Islamic Scholar

It was refreshing to see your article on the religious relativism of Abdol Karim Soroush (Jan. 27), in which this Iranian theologian is quoted as saying that all religious understanding is relative and that no one interpretation is absolute.

Such a lesson in religious tolerance and pluralism is not just needed in Iran. In the United States, people like Pat Robertson, Pat Buchanan and Jerry Falwell need to comprehend that they do not possess a monopoly on understanding God’s will. Additionally, of course, it would be a great day for the world if the Pope would also adopt Soroush’s admonition to abandon religious absolutism.

EDWARD TABASH

Beverly Hills

* The subject of Islam’s response to modernity has been keyed to a false allegory. More to the point would be to link how such new thoughts about freedom and modernity relative to Islamic law are emblematic of what theologians call a “Schleiermacher revolution,” rather than to the Lutheran Reformation.

The Lutheran Reformation was less a response to the modernity of the Renaissance than it was a novel biblical-criticism response to Holy Writ. Christianity’s first systematic response to modernity was effected through the writings and sermons of Friedrich E. D. Schleiermacher (1768-1834), who redefined faith to be as much a part of the experiential dimension as it was a part of the tradition of doctrines. Soroush sounds more like Schleiermacher, who struggled to preserve his own and all individuality in a new world, than he does Martin Luther, who struggled against his own all-too-human nature to find the word of God in his world.

Until Islam travels a road to individual and collective freedom through the attainments and legacies of early moderns like Spinoza, Kant, Schleiermacher, Thomas Clarkson, Emerson, Lincoln, Matthew Arnold and Carlyle, it cannot create its own utopian destinies. Just trying to avoid the evils of American consumerism and Western popular culture while preserving written Islamic law is not guaranteed spiritual progress. But it is progress to know of Islamic theologians who ponder the revolutionary thought, “These are the times that try men’s souls.”

JOHN ALAN WALKER

Big Pine

* As a Baha’i I was gratified to read of the courageous stand by Shiite scholar/reformer Soroush calling for a fundamental rethinking of some traditional Muslim beliefs. Similar ideas were expressed over a 150 years ago in what was then Persia by another young devout visionary called El Bab (“The Gate”) who was put to death for these ideas, although the religion he founded lived on. The challenge Soroush presents to the world of Islam will be a formidable one to accept, but even its consideration would go far in helping to bring understanding and unity.

The background inset about Islam at the end of the article ends with, “It is the only monotheistic religion that offers a set of rules not only for establishing spiritual beliefs but also for governing society.” Not so. The above-mentioned Babi religion went on to become the Baha’i faith, with its over 5 1/2 million adherents spread geographically throughout the world. Its spiritual rules for ethics and personal conduct are of the highest, and Baha’u’llah, the prophet-founder of the Baha’i religion, presented his followers with not only a blueprint for a future world government of all nations, but also with definite rules for the governing of Baha’i communities on both local and national levels.

BETTY CONOW

Ontario