference and other interested people give this small book thoughtful consideration. It must be remembered that the standpoint from which it is written is that of dogmatic Catholicism, yet its high values, particularly as it is able to open new areas of thought, must be fully recognized.
Calvin Keene
By Frithjof Schuon. Pantheon Books, New York, 1953. $3.50.
The author, a Frenchman, has been named by the late Ananda Coomaraswamy as one of the very few who are qualified to interpret authentically the Oriental doctrines. He interprets here the four great religious traditions: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and the Vedanta. His knowledge and understanding of Christianity is no less impressive than his grasp of the other religions. In particular he throws a new and unusually clear light on Islam.
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE LIFE AND WORK OF MOHAMMED IQBAL by Iqbal Singh. Longman’s, Green and Co., New York and London; 10/6
Mohammed Iqbal is famous throughout the Far East as a poet and political philosopher who, in his later years, tried to apply his high political concepts to practical politics but failed. His poems reflect the inner struggles of an idealist who stood for spiritual democracy even when it conflicted with civil laws and national policies.
Iqbal studied and traveled widely in Europe. He returned to India at thirty-five to make a mystical decision for his future, as is expected of every man of that age among his people. Revolutionary in trends he found himself anti-modern, anti-Western, a firm believer in purdah, totally unable to adjust himself to current political policies. His conclusion was that only the inspired teachings of the Quaran and Pan-Islamism held hope for the spiritual and political growth of the Islamic world. On this theme he poured out verse in Urdu and Persian, often chanting it to large congregations. Most famous among these is his “Complaint,” described by his biographer as “a kind of modern version of Job.” He sang that the Quaran’s teachings of the brotherhood of man transcended all territorial and national boundaries. Modern efforts to solve the differences between East and West he saw as throwbacks to a tribal mentality. Because of his passionate pleadings for Pan-Islamism Mohammed Iqbal is customarily referred to in the East as “The Philosopher and Poet of Pakistan.”
F. L. Lattimore
translated by Mantig Ut-Tair. The Janus Press, London, 1955; 12/6
A philosophical religious poem in prose, composed in the twelfth century by the Persian poet, Farid ud-Din Atter. It conveys in an allegory, gay as well as grave, the teaching of the Sufis, of whom Attar was one of the greatest.
M. Jaeger