Internal » Report » 25th Tehran Int`l Book Fair
Evaluation of Tradition; an Enquire into Traditionalism
15 May 2012 12:54
What do Traditionalists actually say? And; is what they actually thought useful for the Islamic Republic? These are questions which caused "Mansour Mahdavi," to write a book titled "Evaluation of Tradition". This book deals with traditionalism, based on the ideas of "Seyed Hussein Nasr ".
IBNA: In order to answer this question, M. Mahdavi has been discussing with Dr. "Seyed Hussein Nasr "; Dr. "Gholam Reza. A'avani"; and Dr. "Gholam Ali Haddad Adel".
The author has written: "this book is indeed the result of about six years of study and presents a clear and communicative vision from the thinking framework of traditionalism."He believes that it is hardly possible to achieve such an intuition even through reading all the written works of Hussein Nasr thoroughly.
M. Mahdavi has written this book in eight chapters. In the first chapter of this book dealing with the "tradition revivalist "; "failed revivalist ", "successful revivalist" as well as the ideas of "Guénon ", "Schwann" and "Coomaraswamy"; he has tried to specify the "contexts of traditionalism".
In this part he does not merely describe the ideas of these intellectuals; rather he tries to mix an analytical approach with the explanations. Thus, at the end of the section presenting Coomaraswamy's traditional ideas; he wrote:" In the third part of his life started in 1932; and influenced by Guénon; Coomaraswamy determined study about meaning and the importance of the "eternal wisdom symbols" as his mission. The numerous works was penned during this period.
In the second chapter, the author has analyzed the tradition verbal unity and considers this analysis necessary, since exploring those common words can save addressee from being trapped by the common verbal that is one of the most significant means for banditry in sciences.
Then in the third chapter, Mahdavi rereads tradition in the thoughts of the traditionalists; in the fourth chapter he analyzes the features of traditionalism and in the fifth chapter of this book, the author deals with "Hikmat-e Khaledeh" or (Eternal Wisdom) as well.
The author believes that being acquainted with this Hikmat is the main context form which the nature of tradition and traditionalism can be recognized, because, it is so important that in describing the school of Traditionalism it is reminded as "Eternal Wisdom".
The sixth chapter of this book has criticized Modernism. The approach that has dominated today's world and -in the eyes of the author- has a serious presence even in the most partial aspects of human individual and social life angles.
To extract and present the points used by traditionalists in the criticism of Modernity's era, Mahdavi first of all reviews the features of Modernity such as: Renaissance, Protestantism, Humanism and Argumentationalism.
The seventh chapter is devoted -by the author- to the traditional dimensions of art. Because he considers tradition as enjoying pervasive nature and he believes that the main teachings of this school have been arranged according to artistic principles.
The last chapter of this book presents "Transcendental Unity of Religions" to the audience. The author who writes based on Hussein Nasr's theories, in this chapter deals with issues such as "The principles of Religions Unity," "Religion, the only way for Islam" and "Khatmiyt in the eyes of Mystics".
The first edition of the book "Evaluation of Tradition" in 488 pages, with a circulation of 3000 copies and at the price of 100000 R. has been published and launched to the book market by "Eshragh-e-Hikmat" publication center.
"Eshragh-e-Hikmat" publication center is located in booths 21, in the corridor28 of the Twenty-Fifth Tehran International Book Fair held at Feast of Imam Khomeini (RA).
