THE ONLY CONSTANT

"Modernism is always changing." So replies Seyyed Hossein Nasr, of George Washington University, when interviewed in 2003 by Bob Aberbnathy for "The Life of Meaning." The chapter is entitled Our Great Challenge and reflects on the issue of Christian and Muslim religions' contrast with other present world views, modern, postmodern, and even other religious expressions.
Nasr views both the modern and postmodern as philosophies and therefore not wholly absolute for all times. In classical Greek philosophy, Socrates, described that the secret of change is “to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” What is our great challenge today? How do we build the new in the constancy of change?

Below are some of Nasr's comments:

"In the Christian case, modernism grew from the belly of a Christian civilization...but for Islam it comes from the world "out there."

"That modernism is reality and everything else has to conform itself to it - that has to be challenged."

"Modernism and its foundations are now floundering...that's why we talk about the postmodern."

"(The) crucial problem for our day is to cross religious frontiers while preserving our own integrity...and not vilify the other...(it is) the only exciting intellectual adventure of our times."

On spiritual substance in each religion - "I don't like the word 'tolerance' very much, because you can also tolerate a toothache."

"God is infinite and he can manifest a truth outside our world into another world in the same way he created the human species (and all else.)"

Walter Morton for Terra Incognita