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Lecture 7: Is Religion Possible?

Section 5 of 11

The failure of medieval mysticism and its false substitutes

Section summary

In brief

Iqbal surveys the available secular remedies for modernity's spiritual crisis and rejects each in turn: medieval mysticism has taught a false renunciation that contents the average man with ignorance; nationalism narrows thought and emotion by mobilising hate and resentment; and atheistic socialism revolts against the very spiritual source that could have given it strength. Only religion in its highest manifestation — neither dogma, nor priesthood, nor ritual — can deliver the 'biological renewal' the modern world needs.

Section 4 presented the second reason for the timeliness of the question 'Is religion possible?' — the existential case: the idea of evolution, received within a naturalistic framework, has produced civilisational despair rather than hope, and even Nietzsche's heroic attempt to sustain a forward-looking vision collapsed into the hopelessness of eternal recurrence. Section 5 now completes the triptych of timeliness arguments with the most devastating diagnosis of all: a survey of the available remedies for modern civilisation's spiritual crisis, and the verdict that every one of them has failed.

The section advances through three movements. First, Iqbal diagnoses the condition of modernity: the modern man has 'ceased to live soulfully, i.e. from within,' absorbed in external facts, cut off from the depths of his own being, paralysed by the systematic materialism that Huxley himself apprehended and deplored. Second, Iqbal evaluates three candidate remedies and rejects each. Medieval mysticism has 'practically failed' — and in the Muslim East has done 'far greater havoc than anywhere else,' teaching 'a false renunciation' that made the average man 'perfectly contented with his ignorance and spiritual thraldom.' Nationalism offers a substitute energy, but it works by narrowing thought and emotion rather than expanding them, drawing on 'the psychological forces of hate, suspicion, and resentment.' Atheistic socialism has a broader outlook but 'rises in revolt against the very source which could have given it strength and purpose.' Third, having eliminated all three, Iqbal declares the crisis and identifies the only remaining resource: religion in its highest manifestation — 'neither dogma, nor priesthood, nor ritual' — which alone can 'ethically prepare the modern man for the burden of the great responsibility which the advancement of modern science necessarily involves.'

This section is the argumentative hinge of the entire lecture. Sections 1–4 established that the question 'Is religion possible?' is both legitimate and timely. Section 5 demonstrates that it is also urgent — because every alternative to religion has been tried and has failed. The lecture's remaining sections (6–11) will then address what form religion must take if it is to succeed where mysticism, nationalism, and socialism have failed.

Original text

Thus, wholly overshadowed by the results of his intellectual activity, the modern man has ceased to live soulfully, i.e. from within. In the domain of thought he is living in open conflict with himself; and in the domain of economic and political life he is living in open conflict with others. He finds himself unable to control his ruthless egoism and his infinite gold-hunger which is gradually killing all higher striving in him and bringing him nothing but life-weariness. Absorbed in the 'fact', that is to say, the optically present source of sensation, he is entirely cut off from the unplumbed depths of his own being. In the wake of his systematic materialism has at last come that paralysis of energy which Huxley apprehended and deplored. The condition of things in the East is no better.

The technique of medieval mysticism by which religious life, in its higher manifestations, developed itself both in the East and in the West has now practically failed. And in the Muslim East it has, perhaps, done far greater havoc than anywhere else. Far from reintegrating the forces of the average man's inner life, and thus preparing him for participation in the march of history, it has taught him a false renunciation and made him perfectly contented with his ignorance and spiritual thraldom. No wonder then that the modern Muslim in Turkey, Egypt, and Persia is led to seek fresh sources of energy in the creation of new loyalties, such as patriotism and nationalism which Nietzsche described as 'sickness and unreason', and 'the strongest force against culture'.¹¹ Disappointed of a purely religious method of spiritual renewal which alone brings us into touch with the everlasting fountain of life and power by expanding our thought and emotion, the modern Muslim fondly hopes to unlock fresh sources of energy by narrowing down his thought and emotion. Modern atheistic socialism, which possesses all the fervour of a new religion, has a broader outlook; but having received its philosophical basis from the Hegelians of the left wing, it rises in revolt against the very source which could have given it strength and purpose.

Both nationalism and atheistic socialism, at least in the present state of human adjustments, must draw upon the psychological forces of hate, suspicion, and resentment which tend to impoverish the soul of man and close up his hidden sources of spiritual energy. Neither the technique of medieval mysticism, nor nationalism, nor atheistic socialism can cure the ills of a despairing humanity. Surely the present moment is one of great crisis in the history of modern culture. The modern world stands in need of biological renewal. And religion, which in its higher manifestations is neither dogma, nor priesthood, nor ritual, can alone ethically prepare the modern man for the burden of the great responsibility which the advancement of modern science necessarily involves, and restore to him that attitude of faith which makes him capable of winning a personality here and retaining it in hereafter. It is only by rising to a fresh vision of his origin and future, his whence and whither, that man will eventually triumph over a society motivated by an inhuman competition, and a civilization which has lost its spiritual unity by its inner conflict of religious and political values.

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4. The crisis of modernity — evolution and despair

6. Religious experience as cognitive fact

Original text