Seyyed Hossein Nasr on Tradition and Modernity

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Abstract

Born in Tehran in 1933, Seyyed Hossein Nasr has been at the forefront of discussions of the relation between Islam and modernity for more than four decades. He has published more than five hundred articles and more than fifty books that have been translated into some twenty languages. Nasr is one of only three intellectuals who have delivered the Gifford Lectures in Natural Theology (1980–81) and also been included in the *Library of Living Philosophers* (2000), the others being John Dewey (Gifford 1928–29, Library 1939) and Alfred North Whitehead (Gifford 1927–28, Library 1941). *Knowledge and the Sacred,* which resulted from his Gifford Lectures, has been referred to by Huston Smith as "one of the most important books of the twentieth century."

Nasr’s unique blend of philosophical, religious, and scientific expertise led him to write such groundbreaking works as *The Encounter of Man and Nature: The Spiritual Crisis in Modern Man* (1968) and *Religion and the Order of Nature* (1996), which present the environmental crisis as an outer reflection of modern man’s spiritual crisis. In the 1960s and ’70s, his was one of the first philosophical voices to warn of the environmental crisis. He was also among the first scholars to introduce Western audiences to the Islamic scientific tradition in works such as *An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines* (1964), *Science and Civilization in Islam* (1968), and *Islamic Science: An Illustrated Study* (1976). Moreover, his extensive work on Islamic philosophy has inspired an entire generation of scholars to engage Islamic philosophy in its own right rather than treating it as a mere footnote to the Western philosophical tradition.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationTradition and Modernity
Subtitle of host publicationChrisitian and Muslim Perspectives
Number of pages8
Publication statusPublished - 2013
Externally publishedYes

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