Review: Signs of a Renaissance in Islam

Reviewed Work(s): The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam by Mohammad Iqbal

Review by: Henry E. Allen
Source: The Journal of Religion, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Jan., 1935), pp. 88-90
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1195823
Accessed: 29-04-2017 19:26 UTC

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 88 THE JOURNAL OF RELIGION

duced by the missionaries who rejoice in their success in setti

against those of his own household.
It might be better to limit more narrowly the application of
Many scholars regard intolerance as a theological concept,
sentially to displeasure against those with differing views and
with a scale of harshness leading to bigotry and persecution.
applied to analogous attitudes which have been diffused from
theological. Its home is chiefly in Europe and in those lands w
pean culture has spread, but it may not be unreasonable to co
the origin was in Western Asia, whence the deadly germ was
Europe. For it is in the Semitic tradition which passed to
Christian that its nature is most plainly seen. At all events, t
now deep in our blood and the taint will be very difficult to
is more likely to spread than to diminish, for similar dogmas a
are very easily taken over from ecclesiastical institutions by
churches.
Perhaps intolerance does not have a biological basis at all, except in the
sense that every practice, even to the smoking of opium, is engaged in by
living beings. It might not be unreasonable to assume that intolerance is
a cultural phenomenon, coming into human history relatively very late
and resting on a foundation of collective experience for which no individu-
al psychology can furnish any adequate explanation. Certainly, if we must
first banish fear and hatred from the souls of the individual members of
society before we are rid of intolerance, there is little reason to expect
much change. The love of God has for generations been assumed to be
the effective means of accomplishing this desideratum. The ghastly fail-
ure is faithfully recorded in Dr. Garrison's book, which I think is the best
book on the subject I have read, and which is heartily recommended to
every religious leader and everyone interested in social science and social
welfare.
ELLSWORTH FARIS
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

SIGNS OF A RENAISSANCE IN ISLAM

The dawn of the Renaissance in Western Europe marked the

of an era of discovery and progress which was destined to carry
of Christendom far ahead of other religio-cultural areas. But t
which meant new birth to the West tragically ushered in a
senility and darkness for the neighboring world of Islam. For
lennium the flame of Moslem science which had shone so

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 CRITICAL REVIEWS 89

against the dark background of the Middle Age

thought finally to have died out. In recent years,
been detected among the ashes, and now from
promising glow in these recently published lec
Iqbal.'
In these discourses, delivered at Madras, Hydera
writer displays a profound knowledge of contemp
He does not hesitate to confess the backwardness
his fellow-Moslems encouragement in their task of
Western pace-makers. He reminds them of the ac
scientists and philosophers from Spain to Persia b
and he expresses his conviction that the present t
rethinking of Islamic concepts due to the trend
materialism in the work of such writers as Ed
Whitehead. This is not the place to discuss the me
interpretations which these scientists have sug
acknowledge that classical physics and mechanisti
criticized, and that we must be prepared for furt
telescope and other scientific instruments complet
data. Whatever be the implications of these dat
tainty and new formulas, or toward bewilderment
is significant and encouraging that we may look fo
long quiescent world of Islam in the task of adjus
to the new scientific discoveries.

Sir Mohammad Iqbal believes that the trend today is definitely toward
a spiritual interpretation of the universe, and that in the search for ulti-
mate reality the voice of religious experience has an authority equal to
that of empirical science. He makes frequient reference to the Quran and
other Moslem writings, particularly those of important Sufis, to prove that
the great minds of Islam long ago wrestled with problems which are
crucial today, and that from them we may learn much of value regarding
man and his relation with the Ultimate Ego.
For the present backward state of Islamic thought Sir Mohammad
Iqbal offers several reasons: (i) a conservative desire in the days of the
Abbasides to stabilize society by means of the Sharia in opposition to the
supposed subversive tendencies of the Rationalists; (2) the attraction of
Islam's best minds to an other-worldly Sufiism, leaving the Moslem state
in the hands of intellectual mediocrities; and (3) the conservative crystalli-

The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam. By Sir Mohammad Iqbal. New

York: Oxford University Press, 1934. Vi+192 pages. $2.75.

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90 THE JOURNAL OF RELIGION

zation of law and the rejection of innovations in an att

social security after the fall of Bagdad. None of these reas
pose a permanent traditionalism on Islam; indeed, the
excessive reverence for the past is contrary to the inner im
Any movement which tends to segregate religion from
the writer's disapproval, whether the movement be the w
monasticism or the Western tendency to keep church
In this connection he criticizes Turkey for following the
European nations. Religion, he insists, is not a departm
should be a unifying and integrating force both in the in
society. It follows, of course, that nationalism as now
political states is a disunifying element in the world and t
trary to the spiritual democracy envisioned by Islam. "Bot
and atheistic socialism .... must," he declares, "draw up
logical forces of hate, suspicion, and resentment which ten
the soul of man and close up his hidden sources of spiritu
The keynote of this book, which deserves attention in b
Christendom, is expressed in the following sentence fr
chapter: "It is only by rising to a fresh vision of his origi
his whence and whither, that man will eventually triumph
motivated by an inhuman competition, and a civilization w
its spiritual unity by its inner conflict of religious and pol
HENRY E. ALLEN
LAFAYETTE COLLEGE

THE CZECHOSLOVAK CHURCH'

The Czechoslovak Church manifested, since its organization

amazing vitality and growth, at present comprising o0 per ce
Czechoslovak population, thus securing for itself the rank of
largest religious body in the country. It has aimed to create a
of church organization in doctrine, cultus, and polity. Althou
ber of the International Association for Liberal Christianity a
Freedom, and although it officially adheres to Unitarian Chri
views, rejects the historic Trinitarian dogma, substitutionary
Virgin birth, and resurrection of Jesus (p. 109), the author n
suggests that his church is sufficiently conservative in temp
the doctrine of personal immortality and to insist on the perm
acter of marriage (p. 262). Moreover, at present negotiatio
1 Spiritual Ideals of the Czechoslovak Church. By Dr. F. M. Hnik. Pr
slav," 1934. 360 pages.

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