The current ecological crisis is a matter of urgent global concern, with solutions being sought on many fronts. In this book, Seyyed Hossein Nasr argues that the devastation of our world has been exacerbated, if not actually caused, by the reductionist view of nature that has been advanced by modern secular science. What is needed, he believes, is the recovery of the truth to which the great, enduring religions all attest; namely that nature is sacred. Nasr traces the historical process through which Western civilization moved away from the idea of nature as sacred and embraced a world view which sees humans as alienated from nature and nature itself as a machine to be dominated and manipulated by humans. His goal is to negate the totalitarian claims of modern science and to re-open the way to the religious view of the order of nature, developed over centuries in the cosmologies and sacred sciences of the great traditions. Each tradition, Nasr shows, has a wealth of knowledge and experience concerning the order of nature. The resuscitation of this knowledge, he argues, would allow religions all over the globe to enrich each other and cooperate to heal the wounds inflicted upon the Earth.
Originally prepared for the World of Islam Festival held in London in 1976, this reprint maintains the quality of the original miniatures and text. The work shows the history of Islamic science through beautiful illustrations.
In this issue of Sophia, the leading Islamic thinker in America, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, speaks out on the environmental crisis in a compellling interview, and the noted scientist and theologian, Wolfgang Smith, writes on cosmology and gnosis. Other highlights include an article on parallels between Shingon Buddhism and Islam, an indepth analysis of the cosmogonic significance of the Ark of Noah and the Ark of the Covenant, the story of a spiritual seeker's journey in Ladakh, and a thorough assessment of the mathematical implications of the metaphysics of Rene Guenon.
This issue of "SOPHIA" addresses the environmental crisis primarily from two points of view--the first in a speech by the Prince of Wales when he received the 10th annual Global Environmental Citizen Award, and the second in an article by Nasr on the contemporary Islamic world and the role it must play in the environmental crisis.
In his powerful essay, Smith sets forth Stephen Hawking's "Grand Design's" key conceptions and the overall logic of its argument, offering a five-fold refutation, based upon both philosophic and scientific grounds. He also places the phenomenon of Hawking's bestseller in perspective by reflecting upon the nature, motivation, and limits of the scientific enterprise as such.
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