Beyond the Clash of Religions: The Emergence of a New Paradigm
Author: Udo Schaefer
Translator: Geraldine Schuckelt
Publisher: Zero Palm Press, Prague, 1995, 177 pages
Review by: Christopher Buck
Paradigm analysis is an integrative approach to the
study of religions as systems.
[1] It has
heuristic value (explanatory power) in disclosing the concatenating or
interconnected "logics" of belief (i.e., faith, doctrine, ethos)
and praxis (i.e., ritual, piety, and ethics). Precisely because it takes this
approach, Udo Schaefer's
Beyond the Clash of Religions: The Emergence
of a New Paradigm is an important contribution to
Bahá'í studies. In focusing on Dr. Schaefer's paradigm
analysis of the Bahá'í Faith, this review will complement
an earlier review that recently appeared in
The Journal of
Bahá'í Studies.
[2]
Two independent essays make up this slender, but rich volume. The first
essay, "Time of the End or a New Era?" (15-49) addresses
various types of "apocalyptic" social anxieties, in which the
planet is seen as engulfed in crisis, tottering on the verge of extinction.
Beyond its paralysing effects, the significance of this pandemic dread
(what one might regard as a "no future syndrome") is that it
constitutes "a crisis of Western thought" (24). The cynicism of
imminent catastrophe, seen as an irreversible prospect of world-
historical proportions, is held in equipoise by the countervailing optimism
of the so-called "New Age" movement, which may be analysed
as a collective set of responses to modernity and postmodernity. Thus,
Schaefer brings together the prophets of doom and gloom with the utopian
wish-images of various New Age movements.
Schaefer is rather nonspecific in speaking of these movements. They are
described under the rubrics of "Western esotericism, Eastern
mysticism, and modern psychotherapy" as well as "astrology,
hypnosis, Zen-Buddhism, reincarnation therapy, magic and occult
practices, native American mythology and shamanism" (36). The
reader is simply provided with footnote references to monographs, in
German, on these topics. While not anchored in hard data, Schaefer's
generalisations will probably withstand those exceptions that "prove
the rule," so to speak--namely, that New Age movements represent a
virtual "escape from a purely secular image of the world" (37).
The author's analysis of the development of Western thought is
instructive, providing the necessary context within which the New Age
movements can be seen. According to Schaefer, the current "global
crisis" is a consequence of a process of secularisation that began in
the Enlightenment, which resulted in a "Copernican
transformation" of Western thought in 17th-century Europe (26). A
mechanistic world view remained "the dominant paradigm" in
the natural sciences well into the 20th-century. In a word, what most
characterised the Enlightenment was "the belief in the rational
transparency of the world" resulting in its
"demystification" (27). A totalising faith in reason and
progress functioned as "a new, secular form of religiosity" in
which "ideology and utopian ideals" have disenchanted
traditional religious truth-claims based on notions of
"revelation" (30) or disclosures of metaphysical reality
through the agency of God-inspired prophets. Faith in enlightened reason
has altogether eroded any sense of social "orientation" (31,
citing Michel Foucault) and has brought about "the exhaustion of
utopian energies" (31, citing Jurgen Habermas). Thus, Western
society has "entirely banished the metaphysical" (33) and is
now paying the price for it. The utter relativisation of values has
accommodated pluralism, but in such as way as to deprive traditional
morality of its normative, shaping force in society.
Against this backdrop, Schaefer categorically states: "The New Age
paradigm is founded on a holistic view of the world. Man is seen in a
pantheistic, monistic way as part of the Divine" (37). It is as if the
New Age movement has answered the secularisation of society with a kind
of divinisation of the human. In this essentially anthropocentric world
view, the configuration of the Divine is ultimately solipsistic. The
consequence of such "subjectivisation of truth" is that social
standards are no longer viable or possible. Indeed, while Schaefer asserts
that the stability of society is bound up with "a generally accepted
value system," he is quick to point out that universal standards of
morals and human values are largely lacking in modern and postmodern
society. In this spiritual vacuum, New Age movements fail to provide any
consensus on whatever direction society ought to take. New Age
spirituality is so polymoral that it is functionally amoral.
In the final pages of this essay, Schaefer introduces the
Bahá'í Faith as offering a "new paradigm" (42)
anchored in revelation, in which the will of God for the world today is
apprehended and affirmed by faith, and a universal value system is
offered. In contrast to "the old ecclesiastical paradigm" of
Christian salvation, "the new paradigm depicts a divine economy of
salvation" (46), according to Schaefer. The nature of this
"economy" is paradigmatically different from traditional
Christianity.
The nature of this new paradigm is developed in the second essay,
"On the Diversity and Unity of Religions" (51-150). This essay
begins with a "Prefatory Note on the Concept of Paradigm," in
which the author assimilates Thomas Kuhn's definition of
"paradigm" as "the entire constellation of beliefs, values,
techniques, and so on shared by a member [sic; read "the
members"] of a given community" (Kuhn, apud Schaefer,
55; cf. 26, n. 41). Schaefer then speaks of the "unity paradigm"
central to Bahá'í belief and praxis. The rest of the essay
unpacks this core concept.
On the basis of Bahá'í texts, the author ventures to say that
religious ideologies and practices are constellated around their respective
core concerns. These function as organising principles, to which all other
ideas and actions are subordinated. Thus, Christianity may broadly be
characterised as the "religion of love," Judaism as
"religion of justice," Islam as the "religion of absolute
submission," Buddhism as the "religion of detachment"
and Zoroastrianism as the "religion of purity." The
Bahá'í Faith is roundly described as the "religion of
unity" (56). Then, at some length, Schaefer expatiates on the
Bahá'í notion of "Progressive Revelation" and
highlights its universalising and integrative features, in which all past
historic religions are seen as epochal incursions of the divine, prophetic
"voice" in human history.
Certain resonances with Bahá'í universalism are noted,
such as the pronouncements of Vatican II (86) and the theology of Hans
Kung (90-91) as well as other advocates of interfaith dialogue, notably
Willard G. Oxtoby (see esp. 97), John Hick, and others. The contributions of
scholars in the academic study of religion are also acknowledged (94-
106). Although respectful and admiring of the contributions of
scholarship, Schaefer underscores the epistemological limits of
disciplined empirical inquiry, in which judgments on the nature of truth
are necessarily bracketed. While the study of religion can and does
promote "respect and understanding" among religions and
better prepares them for dialogue (103) and for common cause,
scholarship is not privy to the noetic sphere of the numinous (99), nor can
it "deliver incontrovertible proof of the unity of religions"
(104). In a word: "Academics are not in a position to fathom the
plans and intentions of God" (106).
The concluding part of the book begins at section IX, "The New
Paradigm: Progressive Revelation" (106-150). Interestingly,
Schaefer speaks of the vertical and horizontal dimensions of religion. The
former is "constant," while the latter is "variable"
(138). That is to say, the heart of religion--in its "vertical"
relationship to the Holy--is essentially mystical and unchanging, while
the "horizontal" dimension is socially referenced and thus in a
state of flux, conditioned by historical exigencies. The
Bahá'í Faith is referenced to modernity. It represents a
veritable "paradigm-shift" in religious history, in which all
religions are viewed federally as integral to history. The
Bahá'í Faith thus offers a unique, teleological theory of
civilization that "makes sense" of history by defining the past
in terms of the present. There is a certain acquisitive nature to revelation
in that it is a "progressive" unfoldment of spiritual verities in
direct proportion to humanity's capacity for cognizance of spiritual
reality.
Does Schaefer's paradigm analysis succeed? In the second essay, tensions
between Bahá'í universalism (egalitarian teachings) and
particularism (specific truth-claims) are not acknowledged and thus
remain unresolved. More significantly, the nature of the paradigm-shift
from Islam to the Bahá'í Faith is not explored in either of
the two essays. To do so would require a clear definition of
"Islamicity." While fundamental and pervasive, the ideal of
"submission" or surrender of self-will to the will of God may
be too facile or truncated to be a fair characterisation of the Islamic
paradigm. However, Schaefer does attempt to articulate systematically
the Bahá'í paradigm by means of thirteen short discourses
on the Bahá'í doctrine of Progressive Revelation (118-150).
A systematic theology of the Bahá'í Faith remains to be
written.
Schaefer's style is vigorous, and, at times, rushed. Beyond the Clash of
Religions offers a rich admixture of Bahá'í teachings--
in their "pure" (i.e., scriptural) form--and Schaefer's own
penetrating analyses of postmodern predicaments. But the latter
sometimes verges on judgmentalism, as in the pejorative classification of
"modern psychotherapy" as part of the New Age
"scene" (37). Readers with a knowledge of Buddhism will
perhaps challenge the way in which Schaefer presses Buddhist teachings
into a Bahá'í mould. Such uncritical harmonising might
raise suspicions about doctrinal imperialism. Moreover, in so doing,
Wilfred Cantwell Smith's canon of believer-intelligibility is ignored, to
the detriment of true dialogue. But these kinds of problems typically
plague any theology of pluralism. Notwithstanding, Schaefer is certainly
one of the most "engaged" writers in the contemporary
Bahá'í world. He commands respect, even when he invites
objection. Schaefer is a mine of information and a quarry of insights. He
makes judicious use of etymologies (word origins).
Editorially, the book suffers from a number of misspellings and faulty
transliteration. For instance, the second paragraph of the Preface begins:
"The fist [sic, for "first] essay...". The opening quote of
the second essay is identified as "Maleachi" (sic; read
"Malachi"), and so forth. As to transliteration, the reader with
a background in Bahá'í source languages will react to
"maháhib" [sic, p. 78, n. 133; read
"madháhib], and "Ittaád" [sic, p. 132,
n. 447; read "ittiád"], as well as a number of missing
macrons. Positively, the use of macrons (flat accents) instead of acute
accents is welcome, as it disencumbers the book from one of the
idiosyncrasies of Bahá'í publishing.
Beyond the
Clash of Religions: The Emergence of a New Paradigm contributes to an
emergent, extracanonical Bahá'í ethos. It is an
intellectually respectable articulation of a distinctively
Bahá'í world view. This book is recommended as an
introduction to the Bahá'í religion for educated or
intellectually-inclined audiences. More significantly, Udo Schaefer has
effectively adapted Kuhn's concept of "paradigm" and
"paradigm-shift" from the history of science to the history of
religion. There is every probability that Udo Schaefer's approach will gain
wide currency throughout the Bahá'í world.
Notes:
1. A paradigm is a
"pattern" or model of explanation.
2. Loni Bramson-Lerche, Review of
Udo Schaefer, Beyond the Clash of Religions: The Emergence of a New
Paradigm, in The Journal of Bahá'í Studies 7.1 (1995): 91-
93. Schaefer's book is of particular interest to the present writer, who
has made independent use of the concept of "paradigm" in a
forthcoming book: Paradise and Paradigm: Key Symbols in the
Bahá'í Faith and "Persian" Christianity (Albany:
State University of New York Press).