Second Chance at Renaissance

Editor’s note: The following is a guest blog post by J, a Finnish friend of mine. He’s one of the few people I know in real-life with whom I deeply enjoy discussions about meditation, mysticism and philosophy. I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says in this short piece, but thought it relates well to the topics discussed here. (Pic Source).

This is a story about the rise and fall of a great civilization and how its ruin may hold the seed for humanity’s greatest hopes.

The Golden Age

Towards the end of the Umayyad Caliphate the Islamic Empire had established itself as one the largest empires in human history. The Muslim civilization became a cradle of intellectual development with cities like Baghdad and Cordoba as the crown jewels.

Much of the knowledge from ancient civilizations, Greece, India, the Byzantine Empire, and many more, was stored and translated by Muslim scholars. Thinkers such as Ibn Sina , Ibn Rushd, and Al-Ghazali pushed the boundaries of science, philosophy, and spirituality.

This aptly named Golden Age, a renaissance before the Renaissance, lasted for over 500 years. A perfect storm of Mongol hordes and repeated Black Death epidemics left the empire in tatters, and a marginalization of ijtihad cast a further shadow on Baghdad’s role as the world’s intellectual centre.

The European Renaissance

Throughout this period Europe had lain in relative obscurity with constant warring taking its toll and religious fundamentalism rooting out most freethinkers. However, all of this was about to change as classical texts and Muslim scholars started pouring in, seeking shelter from the vicissitudes facing the Muslim civilization.

It is with this background that we must look at great men like Leonardo, Copernicus, Galileo, and Martin Luther, who forever changed the course of history. The European Renaissance had become the heir of the Golden Age of Islam.

The Tragedy of Modernity

At first the newly unshackled human creativity and reason engaged curiously with religion, art, and science. But soon science started eating its way into the other cultural spheres, pushing true mystics such as Meister Eckhart out from the mainstream discourse.

And herein lies the true tragedy of modernity. Spiritual rapture and transcendent realization were placed into the same category as religious dogma, which then inevitably led to the disenchantment of our world and the crisis of meaning we face today.

A Second Chance?

Sadly, the Western civilization is unlikely to ever have a second chance at Renaissance. The baby has been thrown out with the bath water and the culture now faces the arduous task of recovering or, more often than not, importing, the wisdom and practice of mysticism.

Yet there is a glimmer of hope in this story. Many Muslim countries are now coming to terms with a clash of the religious and scientific cultural spheres. A second chance at Renaissance? How will you answer the call?