Publication Reviews
We invite you to read the reviews and learn more about our audio DVD, Seyyed Hossein Nasr: Sixteen Lectures and the Radius-sponsored video, Shakespeare's Spirituality: A Perspective. An Interview with Dr. Martin Lings.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr: Sixteen Lectures
Reviewed by Abigail Tardiff
This collection of lectures by Seyyed Hossein Nasr spans twenty years and
many themes, from pure metaphysics to the meaning of Islamic art. But although
the range of Nasr's ideas is broad, the collection is not simply a sampler
of his thought. Not only does a theme quickly emerge from the various lectures,
but the listener begins to suspect that it is not only the unifying thread
in the collection, but the life-long calling of Dr. Nasr himself: it is the
reintegration of that which has been divided. These divisions may be brought
about by man, such as the schism between science and religion caused by the
loss of the Sacred in the modern West; or they may be divisions that are not
a matter of separation, but only diversity, such as the differences between
religious rites or even the many ways the natural world manifests its Creator.
Nasr always shows us the One that underlies the many. He takes on a great variety
of topics, but always with this same vision of unity.
Nasr applies this vision in ways that will be familiar to those who know his work: one talk, for example, is entitled "Religious and Theological Consequences of Crossing Religious Frontiers," and he speaks of the benefits and dangers of truly encountering other religions—that is, considering them from the point of view of revelation and truth, and not simply studying their history, or approaching them as sociology. There is also a lecture specifically about Sufism's power to integrate man’s inner and outer lives. But this universality of thought, in which Nasr specializes, comes through in unexpected ways as well. One lecture, for example, is addressed to a very specific audience: "How to be a Muslim in America." Nasr discusses the details of the rites of Islam, but what emerges is something much more universal: a set of principles by which anyone who is trying to maintain contact with the Sacred can guide his life. Read the rest of the review...
Shakespeare's Spirituality: A Perspective. An Interview with Dr. Martin Lings
Produced and Directed by Ira B. Zinman
Reviewed by Abigail Tardiff
When Martin Lings saw a Shakespeare play performed for the first time, for several days afterwards he found himself "plunged into an extraordinary state of happiness" such as he had never experienced before. Which play was it that caused him such euphoria? It was Othello–not only a tragedy, but arguably the most heart-rending of all of Shakespeare's tragedies.
How could such a sad play produce such joy? Dr. Lings, in this interview by Ira Zinman, illuminates his experience–which is surely shared by many who appreciate the works of Shakespeare–by explaining the nature of sacred art, in the context of an account of his own life's spiritual journey. The resulting film will be appreciated both by admirers of Lings, who will treasure this last footage of Dr. Lings before his death, and anyone who has experienced the sacred in a work of fiction and wondered how it can reside there.
The function of literature, like that of all art, explains Dr. Lings, is not to preach, but to reveal. A play reveals spiritual wisdom by drawing us into it, "from cold objectivity to the warmth of subjectivity." The audience is not being offered spiritual laws and principles, but individual characters–and so, in the words of Titus Burckhardt, whom Dr. Lings quotes, by watching the play we are able to "participate naturally, and almost involuntarily, in the world of holiness."
Dr. Lings is specific. He uses examples from many of Shakespeare's plays not only to make his case that Shakespeare's plays are indeed sacred (though non-liturgical) art, but also that they are concerned with the esoteric theme of the purification of the human soul, and the restoration of our primordial state of beatific union with God. If a play is about the soul's journey toward perfection, which it reaches at the end, and if the play draws us into it–then watching the play becomes a spiritual experience for the audience. Read the rest of the review...