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THE WORLD BEFORE ISLAM. THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW SUBCULTURE. ISLAM, ISLAMIC, ISLAMICATE. DEFINING THE USAGE: ISLAMIC = ASSOCIATED RELATIVELY CLOSELY WITH THE ACT OF islam AND ITS SPIRITUAL IMPLICATIONS
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THE WORLD BEFORE ISLAM THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW SUBCULTURE
ISLAM, ISLAMIC, ISLAMICATE • DEFINING THE USAGE: • ISLAMIC = ASSOCIATED RELATIVELY CLOSELY WITH THE ACT OF islam AND ITS SPIRITUAL IMPLICATIONS • ISLAMICATE = ASSOCIATED WITH ISLAM MORE INDIRECTLY, THROUGH FORMING A PART OF THE OVERALL CIVILIZATION IN WHICH MUSLIMS WERE LEADERS
ISLAMICATE CIVILIZATION • Shares largely the same roots as those of Western (Occidental) civilization: • Urban commercial tradition • Hebrew religious challenge • Classical Greek philosophical and scientific culture
THE AGRARIAN-BASED CULTURE • The revenue of the lands created the dilemma between social privilege and equal justice • Cultural life dependent upon revenues • Arts dependent upon patronage and appreciation of a limited number of rich • The art of legally enshrined justice – giver of just laws
THE FOCUS OF HIGH CULTURE • Temples: under the learned priests • The Royal Courts: under kings and their dependents • The market: under independent merchants • ALL THREE FOCI OF HIGH CULTURE DEPENDED ON AGRICULTURE FOR THEIR WEALTH, AND ON CITIED SOCIETY
TRAITS OF AGRARIANATE CITIED SOCIETIES • Presence of Writing or Recording • Possibilities of specialization • Large-scale intermingling of differing groups • Lively development of rich culture • Accelerated pace of historical change • Development of social conscience
“OIKUOMENE” = INHABITED PART OF THE WORLD • History of all the peoples interrelated • People came to have wider perspective on matters taken for granted in local societies • “Cosmopolitanism” of the future Irano-Semitic cultural tradition • Administrative efficiency marked the age • Growing sense of personal individuality
THE PROPHETS OF AXIAL AGE • ZARATHUSTRA (Zoroaster) in Iran and BIBLICAL PROPHETS concerned with the private individual • Spoke to human beings in the name of a Supreme and Unique God • Demanded unconditional allegiance to divinely inspired vision • Cosmic struggle between good and evil
IRANO-SEMITIC PROPHETS • Market not the Temple provided the cultural setting • Aroused individual conscience and rational possibilities • Indic thinkers: explored resources of the self; Hellenic thinkers explored external nature; Irano-Semitic prophets, HISTORY
HISTORY IN IRANO-SEMITIC RELIGIOUS THOUGHT • Moral Progression in History • Summon to personal conscience to confront a cosmic moral order • Struggle for justice a matter of historical action • Interpersonal, egalitarian justice supreme value in civilized life, even at the expense of arts and other forms of luxury
UNIVERSAL/CONFESSIONAL RELIGIONS • Founded upon personal demands • “Individual” personal “confession” of moral and cosmological belief, adherence to lay community • Sacred Scriptures, claiming universal validity • World beyond death
LIFE-ORIENTATIONAL TRADITIONS Jewish-Christian Zoroastrianism Abrahamic Magian- Mazdean Islam
POPULISM IN MONOTHEISM • “POPULISM” = concern for the ordinary moral needs and capabilities of the common people • Looking to justice in history through community – when worshippers formed one community • Centered on problems of interpersonal justice – Last Judgment • One responsible life time, community • Egalitarian justice, every person equal before Law
POPULISTIC TEMPER • Full-scale personal moralism – justice and equality on interpersonal relations • To do what is useful rather than what is decorative • Perfection in the common duties, respect for law and order • Ascetic virtuosity, personal self-discipline • Exclusivity – one true faith, all else false