Universal Wisdom: From Conscience to Consciousness
By John Taylor; 2009 April 01, Baha 11, 166 BE
Comenian Fundamentalism
Most sources credit American evangelicals with inventing the term "fundamentalism." This is true, as far as it goes. Certainly the "ism" in fundamentalism was new. What really happened though was that religious conservatives had appropriated the term "fundamental" from religious reformers. They took the reverse of fundamentals, the very dogma that reformers ever since the 15th and 16th Century Reformation had been trying to change, and made it into an impenetrable armour invulnerable to any who would dare alter their ideological power base. Since then fundamentalism has switched loyalties. Now the term means the opposite of fundamental. It is an ideology permanently resistant to reform or anything that smacks of changing with the times.
John Amos Comenius was a fundamentalist in the original meaning of the term; he was an ecumenical reformer who advocated going back to the fundamentals of religion, such as love, spirit and kindness, irrespective of the particulars of human belief and opinion. For him "back to God" meant away from ideology and "isms," a return to unitary wisdom. He would have agreed with the pre-Socratic philosopher who said,
"A single thing is wisdom, to understand knowledge, that which guides everything everywhere." (Heraclitus, Fr. 41)
This is based on the assumption that to believe in God is to simplify a universe that is otherwise complex, to harmonize a discordant chaos, and to do it through amity and open-mindedness, not by clinging to a set of opinions deemed by a few leaders as "fundamental." At the basis of everything is the oneness of humankind standing before a Creator Who is infinitely above us. Comenius wrote,
"For... Just as the universe of things, granted to us to behold, is one coherent and unbroken unit, so its beholders should be united to help and not hinder one another. And just as the globe of the earth is one, and is not divided but rather held together by mountains, rivers, and the seas themselves, so the masters of the earth and its inhabitants, should be as one, combining forces everywhere in the cause of peace and concord, and no more attacking one another than the earth beneath them attacks its parts. Lastly, just as God the Creator and Saviour of all is one, so all who worship Him should be as one." (Comenius, Panorthosia II, Ch. 10, para 12, p. 157)
Although purely a religious event, such reform based on real fundamentals would be bound to have an effect on political arrangements as well. Just as in the time of Comenius, our present form of democracy is bogged down in an adversarial model of change. The idea that leaders must "fight it out" in order to be elected is regarded as so fundamental that it is never questioned, much less opposed. Competition, rather than cooperation, must rule. Political parties by their very nature divide and encourage partisans rather than uniting citizens in service to the common good. The answer that Comenius proposed he called universal politics, and it was similar to, indeed an outcome of universal religion.
"Universal Politics is the light of the human mind so directed to all human affairs that over the entire field of human activities fighting, confusion, and revolution are forbidden, but all things are restored to harmony and contribute their share to the common good of all human society." (Comenius, Panorthosia, Ch. 13, para 12, p. 205)
Reformation Based on Oneness of Humanity
Comenius was a loyal Christian, indeed a bishop in his Church, the Christian Brotherhood, or Unitas Fratrum. Part of him distained pagan literature. But he was a classical scholar and was deeply impressed by one story in particular from Greek mythology, one of the labours of Hercules. In it, the hero uses brains as well as brawn to perform the seemingly impossible task of cleaning out the manure-choked Augean stables. Hercules did it by temporarily redirecting the river Alpheus so that it flowed through the king's stables. A rushing flood washed out mountains of accumulated manure and he needed do no further work than returning the river to its original course. This trick, Comenius pointed out, would be a perfect model for all human reform. If we return to true fundamentals the truth will make us free and will use its own power to wash away error. Thus while at first glance religion, science and politics seem hopelessly filthy and corrupt, we should hope that we might still change them by redirecting powerful streams of human potential.
Science since his time has succeed to some extent in doing just what Comenius envisioned. It has redirected the Alpheus of human capacity toward constant reform. Only religion and politics are stuck in the doldrums of false-fundamentalism. We now are used to a flood of news of scientific discoveries coming in almost daily. But technology and discovery are also experiencing a backlash, a tsunami-like flood of harmful side effects, such as pollution, resource depletion and global warming. This is the result of overemphasizing physical science, an imbalance worsened by general neglect of needed ethical, religious and political reforms. Each of these factors is every bit as important as scientific advance, and we cannot neglect them. The result is just what we see: the river Alpheus is carrying away the horses and buildings of the Augean stables as well as its piles of manure.
The Three Fountains of God
A hint at why reform based on true fundamentals would work so well, Comenius thought, is embedded in the very name of the river that Hercules redirected, Alpheus. Comenius considered this name highly significant because it comes from the first Greek letter, Alpha. The Book of Revelations talks about Almighty God being "the Alpha and the Omega," the beginning and the end of everything. Divine wisdom is the fundamental basis of knowledge, Alpha, and it is also its goal (Omega). For this reason Comenius called his philosophy "pansophia" or universal wisdom.
The power of pansophia comes from its basis in what Baha'is call the three onenesses, the oneness of God, religion and mankind, combined with the tee-off principle of independent search for truth.
"The first stage of Reform will stem from the threefold love which you owe to yourself, your neighbour, and God; to yourself, to avoid coming to grief through your indifference, to your neighbour, to prevent your bad example from destroying one whom you ought to be edifying, and to God, lest you should deprive Him of the glory and honour which He seeks from the many who find salvation, including yourself and all who can be saved with your help." (Panorthosia, Ch. 20, para 5, p. 21)
Thus reform grows not from ideology but from love, the three basic loves of self, love for one's neighbour and love of God. This is true fundamentalism, to avoid apathy in the self, to avoid giving a bad example to others, especially youth, and above all to eschew disappointing God by failing to glorify Him as He deserves.
In the following passage Comenius explains how search, oneness and wisdom could join together with the personal effort of search for truth into a force that we Baha'is call the "consciousness of the oneness of humanity."
"I think that it is clear from my Universal Wisdom (pansophia) that it is possible for these fountains of God to combine into one torrent like the Alpheus, thus integrating everything that the world possesses and the mind of man dictates and the word of God expresses, in such a way that any seeker after knowledge may find it in full, anyone searching for forms and standards of self-government may find them ready-made, and anyone desiring God may see His presence everywhere, and hear, taste and touch Him and feel His binding influence." (Comenius, Panorthosia II, Ch. 3, para 38, p. 80)
John Taylor
email: badijet@gmail.com
blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/
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