Tenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

This paper focuses on the eco-theological core of the writings of the Islamic scholar and philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr. It argues that an understanding of both his philosophy, rooted as it is in the history of Islamic philosophy and metaphysics, and his views about the mutuality and perenniality of religious traditions require an understanding of his vision of nature and its sacred quality–a vision that looks at nature not just as an object to be conserved, but as a vast, cosmic ensemble of signs from God, as a theatre of God’s theophany (in Arabic, tajjali). He places the fundamental distinction between Tradition and Modernity and, by extension, between a worldview that is imbued with the sacred and its contrast mired in the profane, in this rupture of relationship with nature, in the distortion of this vision, in the viewing of nature as an object from which resources can be extracted by coaxing it to delivering up its secrets. The view of nature as, what Heidegger called, Bestand or “standing-reserve” being the fault line between Tradition and Modernity, nature also serves as the perfect rallying point, as the perfect tent where all the authentic religious dispensations can come together. It is in nature that a dialogue between the faiths is possible; it is in holding nature as imbued with the sacred dimension that the religions stand with hands held. This study shows how in Nasr’s work, this is a two-way relationship, how nature and religion need each other to survive.