The Battle for God
Lee la religión premoderna con un par de términos que toma prestado y declara: los premodernos «evolved two ways of thinking, speaking, and acquiring knowledge, which scholars have called mythos and logos» «Armstrong — The Battle for God (2000) · p. 18», y el error moderno consiste en confundirlos — «You were not supposed to make mythos the basis of a pragmatic policy» «Armstrong — The Battle for God (2000) · p. 20».
Sobre ese par monta el capítulo que aquí interesa: la cábala luriánica como mito de la creación que «bears no resemblance to the creation story in the Book of Genesis» «Armstrong — The Battle for God (2000) · p. 30» y que se vuelve movimiento de masas hacia 1650 «Armstrong — The Battle for God (2000) · p. 33»; los ritos de Safed que lo encarnan «Armstrong — The Battle for God (2000) · pp. 34, 35»; y el mesianismo de Shabbetai Zevi como el caso en que —según ella— el mito se tradujo a programa «Armstrong — The Battle for God (2000) · p. 53». El mismo esquema se aplica al islam esotérico: sufismo, *falsafah* y Shiah política «Armstrong — The Battle for God (2000) · p. 69», el *alam al-mithal* de Mulla Sadra «Armstrong — The Battle for God (2000) · p. 86» y la Ocultación del Imam «Armstrong — The Battle for God (2000) · p. 78».
Construye toda esa cábala sin nombrar el Zóhar una sola vez: es una ausencia comprobada, no un olvido inferido, y con ella van las de Cordovero, Moisés de León y las sefirot, que solo asoman en la glosa de *Ein Sof* —«in ten successive emanations (sefiroth)»— «Armstrong — The Battle for God (2000) · p. 465». Ver Notas de carga.
1246 afirmaciones · 1 fuente · 1 atribución
Atribución
se consigna, jamás se afirma«Armstrong — The Battle for God (2000) · p. 5»
Cadena de la obra
el testimonio procesado, en esmeraldaAfirmaciones
1246 entradas — la voz de la obra, con su pasaje«evolved two ways of thinking, speaking, and acquiring knowledge, which scholars have called mythos and logos» — el par que sostiene todo el libro; los llama «complementary ways of arriving at truth».
«Myth was regarded as primary» — adjudica primacía al mito, y lo hace concernir a lo que se tenía por intemporal y constante en la existencia.
«only became a reality when it was embodied in cult, rituals, and ceremonies» — el mito no existe fuera de su práctica.
«Myth was also associated with mysticism, the descent into the psyche by means of structured disciplines of focus and concentration» — enlaza mito y disciplina contemplativa.
«the myths of religion would make no sense» — sin culto ni práctica mística, según ella.
«the rational, pragmatic, and scientific thought» — así define *logos*, que a diferencia del mito «must relate exactly to facts and correspond to external realities».
«You were not supposed to make mythos the basis of a pragmatic policy» — declara peligrosa la confusión de los dos modos.
«But a literal reading of Scripture is, as we shall see, a modern preoccupation, springing from the prevalence of the rational over the mythical consciousness.» — data el literalismo en la modernidad.
«Before the modern period, Jews, Christians, and Muslims all relished highly allegorical, symbolic, and esoteric interpretations of their sacred texts.» — Da la razón: «Since God's Word was infinite, it was capable of yielding a multitude of meanings».
«every single messianic movement that has expected an imminent Redeemer has been disappointed» — lo enuncia como constante histórica, con la acotación «until now».
«a saintly, sickly Ashkenazic Jew» — así presenta a Isaac Luria (1534–72), asentado en Safed y «the first to articulate the new myth».
«He thus founded a form of Kabbalah that still bears his name» — la fundación de la rama luriánica, en sus términos.
«We moderns would say that Luria created this myth» — Distingue de inmediato esa lectura de la de los discípulos.
«the myth had declared itself to him» — la adjudicación de los discípulos, que la obra consigna sin suscribirla ni corregirla.
«bears no resemblance to the creation story in the Book of Genesis» — así sitúa el relato luriánico frente al bíblico.
«It clearly contradicted Genesis in almost every particular.» — lo repite en el balance de la difusión.
«In Luria's myth, the creative process begins with an act of voluntary exile.» — la fórmula con que abre la exposición del *tsimtsum*.
«the doctrine of Zimzum» — la grafía es de la obra; la traduce como «withdrawal» y la da como respuesta a cómo puede existir el mundo si Dios es omnipresente.
«the infinite and inaccessible Godhead, which Kabbalists called Ein Sof» — «Without End», que hubo de encogerse dentro de sí para hacer sitio al mundo.
«Creation had begun, therefore, with an act of divine ruthlessness» — Añade que Ein Sof «had inflicted exile upon a part of itself».
«a violent process of primal explosions, disasters, and false starts» — contrapone así el proceso al primer capítulo del Génesis.
«which were supposed to channel it shattered under the strain» — la ruptura de los vasos, que la obra nombra siempre como «breaking of the vessels» y nunca con el término hebreo.
«Sparks of divine light fell into the abyss of all that was not God» — la caída de las chispas.
«returned to the Godhead, but others remained trapped in this Godless realm» — el destino escindido de las chispas, en un reino «filled with the evil potential that Ein Sof had purged from itself in the act of Zimzum».
«When Adam was created, he could have rectified the situation» — De haberlo hecho, «the divine exile would have ended on the first Sabbath».
«the divine sparks were trapped in material objects» — consecuencia del pecado de Adán.
«wandered through the world, a perpetual exile, yearning to be reunited with the Godhead» — así describe a la Shekhinah tras la caída.
«restoration" (tikkun) of the Shekhinah to the Godhead» — triple: la Shekhinah a lo Divino, el pueblo judío a la Tierra Prometida y el resto del mundo a su estado propio.
«Zimzum showed that exile was inscribed in the very ground of being» — la función hermenéutica que adjudica al mito respecto de la condición judía.
«Luria was not a writer, and during his lifetime his teachings were known to very few people» — Precisa que los discípulos los registraron y otros los difundieron en Europa.
«By 1650, Lurianic Kabbalah had become a mass movement» — «the only theological system to win such general acceptance among Jews at this time».
«the restorative mission of tikkun still inspires modern and fundamentalist Jewish movements» — declara vigente la doctrina.
«Today we should call the Lurianic myth a symbol or a metaphor, but this also is to rationalize it» — objeta la traducción moderna del término.
«In the original Greek, the word "symbol" meant to throw two things together so that they became inseparable» — la etimología que maneja para sostener esa objeción.
«like all true myth, a revelation that showed Jews what their lives basically were» — su definición del estatuto del mito luriánico.
«they would have found the question inappropriate» — respuesta que atribuye a los cabalistas de Safed si se les preguntara si aquello ocurrió realmente; la obra no dictamina.
«In Safed, Kabbalists devised special rites to reenact Luria's theology» — abre la parte praxiológica.
«to help them to identify with the Shekhinah, whom they imagined as a woman» — fin declarado de las vigilias de medianoche.
«would rise at midnight, remove their shoes, weep, and rub their faces in the dust» — la vigilia, en sus gestos.
«Kabbalists would go for long walks through the countryside, wandering like the Shekhinah and acting out their own sense of homelessness» — la caminata ritual; en la misma página, las disciplinas penitenciales «fastings, lashings, rolling in the snow—performed as acts of tikkun».
«but in Safed, Jews were instructed to pray alone» — inversión de la norma del minián, «to experience fully their very real sense of isolation».
«Luria was adamant that there was to be no wallowing» — Los ritos de medianoche «always ended at dawn with a meditation upon the final reunion of the Shekhinah with Ein Sof».
«The Kabbalist was instructed to imagine that every one of his limbs was an earthly shrine for the Divine Presence» — el cuerpo como santuario.
«for sexual exploitation, for malicious gossip, for humiliating one's fellows, and for dishonoring parents» — las faltas contra el prójimo por las que se hacía penitencia.
«In Safed, meditation centered on detailed, skilled reconfigurations of the letters composing God's name» — los *kawwanot*, que «would help the Kabbalist to become aware of a trace of the divine within himself».
«in ecstasy he trembled and shook with elation and awe» — testimonio que adjudica a Haim Vital (1542–1620), discípulo de Luria; grafía del nombre tal cual (ver Notas de carga).
«No one was initiated into the Kabbalah until he was at least forty years old and married, and had achieved sexual equilibrium» — requisito de admisión, dado en el epílogo.
«only men were allowed to practice the Kabbalah» — restricción de género, consignada a propósito de Teresa de Ávila.
«the rational disciplines of philosophy» — las que, dice, dejaron de servir a los cabalistas tras 1492 porque «could not address their pain».
«devised no practical plans for the political salvation of the Jews» — deslinde explícito de Luria respecto de la política, por contraste con Ignacio de Loyola.
«Kabbalists had settled in the Land of Israel» — «but they were not Zionists»; Luria no urgió a migrar a Tierra Santa.
«Luria knew that his mission as a mystic was to save Jews from existential and spiritual despair» — el fin que le adjudica.
«Without the special ceremonies and rites» — sin ellos, dice, el relato de creación de Luria «would have remained a senseless fiction».
«she charts the soul's journey through seven celestial halls until it reaches God» — sobre Teresa de Ávila y *El castillo interior*, que «bears a marked resemblance to the Throne Mysticism» judía; lo presenta como parecido, no como dependencia.
«weeded out the more dubious and superstitious devotions, and made the mystical process more systematic» — adjudica a Juan de la Cruz ese trabajo de sistematización.
«John of the Cross, Isaac Luria, or Mulla Sadra» — la tríada de la mística sobria premoderna, de quienes dice que «had eschewed such emotional excess» y sostenían que «the interior journey was calm, disciplined, and complemented by reason».
«the Savior of Israel, the Messiah, the Son of David, the anointed of the God of Jacob» — los títulos con que consigna la proclamación de Shabbetai Zevi en Esmirna.
«though not, at this point, versed in Lurianic Kabbalah» — precisa que su formación cabalística inicial no era luriánica.
«they were what Lurianic Kabbalists would call acts of tikkun» — así lee las transgresiones que él llamaba «holy sins».
«would soon give him a new law and new commandments to repair all the worlds» — la fórmula que la obra pone en boca de Shabbetai sobre lo que Dios haría.
«Thus saith the Lord! Behold your Savior cometh. Shabbetai Zevi is his name» — la profecía de «this Rabbi Nathan», recién iniciado en la cábala luriánica.
«the soul of the Messiah had been trapped in the Godless realm created in the original act of Zimzum» — la lectura luriánica del Mesías que adjudica a Nathan.
«had been forced to descend still further into the realm of impurity and take the form of evil himself» — así explica Nathan la apostasía: «This was the ultimate "holy sin," the final act of tikkun».
«by performing the penitential rituals of Safed» — el modo en que, dice, Nathan ordenó apresurar el Fin.
«fasted, kept vigil, immersed themselves in icy water, rolled in nettles, and gave alms to the poor» — los ritos de Safed usados como acelerador escatológico, de Europa a Irán y los Balcanes.
«Lurianic Kabbalah was a myth; it was not intended to be translated into practical political programs in this way, but to illuminate the internal life of the spirit» — su tesis del abuso de categoría, aplicada al shabbateísmo.
«Shabbetai seems to have seen all faiths as valid» — Añade que se veía a sí mismo como puente entre judaísmo e islam, «with a Koran in one hand and a Torah scroll in the other».
«had their own secret synagogues, but also prayed in the mosques» — los *donmeh*, unas 200 familias convertidas en 1683 en la Turquía otomana.
«The commandments were the laws of death and must be discarded» — doctrina que adjudica a Jacob Frank (1726–91), que añadía «all who would be warriors must be without religion».
«The three main forms of esoteric Islam were the mystical discipline of Sufism, the rationalism of Falsafah, and the political piety of the Shiah» — su tipología del esoterismo islámico.
«believed that they were returning ad fontes» — adjudica a los esotéricos islámicos un retorno a las fuentes; los de *Falsafah* «wanted to go back to a primordial, universal faith of timeless truths».
«Sufis believed that their mystical ecstasy reproduced the spiritual experiences of the Prophet when he had received the Koran» — la adjudicación doctrinal sufí, conforme al arquetipo muhammadí.
«the way to God lay through the creative and mystical imagination» — Añade que la gente «had a duty to create their own theophanies» con las disciplinas contemplativas del sufismo.
«had proved to be as healing as Lurianic Kabbalah» — así justifica poner el renacer sufí posmongol junto a la cábala luriánica: la razón es funcional, y no afirma influencia de una sobre otra.
«went so far as to reject the authority of every single Muslim sage and saint, however exalted, except the Prophet» — sobre Ahmad ibn Idris (1780–1836) y los llamados «Neo-Sufis».
«The goal of the mystical quest was not union with God, but a deep identification with the human figure of the Prophet» — el desplazamiento de la meta mística que adjudica a esa reforma.
«a marginal, populist, revolutionary group, far removed from the sophisticated circles of Shii esotericism» — así califica a la orden safávida de sufíes que encabezaba el sah Ismail.
«to both mystical spirituality and philosophical speculation» — la hostilidad que adjudica a Muhammad Baqir Majlisi (m. 1700), con persecución de los sufíes restantes en Irán.
«Previously, Sufi philosophers had called this psychic region the alam al-mithal, the world of pure images» — un reino de visiones accesible por las disciplinas intuitivas de los místicos.
«Mir Dimad and Mulla Sadra both insisted that these visions were not just subjective fantasies but had objective reality» — la adjudicación de estatuto ontológico a la visión, «even if they remained impervious to logical analysis».
«had to become as rational as Aristotle, but must then go beyond him» — lo que Mulla Sadra (m. 1640) exigía del filósofo verdadero, en una aprehensión extática e imaginativa de la verdad.
«No sage or religious authority, however eminent, could claim a monopoly of truth» — objeción de Mir Dimad y Mulla Sadra al monopolio hermenéutico.
«Today, people resort to psychoanalysis to gain similar insight» — traduce a vocabulario psicoanalítico el descenso al *alam al-mithal*; la equivalencia es suya.
«the light of the divine world shone forth upon me» — testimonio en primera persona de Mulla Sadra citado de *al-Asfar al-Arbaah*; su corazón «caught fire» al descender.
«not an evolution to a new and higher state, but a return to the original pure vision of Abraham and the other prophets» — la doctrina de la perfección que adjudica a Sadra.
«such servile imitation (taqlid)» — cualquier religión fundada en ella era, según Sadra, intrínsecamente «polluted».
«secret (batin) wisdom that lay behind every single word of the Koran» — la intuición que adjudica a los shiíes al leer el texto.
«a secret knowledge (ilm) of divine truth» — lo que cada Imam recibía de su predecesor, según la doctrina que expone a partir de Jafar as-Sadiq (m. 765).
«the Unseen (al-ghayb) that lies beneath the flux of outward (zahir) events» — el par *zahir*/*batin* en su formulación.
«had not died, but had been miraculously concealed by God» — el mensaje de 934 sobre el Imam, a quien solo se vería «after a long time has passed and the earth has become filled with tyranny».
«cannot be explained rationally. It makes sense only in a context of mysticism and ritual practice» — así lee el mito de la Ocultación, dentro de su propio esquema.
«he became a more vivid presence» — la presencia paradójica que adjudica al Imam Oculto, liberado de espacio y tiempo por su retiro.
«There was no doctrinal quarrel between Sunnis and Shiis; the difference was chiefly one of feeling» — su posición sobre el deslinde entre las dos ramas.
«deeply influenced by the mysticism of Mulla Sadra and the School of Isfahan» — sobre Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsai (1753–1826), fundador de un movimiento místico radical.
«he had been translated to the world of pure archetypes (alam al-mithal)» — la doctrina shaykhi del Imam Oculto, guiando por medio de representantes terrenos que saben penetrar ese reino.
«a group of rare, infallible human beings who were able to get in touch with the Hidden Imam through the intuitive disciplines of contemplation» — la «Perfect Shiah» de Ahsai.
«In each generation, the Perfect Shiah unveiled more and more of the esoteric meaning of the Koran and the Shariah» — revelación progresiva, «an ongoing revelation».
«their narrow legalism, their unimaginative literalism, and their lack of interest in new ideas» — objeción de Karim Khan Kirmani a los mujtahides.
«gate" (bab) to the divine which the ulema declared to have been closed at the time of the Occultation» — lo que declaró ser en 1844 Sayyid Ali Muhammad (1819–50).
«He was the Perfect Man of the age, embodying in his person all the great prophets of the past» — tras declararse ante la Kaaba encarnación del Imam Oculto y producir una escritura, el *Bayan*.
«like Joseph Smith, the Bab produced a newly inspired scripture» — coexistencia con justificación tipológica, no genealógica.
«There are many aspects of the Babi movement that recall the career of Shabbetai Zevi» — el cruce comparativo entre las dos tradiciones, que la obra repite tres veces.
«As in the earlier Jewish movement, there was an intuitive sense that the old world was passing away» — segunda formulación del mismo paralelo.
«The Koran was formally abrogated» — en Budasht, junio de 1848; y Qurrat al-Ain (1814–52) se quitó el velo «as a symbol of the end of female subjection».
«Like Shabbetai himself, the Babis reached toward a new religious pluralism» — en el nuevo orden, todas las religiones reveladas se unirían en una.
«As in the Shabbatean movement, the casting off of taboos» — la misma salida secularizante en los dos movimientos.
«Master of the Good Name» — así glosa el acrónimo Besht, de Baal Shem Tov, por Israel ben Eliezer (1700–60).
«was mythical, based on the Lurianic symbol of divine sparks that had been trapped in matter during the primal catastrophe» — la transposición jasídica del símbolo luriánico, que el Besht «transformed this tragic vision into a positive appreciation of the omnipresence of God».
«A spark of the divine could be found in absolutely everything» — Los más consumados accedían a esa dimensión por las prácticas de concentración y apego, *devekut*.
«Hasidic prayer was noisy and ecstatic» — aplausos, cabeza atrás y adelante, golpes en las paredes.
«would even turn somersaults in the synagogues, to express the overturning of the ego in its total surrender to God» — la praxis corporal, con su glosa doctrinal.
«The Besht claimed that he had been instructed in the divine mysteries by Ahijah of Shiloh, the teacher of the Prophet Elijah» — el linaje que él reclamaba, y que él mismo encarnaba el espíritu de Elías.
«not to feel [conscious of] oneself at all, but to be like a listening ear» — la fórmula que pone en su boca sobre cómo enseñar Torá.
«The simple reading is as you say» — la sentencia del Besht a Dov Ber (1710–72) sobre un texto luriánico acerca de ángeles: la exégesis literal era correcta pero «lacked soul».
«the whole house was suffused with light» — lo que la escena consigna al ponerse Dov Ber de pie.
«the ordinary Hasid could not achieve union with God directly» — hallaría lo divino solo en la persona de un *Zaddik* que dominara el *devekut*.
«he who studies Torah communes with God, for God and the Torah are one» — de Hayyim Volozhiner (1749–1821), discípulo del Gaón de Vilna.
«rational thought the starting point of the spiritual quest» — el jasidismo Habad de Shneur Zalman (1745–1813), más cercano a la espiritualidad de los Misnagdim.
«seemed to have little understanding of the mystical and mythical element in Judaism» — objeción suya a Mendelssohn, a quien adjudica haber forzado el judaísmo «into a rationalistic mold that was alien to it»; es un juicio de la autora.
«He seems to have come from a family of converted Jews and to have retained an interest in the Kabbalah, the mystical tradition of Judaism» — sobre Colón, con la reserva «He seems to have» puesta por ella misma.
«'Tis the temper of the hot and superstitious part of mankind in matters of religion, ever to be fond of mysteries» — voz de Newton, citada por la obra.
«that Noah had founded a superstition-free religion» — la tesis del tratado newtoniano *The Philosophical Origins of Gentile Theology*: sin escrituras reveladas ni misterios, corrompida después.
«was unable to appreciate that the doctrine of the Trinity had been devised by the Greek Orthodox theologians of the fourth century precisely as mythos, similar to that later created by the Jewish Kabbalists» — la coexistencia Trinidad/cábala, justificada por género y no por contenido.
«were not objective facts but simply "terms that we use"» — lo que adjudica a Gregorio de Nisa sobre las tres hipóstasis.
«Kook was a Kabbalist, inspired by the mythology and mysticism of the conservative period» — filiación declarada sin ambigüedad.
«in Lurianic terms, as a "breaking of the vessels," part of the creative process» — lectura luriánica de la Primera Guerra Mundial que adjudica a Kook.
«the Messiah of the House of Joseph» — como presentó Kook a Herzl: un Redentor condenado que muere a las puertas de Jerusalén y abre paso al Mesías de la casa de David.
«We lay tefillin [phylacteries]» — la fórmula con que, dice, Kook aplicaba el esquema a los pioneros: «and the pioneers lay bricks».
«Kook did not intend his myth to become an ideology» — el mismo límite que adjudica a Luria, ahora en el siglo XX.
«an immediate, mystical experience of the sacred» — lo que buscaba A. D. Gordon (1856–1922), «an Orthodox Jew and Kabbalist», en el paisaje.
«clarity, the depth of an infinitely clear sky, a clear perspective, mists of purity» — lo que, según ella, los cabalistas nombraban así, en la noción de *chavayah* de Gordon.
«the evil forces of the "Other Side"» — el término doctrinal en boca de Yeshua ben Shoshan, «a gentle, soft-spoken Kabbalist»; su contexto es contemporáneo y político, y queda fuera del recorte (ver Notas de carga).
«The rituals of a cult were carefully designed to lead people through a trauma so that they came out healthily on the other side of it.» — pone así los ritos de Safed junto a las procesiones shiíes de Husain, con justificación ritual.
«Gershom Scholem, who has written the definitive study of Shabbetai and Shabbateanism» — la obra nombra en el cuerpo a su fuente única de todo lo luriánico y shabbateano.
«Scholem's theory has been disputed, and cannot be proved definitively one way or the other» — sobre la tesis de que los shabbateanos ocultos precedieron a la Haskalá; la obra consigna la disputa y no la zanja.
«The Jewish mystical tradition» — así, en tres palabras, define *Kabbalah* el glosario.
«Without End"; a kabbalistic term for the Godhead, the divine essence» — glosario, *Ein Sof*, que se ha revelado en la creación y «in ten successive emanations (sefiroth), which adapt the Ultimate to the limited understanding of human beings».
«in Lurianic Kabbalah, the Godhead, Ein Sof (q.v.), is depicted as withdrawing into itself to vacate a space which is not-God» — glosario, *Zimzum*.
«The Divine Presence on earth. In some forms of Kabbalah» — glosario, *Shekhinah*, mujer separada de Ein Sof y exiliada con los hombres; nótese la restricción «in some forms».
«Restoration"; the redemptive process delineated in kabbalistic spirituality» — glosario, *Tikkun*, por «prayers, rituals, and devoted fidelity to the Law».
«Concentrations"; the contemplative disciplines, such as the meditations upon the letters that compose the Divine Name, in Jewish spirituality» — glosario, *Kawwanot*.
«Attachment" to God; the perpetual consciousness of the divine» — glosario, *Devekut*.
«The "hidden" dimension of existence and of religion which cannot be perceived by the senses or by rational thought» — glosario, *Batin*.
«Philosophy"; an esoteric philosophical movement which tried to reconcile the revealed religion of the Koran with the Greek rationalism of Plato and Aristotle» — glosario, *Falsafah*.
«From the Arabic tasawuuf; the mystical tradition of Sunni Islam» — glosario, *Sufi, Sufism*; grafía consignada tal cual.
«Exaggeration"; "extreme" speculations which overstress some aspects of a doctrine, especially in the early Shiah» — glosario, *Ghuluww*.
«the seat of the creative imagination» — glosario, *Alam al-Mithal*.
«The Iranian mystical tradition» — glosario, *Irfan*, en una sola línea.
«like the words "mystery" and "mysticism," from the Greek musteion» — glosario, *Mythos*, derivado de «to close the eyes or the mouth»; grafía consignada tal cual.
«But the Torah, the Law of Moses, has a mythos of its own» — la Torá tiene mito propio.
«Like Lurianic Kabbalah, it had been a response to the dislocation of exile» — y la cábala luriana usada como término de comparación funcional: las dos, respuesta al exilio.
«committing to memory the words that God himself had spoken to Moses and speaking them aloud, they were bringing the divine into their own beings and entering a sacred realm» — el estudio de la Ley descrito como técnica de interiorización.
«The Law had become a symbol, where they found the Shekhinah» — y la Shekhiná hallada en el texto: un locus no cabalístico del término.
«the mythos of confessional religion is unsustainable without the spiritual exercises of prayer and ritual, which cultivate the more intuitive parts of the mind» — el enunciado general de la regla que la ficha traía caso por caso: sin práctica no hay mito.
«This was a mystical philosophy, which could be seen as a rational version of the kind of spirituality cultivated by John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila» — Spinoza leído como versión racional de la mística carmelita — y en la misma plana acota que él no tenía paciencia para esa clase de intuición religiosa.
«intuitive knowledge, a flash of insight that fused all the information he had acquired discursively and which was an experience of what Spinoza believed to be God» — y la scientia intuitiva descrita como técnica.
«Others were fascinated by the idea of the Holy Spirit descending into a human being and imparting divine wisdom to him» — las especulaciones shiíes tenidas por extremas, el ghuluww.
«All these myths, in a modified form, would become important to the esoteric vision of the Shiah» — y la filiación que les adjudica: de ahí sale la visión esotérica shií.
«The mystical philosophy of Isfahan was also banned, and Sufism was suppressed so savagely that Bihbehani’s son, Ali, was known as the Sufi-slayer» — la supresión del sufismo en Irán, con el apodo del hijo de Bihbehani.
«mysticism went underground and would continue to shape the ideas of dissidents and intellectuals who fought the status quo» — y su continuidad soterrada.
«analyzing the text and stressing the importance of logical consistency, but in a way that yielded a spiritual encounter with the divine» — el método talmúdico de Volozhin como técnica contemplativa.
«it was a form of prayer, a ritual that gave the students a sense of the sacred» — y lo que le adjudica: el proceso, no la conclusión.
«The head of the yeshiva (the rosh yeshiva) became not unlike a Hasidic Zaddik» — el rosh yeshiva convertido en Zaddik, y la yeshivá había nacido contra el jasidismo.
«Darby did not search for mystical meaning in the Bible, which he saw as a document that told the literal truth» — el reverso nombrado del eje esotérico: la lectura literalista.
«the esoteric disciplines of Falsafah and mysticism (irfan» — el irfan en el cuerpo de la obra, y no solo en su glosario: parte de la formación de al-Afghani.
«they were closer to Mulla Sadra than to European rationalists and scientists, who discounted all religiously acquired truth» — el linaje sadriano que adjudica a los reformistas modernos.
«they spoke as practicing mystics. Shaped by conservative norms, they saw reason and intuition as complementary» — y su condición de místicos practicantes.
«directed attention to those forms of faith which had been dismissed by the rationalist historians» — Buber y Scholem como actores históricos, no como notas al pie.
«Buber revealed the richness of Hasidism and Scholem explored the world of the Kabbalah» — con el reparto de su trabajo.
«The return to Zion would thus become the sort of interior journey once undertaken by Kabbalists: a descent to the depths of the psyche to achieve integration» — y el viaje interior del cabalista usado como figura del retorno, con justificación psicológica y no genealógica.
«the Land was linked symbolically to the last stage of the interior descent into the self, and was identical with the divine Presence the Kabbalist discovered in the ground of his being» — la doctrina cabalística de la Tierra, que es el eslabón que hace inteligible lo anterior.
«Sufi orders were abolished; all the madrasahs and Koran schools were closed» — la abolición de las órdenes sufíes por Atatürk.
«head of the Naqshbandi Sufi order, led a» — y la única orden sufí que la obra nombra por su nombre, que aparece solo para ser aplastada; la frase sigue con «rebellion, which Atatürk crushed».
«the rite would touch the divine “spark” lodged in the soul of every Jew and awaken his or her essential holiness» — las chispas divinas luriánicas animando la campaña de Habad en el siglo XX.
«His studies in marine biology had not robbed him of his vision of the divine sparks» — y el Rebbe que no las perdió con la biología marina.
«the mythology and mysticism of Habad that gave the Lubavitch the confidence to sally forth into the world instead of retreating defensively from it» — lo que le adjudica a esa mística, con el «It seems, however» que ella misma antepone.
«the meditative or mystical techniques of the Orient. Others found transcendence in drug-induced trips, transcendental meditation, or personal transformation in such techniques as the Erhard» — la única asomada de la contracultura esotérica del siglo XX, y entra sin un solo nombre de tradición.
«a mysterious cabal called the “Bavarian Illuminati” who were atheists and Freemasons and were plotting to overthrow Christianity in the» — los Illuminati y la masonería, que en toda la obra aparecen solo como objeto de pánico ajeno, nunca como tradición expuesta.
«the Journal of Islamic Mysticism, the main Sufi periodical, in December 1981» — y la única institución sufí viva y con prensa propia que la obra menciona.
«These were all signs of what the Kabbalists called kawwanah, an effort of intensive concentration» — el término doctrinal kawwanah, en SINGULAR y con otra acepción que el kawwanot plural ya fichado; su contexto es el asentamiento contemporáneo y queda fuera del recorte.
«An act performed with kawwanah not only brings the worshipper closer to God but helps to rectify the imbalance that separates the mundane world from the divine» — y su definición, que se completa en la plana siguiente.
«It was what Isaac Luria had called tikkun, an act of restoration that would one day transform the world and the cosmos» — el tikkun luriánico, nombrado por la obra; su aplicación política queda fuera del recorte.
«a faqih who engaged in the mystical quest described by Mulla Sadra could acquire the same “infallibility” (ismah) as the Imams» — el término ismah, que no figura en el glosario de la obra; su contexto es el velayat-e faqih y queda fuera del recorte.
«catch a glimpse of their secret essence (zat» — y el término zat, tampoco glosado.
«the mystical, hidden (batin) values of the Unseen; instead, they seemed mired, like most ordinary mortals, in the materialism of the zahir» — el par zahir/batin ampliado; su contexto es contemporáneo y queda fuera del recorte.
«When Mulla Sadra had spoken of the mystical death to self, he had not envisaged the physical, voluntary death of thousands of young people» — y la mitad islámica de su tesis del abuso de categoría: la doctrina sirve al espíritu y se estropea al traducirse a programa. La mitad judía ya estaba fichada.
«Christian fundamentalists reject the discoveries of biology and physics about the origins of life and insist that the Book of Genesis is scientifically sound in every detail.» — atribuye a los fundamentalistas cristianos el rechazo de la biología y la física sobre el origen de la vida y la afirmación de que el Génesis es científicamente exacto; es la lectura literalista que el libro sigue de cabo a rabo.
«And I have come to agree: the term is not perfect, but it is a useful label for movements that, despite their differences, bear a strong family resemblance.» — acepta el término fundamentalismo con reserva, después de haber recogido la objeción de otros estudiosos.
«Fundamentalists do not regard this battle as a conventional political struggle, but experience it as a cosmic war between the forces of good and evil.» — adjudica a los fundamentalistas la experiencia de la lucha como guerra cósmica, no como pugna política.
«I do not claim that my discoveries necessarily apply to other forms of fundamentalism, but hope to show how these particular movements, which have been among the most prominent and influential, have all been motivated by common» — abstención explícita de la autora sobre el alcance de sus propios resultados; el verbatim se corta en el borde de plana y sigue en la p. 16 con fears, anxieties, and desires.
«But the fundamentalism that we shall be considering is an essentially twentieth-century movement.» — data el fundamentalismo que estudia en el siglo XX, no antes.
«It is a reaction against the scientific and secular culture that first appeared in the West, but which has since taken root in other parts of the world.» — lo define como reacción contra la cultura científica y secular nacida en Occidente.
«They may reject the scientific rationalism of the West, but they cannot escape it.» — señala que los fundamentalistas no escapan del racionalismo que rechazan.
«There have always been people, in every age and in each tradition, who have fought the modernity of their day.» — distingue a esos movimientos de la resistencia a la modernidad de cualquier época.
«In the cities and empires of the Axial Age, citizens were acquiring a wider perspective and broader horizons, which made the old local cults seem limited and parochial.» — sitúa el desplazamiento de los cultos locales en las ciudades e imperios de la era axial.
«Consequently, prophets and reformers arose who insisted that the virtue of compassion was crucial to the spiritual life: an ability to see sacredness in every single human being, and a willingness to take practical care of the more vulnerable members of society, became the test of authentic piety.» — adjudica a profetas y reformadores axiales la compasión como prueba de piedad auténtica.
«Despite their major differences, these Axial Age religions had much in common: they all built on the old traditions to evolve the idea of a single, universal transcendence; they cultivated an internalized spirituality, and stressed the importance of practical compassion.» — el rasgo común que atribuye a las religiones de la era axial: trascendencia única y universal, espiritualidad interiorizada y compasión práctica.
«We tend to assume that the people of the past were (more or less) like us, but in fact their spiritual lives were rather different.» — advierte contra proyectar la propia vida espiritual sobre los premodernos.
«Myth was not concerned with practical matters, but with meaning.» — define el mito por el sentido y no por la utilidad.
«Myth and cult were so inseparable that it is a matter of scholarly debate which came first: the mythical narrative or the rituals attached to it.» — señala que no está resuelto entre estudiosos si vino antes el relato mítico o el rito.
«The various mythological stories, which were not intended to be taken literally, were an ancient form of psychology.» — sostiene que los relatos mitológicos no se destinaban a lectura literal y los llama psicología antigua.
«When people told stories about heroes who descended into the underworld, struggled through labyrinths, or fought with monsters, they were bringing to light the obscure regions of the subconscious realm, which is not accessible to purely rational investigation, but which has a profound effect upon our experience and behavior.» — lee los descensos al inframundo y los combates con monstruos como puesta a la luz de lo subconsciente, inaccesible a la investigación racional.
«Thus, we do not know what really occurred when the ancient Israelites escaped from Egypt and passed through the Sea of Reeds.» — niega que se sepa lo ocurrido en el paso del Mar de las Cañas, y con ello separa el relato del hecho.
«It is to confuse mythos with logos.» — así nombra el error que atribuye a quien pide al mito exactitud factual.
«When, however, Crusaders started making a mythical or mystical vision the basis of their policies, they were usually defeated and committed terrible atrocities.» — adjudica a los cruzados el desastre de hacer política con una visión mítica; nótese el modal usually, que la autora no quita.
«A scientist could make things work more efficiently and discover wonderful new facts about the physical universe, but he could not explain the meaning of life.» — el límite que le pone al logos: eficacia y hechos, no sentido de la vida.
«By the eighteenth century, however, the people of Europe and America had achieved such astonishing success in science and technology that they began to think that logos was the only means to truth and began to discount mythos as false and superstitious.» — data en el siglo XVIII el momento en que el logos pasó a tenerse por única vía a la verdad y el mythos por falso y supersticioso.
«Yet modernization is often experienced not as a liberation but as an aggressive assault.» — señala que la modernización se vive muchas veces como agresión y no como liberación.
«Fundamentalists feel that they are battling against forces that threaten their most sacred values.» — atribuye a los fundamentalistas la percepción de estar defendiendo lo más sagrado.
«We shall find that modernization has led to a polarization of society, but sometimes, to prevent an escalation of the conflict, we must try to understand the pain and perceptions of the other side.» — su propia petición de método: entender el dolor y la percepción del otro bando.
«By 1492, Western scientific rationalism was becoming spectacularly efficient.» — data en 1492 la eficacia del racionalismo científico occidental.
«People were discovering more fully than ever before the potential of what the Greeks had called logos, which was always reaching out for something fresh.» — así presenta el logos griego en 1492: lo que siempre va a por algo nuevo.
«But they had not yet dismissed mythos.» — su tesis de la coexistencia: la ciencia avanzaba y el mythos no había sido despedido todavía.
«Columbus was conversant with science, but he was still at home in the old mythological universe.» — sobre Colón: versado en ciencia y a la vez instalado en el universo mitológico antiguo.
«For them, the myths of Christianity still gave meaning to their rational and scientific explorations.» — el papel que adjudica a los mitos cristianos en las exploraciones racionales y científicas de esa generación.
«His slogan was Ad fontes: “back to the wellsprings!”» — el lema de Erasmo, ad fontes, en la forma en que la obra lo consigna y traduce.
«By stripping away these later accretions and going back to the sources—the Bible and the Fathers of the Church—Christians would recover the living kernel of the Gospels and experience new birth.» — el programa de Erasmo tal como ella lo resume: quitar los añadidos y volver a la Biblia y a los Padres para recobrar el núcleo vivo.
«The mystics of Iberia became explorers of the spiritual world, in rather the same way as the great navigators were discovering new regions of the physical world.» — el paralelo que propone entre los místicos ibéricos y los navegantes.
«Mysticism belonged to the realm of mythos; it functioned in the domain of the unconscious which was inaccessible to the rational faculty and has to be experienced by means of other techniques.» — su adscripción del misticismo al dominio del mythos y a lo inconsciente, inaccesible a la facultad racional.
«Ignatius was determined to exploit the power of mythos practically.» — lo que atribuye a Ignacio de Loyola: explotar prácticamente el poder del mythos, por contraste con Luria.
«The loss of Spanish Jewry was mourned by Jews all over the world as the greatest catastrophe to have befallen their people since the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, when the Jews lost their land and were forced into exile in scattered communities outside Palestine, known collectively as the Diaspora.» — sitúa la pérdida de la judería española, en el duelo de los judíos del mundo, junto a la destrucción del Templo del año 70.
«When exile is also associated with human cruelty, it raises urgent questions about the problem of evil in a world supposedly created by a just and benevolent God.» — el problema del mal que, según ella, plantea el exilio cuando va unido a la crueldad humana.
«But because their lives were so utterly changed, they would have to evolve new forms of faith to make the old traditions speak to them in their radically altered circumstances.» — su explicación de por qué hacía falta una forma nueva de fe: la vida cambiada obligaba a que la tradición antigua volviera a hablarles.
«But that is because we accept only a rational version of truth and have lost the sense that there might be another kind.» — su diagnóstico de por qué el mito luriánico suena hoy a ficción: solo se admite una versión racional de la verdad.
«In the premodern world, however, the events of history were not seen as singular but as examples of eternal laws, revelations of a timeless, constant reality.» — cómo describe la lectura premoderna de los hechos históricos: no singulares, sino ejemplos de leyes eternas.
«It did so not because it could be proved rationally or scientifically, since it obviously could not.» — niega que la cábala luriánica se difundiera por prueba racional o científica.
«The exile of the Shekhinah and their own lives as displaced people were not two separate realities but one and the same.» — la identificación que adjudica a los exiliados entre el exilio de la Shekhinah y el propio.
«It neither could receive nor did it require rational demonstration.» — el estatuto que le da al mito luriánico frente a la demostración racional.
«In traditional religion, myth is inseparable from cult, which brings eternal reality into the mundane lives of worshippers by means of ceremonies and meditative practices.» — su regla general sobre mito y culto en la religión tradicional.
«All the world religions insist that no spirituality is valid unless it results in practical compassion, and Lurianic Kabbalah was true to this insight.» — el criterio de validez que atribuye a todas las religiones del mundo, y que dice que la cábala luriánica cumple.
«He would become, leading Kabbalists believed, a prophet, able to utter a new mythos, bring to light a hitherto unknown religious truth, just as Luria had done.» — lo que creían los cabalistas de primera fila sobre quien completara la disciplina: se volvería profeta, capaz de enunciar un mythos nuevo, como Luria. La adjudicación es de ellos.
«Rational thought has achieved astonishing success in the practical sphere, but it cannot assuage our sorrow.» — el límite que le pone al pensamiento racional: eficaz en lo práctico, incapaz de mitigar el dolor.
«When these myths were later applied to the practical world of politics, the results could be disastrous, as we shall see later in this chapter.» — su anticipo del argumento del libro: aplicar esos mitos al mundo práctico de la política puede resultar desastroso.
«Without a cult, without prayer and ritual, myths and doctrines have no meaning.» — sin culto, sin plegaria ni rito, mitos y doctrinas quedan sin sentido, en su formulación más escueta.
«Hysterical trances, visions, and raptures had nothing to do with holiness, she insisted.» — lo que atribuye a Teresa de Ávila: trances histéricos, visiones y arrobos nada tienen que ver con la santidad.
«Mysticism demanded extreme skill, disciplined concentration, a balanced personality, and a cheerful, sensible disposition, and must be integrated in a controlled and alert manner with normal life.» — las condiciones que, según ella, exigía Teresa al misticismo, y su integración con la vida normal.
«Teresa was a devout and loyal Catholic, but she still prayed like a Jew and taught her nuns to do the same.» — sobre Teresa de Ávila: católica devota que seguía rezando como judía y enseñaba a sus monjas a hacerlo.
«They could not fully identify with the Catholicism that made their lives a misery, and, over the years, Judaism became an unreal, distant memory.» — su lectura del desgaste marrano: el judaísmo volviéndose memoria irreal y distante.
«According to the Israeli scholar Yirmiyahu Yovel, it was quite common for conversos to be skeptical about all religion.» — adjudica al estudioso israelí Yirmiyahu Yovel el dato del escepticismo religioso corriente entre los conversos.
«There is no God; love is the supreme value, but when love dies, the world is revealed as a wasteland.» — así resume la visión de La Celestina, atribuida a Fernando de Rojas: sin Dios, con el amor como valor supremo y el mundo como páramo cuando el amor muere.
«The attempt to force people to accept the prevailing ideology against their will or before they are ready for it often results in ideas and practices which, in the eyes of the persecuting authorities themselves, are highly undesirable.» — su regla sobre la imposición ideológica: produce ideas y prácticas que las propias autoridades perseguidoras tienen por indeseables. Nótese el modal often.
«Ferdinand and Isabella were aggressive modernizers who sought to suppress all dissidence; but their inquisitorial methods led to the formation of a secret Jewish underground and to the first declarations of secularism and atheism in Europe.» — el resultado que adjudica a los métodos inquisitoriales de Fernando e Isabel: una clandestinidad judía y las primeras declaraciones de secularismo y ateísmo de Europa.
«Later some Christians would become so disgusted by this type of religious tyranny that they too would lose faith in all revealed religion.» — continúa la cadena: cristianos que pierden la fe en toda religión revelada por asco a esa tiranía religiosa.
«They often thought and spoke about Judaism in Christian terms: they believed, for example, that they had been “saved” by the Law of Moses rather than by Jesus, a concept that has little meaning in Judaism.» — consigna que los marranos pensaban el judaísmo en términos cristianos, con el ejemplo de creerse salvados por la Ley de Moisés.
«Orobio, however, described a whole class of people who found it very difficult to adjust to the laws and customs of traditional Judaism, which seemed senseless and burdensome to them.» — adjudica a Orobio la descripción de quienes hallaban insensata y gravosa la ley judía tradicional.
«To an outsider, the 613 commandments of the Pentateuch seemed arbitrary and arcane.» — cómo dice ella que se veían desde fuera los 613 mandamientos del Pentateuco.
«The Halakhah, the codified oral law that had been compiled in the first centuries of the Common Era, seemed even more irrational and arbitrary, because it did not even have biblical sanction.» — sobre la Halajá: aún más irracional y arbitraria a esos ojos por carecer de sanción bíblica.
«But it never went down well with believers generally. It was not religiously useful, since it was doubtful that the First Cause even knew that human beings existed, as it could contemplate nothing short of perfection.» — su objeción de utilidad religiosa a la Causa Primera del deísmo aristotélico.
«When he arrived in Amsterdam in the early seventeenth century, he was shocked, or so he claimed, to discover that contemporary Judaism was just as much a human construct as Catholicism.» — consigna el escándalo que Uriel da Costa declaró al llegar a Ámsterdam, con la reserva or so he claimed puesta por ella.
«Recently scholars have cast doubt on Da Costa’s testimony, and have argued that he had almost certainly had a previous encounter, however sketchy, with some form of halakhic Judaism, though he probably had not realized how deeply the Halakhah dominated normal Jewish life.» — recoge que estudiosos recientes ponen en duda el testimonio de Da Costa; los modales almost certainly y probably son de ella.
«You could cross over to another faith, but unless you were a very exceptional human being (which Da Costa was not), you could not live outside a religious community.» — su tesis sobre el límite de la época: se podía cambiar de fe, no vivir fuera de una comunidad religiosa.
«Prado was neither a brilliant nor a systematic thinker, but his experience shows us that it is impossible to adhere to a confessional religion such as Judaism by relying solely on reason.» — lo que adjudica al caso de Prado: no se puede adherir a una religión confesional apoyándose solo en la razón.
«Without a prayer life, a cult, and a mythical underpinning, Prado could only conclude that “God” was simply identical with the laws of nature.» — el desenlace que le atribuye a Prado sin plegaria, culto ni sustento mítico: Dios identificado con las leyes de la naturaleza.
«But the rabbis were also right: Prado’s deism bore no relation to any form of Judaism that they knew.» — le da la razón también a los rabinos, y con ello reparte el juicio entre las dos partes.
«After his excommunication, he maintained that all religion was rubbish and that reason, not so-called “revelation,” must always be the sole arbiter of truth.» — la posición que atribuye a Prado tras la excomunión: la razón como único árbitro de la verdad, y la revelación entre comillas suyas.
«Prado and Da Costa were both precursors of the modern spirit.» — así sitúa a Prado y a Da Costa respecto de la modernidad.
«another Marrano Jew from Amsterdam showed that the exercise of reason could become so absorbing and exhilarating in itself that the need for myth receded.» — su tesis sobre Spinoza: el ejercicio de la razón puede volverse tan absorbente que la necesidad de mito retroceda.
«The exercise of reason can itself, in a man or woman of exceptional intellect, lead to some kind of mystical illumination.» — el reverso de esa tesis: en un intelecto excepcional, la razón misma puede llevar a una iluminación mística.
«He denied the possibility of revelation, and argued that “God” was simply the totality of nature itself.» — consigna la negación spinoziana de la revelación y su identificación de Dios con la totalidad de la naturaleza.
«He experienced philosophical study and thought as a form of prayer; as he explained in his Short Treatise on God (1661), the deity was not an object to be known but the principle of our thought.» — adjudica a Spinoza el estudio filosófico vivido como plegaria, con Dios como principio del pensamiento y no como objeto.
«He called this experience “beatitude”: in this state, the philosopher realized that he was inseparable from God, and that God exists through human beings.» — el término beatitude tal como la obra lo atribuye a Spinoza, con la inseparabilidad respecto de Dios.
«He believed that yearning for a transcendent God would alienate human beings from their own nature.» — lo que Spinoza creía, según ella, sobre el anhelo de un Dios trascendente.
«He was one of the first to study the Bible scientifically, examining the historical background, the literary genres, and the question of authorship.» — le atribuye una de las primeras lecturas científicas de la Biblia, atenta a género literario y autoría.
«Spinoza was undoubtedly one of the harbingers of the modern spirit, and he would later become somewhat of a hero to secularist Jews, who admired his principled exodus from the shelter of religion.» — su balance sobre Spinoza y sobre lo que los judíos secularistas admiraron en él.
«In effect, the ghetto was a state-within-a-state, a world unto itself, and Jews had little—and, often, little desire for —contact with the gentile society outside.» — así describe el gueto: un Estado dentro del Estado.
«Their own schools were good, but after the fifteenth century, when the educational curriculum in Christendom was becoming more liberal, Jews continued to study only Torah and Talmud.» — el desfase educativo que consigna entre las escuelas judías y el currículo cristiano posterior al siglo XV.
«Like Christians, they were accorded the status of dhimmi (“protected minority”), which gave them civil and military protection, as long as they respected the laws and supremacy of the Islamic state.» — define el estatuto de dhimmi como minoría protegida y expone sus condiciones.
«Many believed that these events must be the long-awaited “birth pangs of the Messiah,” and turned in desperation to the rites and penitential disciplines of Lurianic Kabbalah in an attempt to hasten messianic redemption.» — adjudica a muchos judíos la lectura de esos hechos como dolores de parto del Mesías, y el recurso a los ritos penitenciales de la cábala luriánica para apresurar la redención.
«He used to hide away for days, sunk in misery in a dark little room, but these depressed phases would be succeeded by frenzied periods of “illumination,” when he was restless, unable to sleep, and felt that he was in touch with higher powers.» — así describe las fases de Shabbetai Zevi entre el abatimiento y la iluminación.
«He could not explain why he committed these “strange acts,” but felt that God had for some reason inspired him to do so.» — consigna que él mismo no sabía explicar sus actos extraños y los atribuía a inspiración divina.
«At first, Shabbetai wanted nothing to do with Nathan’s fantasy, but gradually he was won over by the power of the young rabbi’s eloquence, which, at least, gave him some explanation for his peculiarities.» — la resistencia inicial de Shabbetai ante lo que la obra llama la fantasía de Nathan, y cómo cedió ante su elocuencia.
«Those Jews who came under the direct influence of either Shabbetai or Nathan showed that they were ready to jettison the Torah, even though that would mean the end of religious life as they knew it.» — lo que atribuye a los judíos alcanzados por Shabbetai o por Nathan: disposición a desechar la Torá.
«But people of all classes, rich and poor, accepted Shabbetai and seemed to welcome his antinomianism.» — consigna que ricos y pobres aceptaron a Shabbetai y parecieron acoger su antinomianismo.
«Politics was in the domain of reason and logic; myth gave it meaning but was not intended to be interpreted as literally as Nathan had interpreted the mystical vision of Isaac Luria.» — su deslinde de dominios: la política es de la razón y la lógica; el mito le da sentido pero no se lee tan literalmente como lo leyó Nathan.
«The Messiah had become an apostate.» — la fórmula con que registra la conversión al islam de Shabbetai Zevi.
«In one letter, written in 1669, Shabbetai vehemently denied that he had converted to Islam only under duress; the religion of Islam, he declared, was “the very truth,” and he had been sent as the Messiah to the gentiles as well as to the Jews.» — la carta de 1669 en que Shabbetai niega haber convertido por coacción y declara verdadera la religión del islam.
«Nevertheless, the sect continued its underground existence, showing that the messianic outburst had not been a freak occurrence, but had touched something fundamental in the Jewish experience.» — su lectura de la continuidad clandestina de la secta: el estallido mesiánico no fue anomalía sino que tocó algo de fondo.
«Scholem’s theory has been disputed, and cannot be proved definitively one way or the other,» — su reserva sobre la tesis de Gershom Scholem: disputada y no demostrable en ningún sentido. Es abstención expresa.
«but it is generally acknowledged that Shabbateanism did much to undermine traditional rabbinic authority and that it enabled Jews to envisage a change that would once have seemed taboo and impossible.» — lo que sí da por reconocido en general: el shabbateísmo minó la autoridad rabínica y volvió imaginable un cambio antes tabú.
«In his view, the Torah was not merely outmoded but dangerous and useless.» — la posición que atribuye a Jacob Frank sobre la Torá.
«Frank had come not to build but “only to destroy and annihilate.”» — la fórmula que la obra le pone en boca a Frank sobre su propia misión.
«I say to you that all who would be warriors must be without religion, which means that they must reach freedom under their own power.» — palabras de Jacob Frank sobre los guerreros sin religión y la libertad por propia fuerza. Doctrina suya, no de la autora.
«For most Jews, the path to the new world that was developing in the West led through religion, but this religion was very different from the kind of faith we are used to in the twentieth century.» — su advertencia al lector: para la mayoría de los judíos el camino al mundo nuevo pasó por la religión, pero no por la fe tal como se entiende en el siglo XX.
«Instead the three empires expressed what the American scholar Marshall G. S. Hodgson has called “the conservative spirit,” which was the hallmark of all premodern society, including that of Europe.» — adjudica al estudioso estadounidense Marshall G. S. Hodgson el término espíritu conservador y su alcance a toda sociedad premoderna, Europa incluida.
«Much of fundamentalism is a response to this painful transformation.» — su tesis central sobre el origen del fundamentalismo: respuesta a esa transformación dolorosa. Nótese el modal much of.
«Hence the “conservative” bent of premodern society did not spring from any fundamental timidity but represented a realistic appraisal of the limitations of this type of culture.» — niega que el sesgo conservador de la sociedad premoderna naciera de timidez, y lo atribuye a una tasación realista de los límites de esa cultura.
«In a conservative society, social stability and order were considered more important than freedom of expression.» — la jerarquía de valores que atribuye a la sociedad conservadora.
«Instead of looking forward to the future, like moderns, premodern societies turned for inspiration to the past.» — el sentido temporal que le adjudica: la inspiración se busca en el pasado, no en el futuro.
«Sunni Muslims believed that there was no need for further independent thought.» — lo que sostenían los musulmanes suníes sobre la necesidad de pensamiento independiente, según ella.
«Innovation (bidah) in matters of law and practice was considered as disruptive and dangerous in Sunni Islamdom during the early modern period as was heresy in doctrinal matters in the Christian West.» — equipara la bidah del islam suní premoderno con la herejía doctrinal del Occidente cristiano en cuanto a lo disruptivo.
«If Western modernity is the product of logos, it is easy to see how congenial mythos was to the conservative spirit of the premodern world.» — el enlace que arma entre logos y modernidad occidental por un lado, y mythos y espíritu conservador por el otro.
«Mythological thinking looks backward, not forward.» — su definición direccional del pensamiento mitológico.
«It does not bring us “news,” but tells us what has always been;» — el mito no trae novedad, dice, sino lo que siempre ha sido.
«As the Shabbetai Zevi fiasco showed so clearly, myth is not meant to initiate practical change.» — invoca el desastre de Shabbetai Zevi para sostener su regla: el mito no está hecho para iniciar cambios prácticos.
«Just as it is difficult—even impossible—for people living in Western society, which has institutionalized change, to appreciate fully the role of mythology, so too it is extremely difficult— perhaps impossible—for people deeply and powerfully shaped by conservative spirituality to accept the forward-looking dynamic of modern culture.» — su simetría entre las dos incapacidades, la moderna ante la mitología y la conservadora ante el dinamismo moderno, con los modales difícil e incluso imposible sostenidos en las dos mitades.
«This demanded a jihad (a word that should be translated as “struggle” or “effort” rather than as “holy war,” as Westerners often assume) on all fronts: spiritual, political, social, personal, military, and economic.» — objeta la traducción corriente de jihad como guerra santa y propone lucha o esfuerzo, en todos los frentes.
«Hence, for a devout Muslim, politics is what Christians would call a sacrament.» — la equivalencia que propone para el lector cristiano: la política es para el musulmán devoto lo que un sacramento.
«Jung believed that it was not necessary to choose between the square and the circle; the geometric figure representing this cosmic order, the foundation of all reality, was, he believed, a square inserted into a circle.» — lo que creía Jung sobre el cuadrado y el círculo, traído por la obra para leer la forma de la Kaaba. La adjudicación es a Jung.
«It insists repeatedly that it is not bringing a new truth to humanity, but revealing the essential laws of human life.» — lo que el Corán insiste sobre sí mismo, según ella: no trae verdad nueva sino las leyes esenciales de la vida humana.
«Muhammad did not believe that he was creating a new religion, but was bringing the primordial religion of humanity to his Arabian tribe, which had never been sent a prophet before and had no scripture in their own language.» — lo que Mahoma creía estar haciendo, en su lectura: traer la religión primordial de la humanidad a su tribu.
«When Muslims conform to God’s will, they feel that they are in tune with the way things ought to be.» — la experiencia que atribuye a los musulmanes al conformarse a la voluntad divina.
«The law was based on the person of the Prophet Muhammad, who had made the perfect act of islam when he had received the divine revelation.» — la persona del Profeta como base de la ley, por haber hecho el acto perfecto de islam.
«Eyewitness reports (hadith) were collected about the Prophet’s teaching and behavior, which, during the ninth century, were carefully sifted to ensure that Muslims had an authentic record of his sayings and religious practice (sunnah).» — define hadith y sunnah y consigna el cribado del siglo IX.
«In true conservative style, Muslims were conforming their behavior to a past perfection.» — su lectura conservadora del gesto: conformar la conducta a una perfección pasada.
«The study of jurisprudence (fiqh) did not simply consist in poring over old texts, but also had a challenging dimension.» — niega que el estudio del fiqh se redujera a repasar textos viejos.
«Despite their new inventions, Europeans were still ruled by the conservative ethos until the eighteenth century.» — sitúa a Europa bajo el ethos conservador hasta el siglo XVIII, pese a sus invenciones.
«Further, it would be a mistake to imagine that conservative society was entirely static.» — advierte contra imaginar estática a la sociedad conservadora.
«A reformer such as Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah of Damascus (1263–1328), for example, refused to accept the closing of the “gates of ijtihad.”» — sobre Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah de Damasco y su rechazo del cierre de las puertas del ijtihad.
«He was revolutionary, but his program took an essentially conservative form.» — la fórmula con que resuelve su caso: revolucionario en forma esencialmente conservadora.
«Ibn Taymiyyah believed that to survive the crisis, Muslims must return to the sources, to the Koran and Sunnah of the Prophet.» — el programa que le atribuye a Ibn Taymiyyah: volver a las fuentes, Corán y Sunnah.
«Shiis claimed that they alone cultivated the passion for social justice that informed the Koran, but which had been betrayed by corrupt Muslim rulers.» — lo que reclamaban los chiíes para sí, según ella, sobre la pasión coránica por la justicia social.
«Learning a few military techniques and a smattering of modern sciences, however, would not prove sufficient to contain the Western threat, because Europeans had evolved an entirely new way of life and thought, so that they operated on entirely different norms.» — su objeción a la respuesta puramente militar: los europeos habían evolucionado un modo entero de vida y de pensamiento, con otras normas.
«Abd al-Wahhab declared the Ottoman sultans to be apostates, unworthy of the obedience of the faithful and deserving of death.» — la sentencia de Abd al-Wahhab contra los sultanes otomanos. Doctrina suya, no de la autora.
«The Moroccan Sufi reformer Ahmad ibn Idris (1780–1836) had quite a different approach, which also has its followers in our own day.» — presenta a Ahmad ibn Idris como reformador sufí marroquí de enfoque distinto, con seguidores hoy.
«Even though the Neo-Sufis were still harking back to the archetypal persona of the Prophet, they seem to have been evolving a humanly rather than a transcendently oriented faith and were encouraging their disciples to prize what was novel and innovative as much as the old.» — su lectura de los neosufíes, sostenida con el modal seem to have been: una fe orientada a lo humano más que a lo trascendente.
«Ibn Idris had no contact with the West, never once mentions Europe in his writings, and shows no knowledge of or interest in Western ideas.» — el dato negativo que subraya sobre Ibn Idris: ningún contacto con Occidente ni mención de Europa en sus escritos.
«But the mythical disciplines of Sunni Islam led him to embrace some of the principles of the European Enlightenment.» — la consecuencia que extrae de ese dato negativo: las disciplinas míticas del islam suní lo llevaron a principios de la Ilustración europea.
«Sunnis were basically optimistic about Muslim history, whereas the Shii vision was more tragic: the fate of the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad had become a symbol of a cosmic struggle between good and evil, justice and tyranny, in which the wicked always seem to get the upper hand.» — el contraste de sentimiento que traza entre suníes y chiíes, con el destino de los descendientes del Profeta como símbolo de lucha cósmica.
«The Shiis, however, do not recognize the rule of the first three caliphs, and call Ali the First Imam (“Leader”).» — consigna que los chiíes no reconocen a los tres primeros califas y llaman a Ali Primer Imán.
«The Kerbala tragedy would develop its own cult and become a myth, a timeless event in the personal life of every Shii.» — así clasifica la tragedia de Kerbala: culto propio y mito, hecho intemporal en la vida de cada chií.
«Yazid has become an emblem of tyranny and injustice; by the tenth century, Shiis mourned the martyrdom of Husain annually on the fast day of Ashura, weeping, beating their bodies, and declaring their undying opposition to the corruption of Muslim political life.» — el duelo anual de Ashura y la declaración de oposición perpetua a la corrupción de la vida política musulmana.
«When Shiis walk in solemn procession during the Ashura rituals, they declare their determination to follow Husain and even to die in the struggle against tyranny.» — lo que declaran los chiíes en la procesión de Ashura, en su lectura.
«In some Shii circles, Ali was revered as an incarnation of the divine, like Jesus; Shii rebels believed that their leaders had not died but were in hiding (or “occultation”); they would return one day and lead their followers to victory.» — lo que se veneraba en ciertos círculos chiíes: Ali como encarnación de lo divino, y los jefes ocultos que volverían.
«Each Imam of Ali’s line was, he taught, the spiritual leader of his generation.» — la enseñanza que atribuye a Jafar as-Sadiq sobre cada Imán de la línea de Ali.
«An Imam was, therefore, an infallible spiritual director and a perfect judge.» — la definición de Imán que consigna: director espiritual infalible y juez perfecto.
«It was not a doctrine for the masses, who might interpret it crudely, so Shiis must keep their spiritual as well as their political views to themselves.» — la regla de reserva que consigna: ni doctrina para las masas ni exposición de las propias opiniones.
«Jafar as-Sadiq effectively separated religion from politics, privatizing faith and confining it to the personal realm.» — lo que atribuye a Jafar as-Sadiq: separar religión de política y confinar la fe al ámbito personal.
«The myth of the “occultation” of the Hidden Imam cannot be explained rationally.» — su afirmación sobre el mito de la ocultación del Imán Oculto y la explicación racional.
«If we understand the story as a logos, one that should be interpreted literally as a plain statement of fact, all kinds of questions arise.» — el error de lectura que describe: tomar el relato como logos y leerlo literalmente como enunciado de hecho.
«The early traditions that developed shortly after the announcement of the doctrine of the Occultation reveal the frustration and impotence felt by many Shiis during the tenth century.» — lo que ella lee en las tradiciones tempranas posteriores a la doctrina de la Ocultación.
«But this yearning for the End did not mean that the Shiis had abandoned the conservative ethos and become future-oriented.» — niega que el anhelo del Fin sacara a los chiíes del ethos conservador.
«The Hidden Imam would not bring something new into the world; he would simply correct human history to make human affairs finally conform to the fundamental principles of existence.» — lo que haría el Imán Oculto en esa doctrina: no traer novedad, sino corregir la historia humana hasta ajustarla a los principios fundamentales.
«Myth does not provide a blueprint for pragmatic political action but supplies the faithful with a way of looking at their society and developing their interior lives.» — su regla sobre el mito y la acción política, dicha aquí en su forma más nítida.
«From this new perspective, any government had to be viewed as illegitimate, because it usurped the prerogatives of the Hidden Imam, the true Lord of the Age.» — la consecuencia política que extrae: todo gobierno resulta ilegítimo por usurpar las prerrogativas del Imán Oculto.
«But because all governments were illegitimate, ulema must not hold political office.» — la regla derivada sobre los ulema y el cargo político.
«The legend of the Imams, who had nearly all been assassinated, poisoned, imprisoned, exiled, and, finally, eliminated by the caliphs, represented the basic incompatibility of religion and politics.» — lo que representa para ella la leyenda de los Imanes: la incompatibilidad básica de religión y política.
«Political life belongs to the realm of logos; it must be forward-looking, pragmatic, able to compromise, plan, and organize society on a rational basis.» — su adscripción de la vida política al dominio del logos, con los rasgos que le exige.
«Religious leaders could admonish, criticize, and protest against flagrant abuses, but in some tragic sense the sacred had to be either marginalized or kept within bounds, as the caliphs had interned the Imams in the Askari fortress in Samarra.» — el margen que le deja a los jefes religiosos, y el confinamiento de lo sagrado que la obra llama trágico.
«Even though the Shiah had become a mythological faith, that did not mean that it was irrational.» — su deslinde expreso: mitológica no quiere decir irracional.
«Most Shiis, known as “Twelvers” (because of their veneration of the twelve Imams), believed that no government could be legitimate in the absence of the Hidden Imam.» — define a los Doce y consigna su tesis sobre la ilegitimidad de todo gobierno en ausencia del Imán Oculto.
«The Safavid order, a mystical fraternity which had been founded in the wake of the Mongol invasions, had originally been Sufi but had absorbed many of the “extreme” (ghuluww) ideas of the old Shiah.» — sobre la orden safávida: cofradía mística de origen sufí que absorbió ideas ghuluww de la antigua Shiah.
«Ismail believed that Imam Ali had been divine, and that the Shii messiah would return very soon to inaugurate the Golden Age.» — lo que creía Ismail: Imam Ali divino y regreso inminente del mesías chií.
«Ismail had no qualms about setting up a Shii state, and, instead of trying to find a civilized modus vivendi with the Sunni majority, as Shiis had done since the time of Jafar as-Sadiq, he was fanatically opposed to the Sunnah.» — el corte que le atribuye a Ismail respecto de la línea de Jafar as-Sadiq: ningún modus vivendi con la mayoría suní.
«As Shiism spread among the Iranian people, they would also benefit from the fact that they, and not the shahs, were the only authentic spokesmen of the Hidden Imam.» — el argumento de legitimidad que adjudica a los ulema frente a los shas: solo ellos, portavoces auténticos del Imán Oculto.
«But power corrupts. As the ulema became more at home in the Safavid empire, they also became more authoritarian and even bigoted.» — su juicio sobre lo que le pasó a los ulema al instalarse en el imperio safávida.
«He thus introduced a profound distrust of both mysticism and philosophy that persists in Iranian Shiism to the present day.» — lo que atribuye a Majlisi: una desconfianza de misticismo y filosofía que dice persistente hasta hoy en el chiismo iraní.
«Now, however, instead of encouraging the masses to see Husain as an example, Majlisi and his clergy taught them to see the Imam as a patron who could secure their admission to paradise if they showed their devotion to him by lamenting his death.» — el giro que le adjudica a los ritos de Husain: de ejemplo a patrón que asegura el paraíso a cambio de lamentos.
«The rituals now endorsed the status quo, urging the people to curry favor with the powerful, and look only to their own interests.» — la consecuencia política de ese giro, en su lectura: ritos que refrendan el statu quo.
«Both thinkers emphasized the role of the unconscious, which they depicted as a state existing between the realm of sense perceptions and that of intellectual abstractions.» — el papel del inconsciente en Mir Dimad y Mulla Sadra, situado entre percepción sensible y abstracción intelectual.
«Our dreams are real; they tell us something; in our dreams we experience what is imaginary.» — la fórmula con que sostiene la realidad de lo imaginado en el sueño.
«Sadra’s mystical experiences convinced him that human beings could achieve perfection in this world.» — lo que las experiencias místicas convencieron a Mulla Sadra, según ella: la perfección alcanzable en este mundo.
«In his view, any religion that was based on such servile imitation (taqlid) was inherently “polluted.”» — la posición que atribuye a Mulla Sadra sobre el taqlid y la religión fundada en imitación servil.
«All Shiis were quite capable of understanding the traditions (akhbar) of the Prophets and the Imams, and could work out solutions for themselves, based on reason and the spiritual insights they derived from prayer and ritual.» — la capacidad que Mulla Sadra reconocía a todo chií para resolver por sí mismo desde la razón y la percepción espiritual.
«The mystical political leader of Mulla Sadra’s vision would have divine insight, but that did not mean that he could impose his own opinions and religious practice» — el límite que la doctrina de Mulla Sadra pone al jefe místico: visión divina sí, imposición de opiniones no.
«Mulla Sadra had thus proposed a new model of Shii leadership, which would have a profound impact upon Iranian politics in our own day.» — lo que adjudica a Mulla Sadra: un modelo nuevo de liderazgo chií con impacto en la política iraní de hoy.
«In the absence of the Hidden Imam, they argued, no jurist could have the last word and no precedent could be binding.» — el argumento usuli que consigna: sin el Imán Oculto, ningún jurista tiene la última palabra ni ningún precedente obliga.
«Indeed, they went so far as to say that the faithful should always follow the rulings of a living mujtahid rather than a revered authority of the past.» — el corolario extremo de esa posición: seguir a un mujtahid vivo antes que a una autoridad venerada del pasado.
«But in demanding that the faithful conform to their judgment, they had lost Mulla Sadra’s belief in the sacred freedom of the individual.» — lo que dice que perdieron los usulíes al exigir conformidad: la libertad sagrada del individuo de Mulla Sadra.
«The second major change of the period was the victory of the Usulis, achieved by the somewhat violent methods of the eminent scholar Vahid Bihbehani (1705–92), who defined the role of ijtihad with great clarity, and made its use obligatory for jurists.» — sobre Vahid Bihbehani y la victoria usulí, con el ijtihad definido y hecho obligatorio para los juristas.
«But Bihbehani’s victory, achieved by tyrannical means, was a religious defeat of sorts, since it was far removed from the behavior and ideals of the Imams.» — su balance sobre esa victoria: derrota religiosa de algún modo, por lo alejada de la conducta de los Imanes.
«But other aspects of the new Europe would be difficult for people shaped by the conservative ethos to accept.» — anticipa la dificultad de aceptación para quien viene del ethos conservador.
«Where the conservative spirit had taught men and women to remain within carefully defined limits, the new culture of Western Christendom showed that it was possible to venture beyond the confines of the known world and not only to survive but to prosper.» — el contraste que traza entre el espíritu conservador y la cultura nueva de la cristiandad occidental.
«This would ultimately make the old mythological religion impossible, and it would seem that Western modernity was inherently hostile to faith.» — su tesis sobre el efecto último de ese cambio: la religión mitológica antigua vuelta imposible y la modernidad occidental con apariencia de hostil a la fe. Nótese el modal it would seem.
«All these discoveries were characterized by a pragmatic, scientific spirit that slowly undermined the old conservative, mythical ethos and made an increasing number of people receptive to new ideas about God, religion, the state, the individual, and society.» — lo que atribuye al espíritu pragmático y científico: socavar el ethos mítico y conservador.
«This would not only have the pragmatic effect of eliminating disease; it would also divest these basic areas of life and death of much of their mythical content.» — el doble efecto que le adjudica al descubrimiento de los microorganismos: eliminar enfermedades y despojar de contenido mítico las zonas de la vida y la muerte.
«The application of mathematical and statistical techniques gave people an entirely new sense of the future: in the 1650s and 1660s, the word “probable” began to change its meaning.» — data en las décadas de 1650 y 1660 el cambio de sentido de probable.
«It would no longer mean that something was “supported by the authorities,” as in the conservative period, but “likely in view of all the evidence.”» — el cambio mismo: de sostenido por las autoridades a probable en vista de la evidencia.
«Instead of seeing the world as governed by fundamental and unalterable laws, Europeans were discovering that they could explore and manipulate nature to staggering effect.» — el desplazamiento que consigna: de un mundo regido por leyes inalterables a una naturaleza explorable y manipulable.
«But as people became accustomed to this rationalization of their lives, logos became ascendant and myth was discredited.» — su fórmula del vuelco: con la racionalización de la vida, el logos asciende y el mito queda desacreditado.
«They did not yet belong to the new world that was coming, but were still rooted in the old.» — su descripción de quienes quedaron a caballo entre los dos mundos.
«they cannot see the direction that their society is taking, but experience its slow transformation in incoherent ways.» — la opacidad que atribuye a quien vive por dentro esa transformación lenta.
«All three could be intransigent, however, about anybody who opposed their teaching: Luther believed that “heretical” books should be burned, and both Calvin and Zwingli were prepared to kill dissidents.» — consigna la intransigencia de Lutero, Calvino y Zuinglio con quien se opusiera a su enseñanza. Nótese el modal however.
«As we shall see, the new ethos demanded autonomy and total freedom, and that is what the Protestant reformers demanded for the Christians of this altered world, who must be free to read and interpret their Bibles as they chose, without the punitive control of the Church.» — lo que le adjudica al ethos nuevo y a la demanda de los reformadores protestantes: libertad de leer e interpretar la Biblia sin control punitivo de la Iglesia.
«Now the reformers declared that relics were idols, the Eucharist “only” a symbol, and the Mass no longer a cultic representation of the sacrifice of Calvary that made it mystically present, but a simple memorial.» — lo que declararon los reformadores sobre reliquias, Eucaristía y Misa, con el only entrecomillado por la propia obra.
«The reformers claimed to be returning, conservative-wise, to the primary source, the Bible, but they were reading Scripture in a modern way.» — su tesis sobre la Reforma: pretendían volver conservadoramente a la fuente y leían la Escritura de manera moderna.
«The reformed Christian was to stand alone before God, relying simply on his Bible, but this would not have been possible before the invention of printing had made it feasible for all Christians to have a Bible of their own and before the developing literacy of the period enabled them to read it.» — las condiciones materiales que pone a la lectura solitaria: imprenta y alfabetización.
«Silent, solitary reading would help to free Christians from traditional ways of interpretation and from the supervision of the religious experts.» — el efecto que le adjudica a la lectura silenciosa y solitaria: liberar de la interpretación tradicional y de la supervisión de los expertos.
«But while he emphasized the importance of faith, Luther rejected reason vehemently.» — consigna que Lutero, con toda su insistencia en la fe, rechazó con vehemencia la razón.
«In his writings—though not in Calvin’s—we can see that the old vision of the complementarity of reason and mythology was eroding.» — lo que ve erosionarse en Lutero y no en Calvino: la complementariedad antigua de razón y mitología.
«In his usual pugnacious way, Luther spoke of Aristotle with hatred, and loathed Erasmus, whom he regarded as the epitome of reason, which, he was convinced, could only lead to atheism.» — lo que Lutero decía de Aristóteles y de Erasmo, y su convicción de que la razón lleva al ateísmo. Es posición suya.
«Calvin saw no contradiction between science and scripture.» — el deslinde que atribuye a Calvino entre ciencia y Escritura.
«The Bible, he believed, was not imparting literal information about geography or cosmology, but was trying to express ineffable truth in terms that limited human beings could understand.» — lo que Calvino creía sobre la Biblia: no informa literalmente de geografía ni de cosmología, sino que expresa verdad inefable en términos humanos.
«Kepler felt himself possessed by “divine frenzy” as he revealed secrets that no human being had ever been privileged to learn before, and Galileo was convinced that his research had been inspired by divine grace.» — el frenesí divino que adjudica a Kepler y la convicción de Galileo de haber sido inspirado por la gracia.
«In his view, mythology and mystery were primitive and barbaric ways of thought.» — la posición que atribuye a Newton sobre mitología y misterio.
«Newton became almost obsessed with the desire to purge Christianity of its mythical doctrines.» — el afán de purgar el cristianismo de sus doctrinas míticas que le adjudica, con el modal casi obsesionado.
«Later generations had corrupted this pure faith; the spurious doctrines of the Incarnation and the Trinity had been added to the creed by unscrupulous theologians in the fourth century.» — lo que Newton sostenía sobre la corrupción posterior de la fe pura y sobre Encarnación y Trinidad como añadidos del siglo IV.
«He was unable to appreciate that the doctrine of the Trinity had been devised by the Greek Orthodox theologians of the fourth century precisely as mythos, similar to that later created» — su objeción a Newton: no supo ver que la Trinidad fue concebida por los teólogos griegos del siglo IV precisamente como mythos. El verbatim se corta en el borde de plana.
«Truth was never absolute, since new discoveries could always replace the old; it had to be demonstrated objectively, and measured by its effectiveness in the practical world.» — así describe la verdad del nuevo régimen: nunca absoluta, demostrable objetivamente y medida por su eficacia práctica.
«Bacon insisted that science alone was true.» — lo que Bacon insistía sobre la ciencia como única verdad.
«He believed that the only information upon which we could safely rely came from our five senses; anything else was pure fantasy.» — el criterio empirista que le atribuye: solo los cinco sentidos, y lo demás pura fantasía.
«Descartes was a devout Catholic; he wanted to satisfy himself about God’s existence, but refused to go back to the primordial, imaginary past of myth and cult.» — sobre Descartes: católico devoto que se negaba a volver al pasado imaginario del mito y del culto.
«This so-called proof is unlikely to satisfy a modern unbeliever, and it shows the impotence of pure reason when faced with such issues.» — su objeción a la prueba cartesiana y a la potencia de la razón pura ante esas cuestiones.
«But when we ask why the world exists (if it does!) or whether life has meaning, reason can make little headway, and the object of our thought itself can become strange to us.» — el límite que le pone a la razón ante el porqué del mundo y el sentido de la vida, con su propio paréntesis dubitativo intacto.
«The British philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) believed that there was a God, but for all practical purposes, God might just as well not exist.» — la posición que atribuye a Thomas Hobbes: hay Dios, y a efectos prácticos daría igual que no lo hubiera.
«For the French mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623–62), an intensely religious man, the emptiness and the “eternal silence” of the infinite universe opened up by modern science inspired pure dread:» — lo que el silencio eterno del universo infinito inspiraba a Blaise Pascal, en su lectura.
«He had no doubts about God’s existence, even though, strictly speaking, he was aware that proving the reality of a deity that lay beyond our sense experience did not pass Bacon’s empirical test.» — sobre John Locke: sin dudas de la existencia de Dios y consciente de que la prueba no pasaba el test empírico de Bacon.
«Christianity must be purged of the mysterious, the supernatural, and the miraculous.» — el programa deísta que consigna: purgar el cristianismo de lo misterioso, lo sobrenatural y lo milagroso.
«Revelation was unnecessary because it was quite possible for any human being to arrive at the truth by means of his or her unaided reasoning powers.» — el corolario deísta sobre la revelación vuelta innecesaria ante la razón sin ayuda.
«Kant argued that it was impossible to be certain that the order we think we discern in nature bore any relation at all to external reality.» — el argumento que atribuye a Kant sobre el orden que creemos discernir en la naturaleza.
«Kant was wholly confident of the mind’s capacity to devise a viable rational vision for itself, but by showing that it was really impossible for human beings to escape from their own psychology, he also made it clear that there was no such thing as absolute truth.» — lo que le adjudica a Kant haber dejado claro: sin escape de la propia psicología, no hay verdad absoluta.
«Kant believed that it was impossible to prove God’s existence, since the deity was beyond the reach of the senses and, therefore, inaccessible to the human mind.» — la posición kantiana sobre la imposibilidad de probar la existencia de Dios.
«Kant was deeply opposed to the idea of divine law, which, in his eyes, was a barbarous denial of human autonomy, and he could see no point in mysticism, prayer, or ritual.» — la oposición de Kant a la ley divina como negación bárbara de la autonomía humana, y su indiferencia ante mística, plegaria y rito.
«The Witch Craze has been described as a collective fantasy, shared by men, women, and their inquisitors throughout Christendom.» — recoge la descripción de la caza de brujas como fantasía colectiva compartida por hombres, mujeres e inquisidores.
«A separate, distant deity was an idolatry, Bauthumely argued in The Light and Dark Sides of God (1650); God had been incarnate in men other than Jesus and the divine existed in all things, even in sin.» — la doctrina de Bauthumely en The Light and Dark Sides of God: Dios encarnado en otros hombres además de Jesús y lo divino en todas las cosas, incluso en el pecado. Doctrina suya, no de la autora.
«For Clarkson in The Single Eye, sin was simply a human fantasy, and evil a revelation of God.» — la posición de Clarkson en The Single Eye: el pecado como fantasía humana y el mal como revelación de Dios.
«His disciple Anne Hutchinson (1590– 1643) claimed that she received personal revelations from God and felt no need to read her Bible or perform good works.» — lo que reclamaba Anne Hutchinson: revelaciones personales, sin necesidad de leer la Biblia ni de obras buenas.
«George Fox (1624–91), founder of the Society of Friends, preached an enlightenment that was not dissimilar to that later described by Kant.» — el paralelo que propone entre la iluminación predicada por George Fox y la que describiría Kant.
«Religion must, he believed, in this age of science, be “experimental,” verified not by an authoritative institution but by personal experience.» — el criterio de verificación que le atribuye: religión experimental, validada por experiencia personal y no por institución con autoridad.
«Like Kant, Wesley welcomed the emancipation of faith from reason, and declared that religion was not a doctrine in the head but a light in the heart.» — lo que atribuye a Wesley: emancipación de la fe respecto de la razón, y la religión como luz en el corazón y no doctrina en la cabeza.
«But the new tendency to sideline or even to jettison reason in some of the new Protestant movements (a development that can be traced back to Luther) led to a disturbing irrationality.» — su diagnóstico sobre el desplazamiento de la razón en los movimientos protestantes nuevos, con la genealogía que lo remonta a Lutero.
«Edwards showed the dangers of this type of emotionalism in his account of the Awakening.» — señala que el propio Edwards mostró los peligros de ese emocionalismo en su relato del Despertar.
«Edwards insisted that most people were calmer and more peaceful than before the Awakening, but his apologia shows how perilous it could be to imagine that religion is purely an affair of the heart.» — su lectura de la apología de Edwards: lo peligroso de imaginar la religión como asunto solo del corazón.
«Edwards was convinced that the Awakening was the work of God.» — la convicción de Edwards sobre el origen divino del Despertar.
«By means of such revivals, Edwards was convinced, Christians would establish God’s kingdom on earth; society would reflect the truth and justice of God himself.» — lo que Edwards esperaba de los avivamientos: el reino de Dios en la tierra y una sociedad que refleje su verdad y su justicia.
«Whitefield and Edwards both encouraged their congregations to see their own ecstatic faith as superior to that of the elite, who had not been born again and regarded the frenzy» — lo que Whitefield y Edwards alentaban en sus congregaciones: la fe extática propia como superior a la de la élite. El verbatim se corta en el borde de plana.
«The Awakening had been the first mass movement in American history; it gave the people a heady experience of taking part in earth-shattering events that would, they believed, change the course of history.» — su balance del Despertar como primer movimiento de masas de la historia estadounidense.
«Jonathan Mayhew was convinced that “great revolutions were at hand,” when a series of earthquakes occurred simultaneously in various parts of the world in November 1755; he looked forward to “some very remarkable changes in the political and religious state of the world.”» — lo que Jonathan Mayhew se convenció al ocurrir varios terremotos simultáneos en noviembre de 1755.
«It would, he believed, hasten the Second Coming of Christ by weakening the power of the Pope, who was Antichrist, the Great Pretender of the Last Days.» — la expectativa que le atribuye: apresurar la Segunda Venida debilitando al Papa, tenido por Anticristo.
«New Lights also saw America as fighting on the front line of a cosmic battle with the forces of evil during the Seven Years War.» — la lectura que hacían los New Lights de la Guerra de los Siete Años como batalla cósmica.
«They were rationalists, men of the Enlightenment, inspired by the modern ideals of John Locke, Scottish Common Sense philosophy, or Radical Whig ideology.» — así caracteriza a los padres fundadores: racionalistas de la Ilustración, con Locke, la filosofía escocesa del sentido común y la ideología whig radical.
«They certainly did not see themselves as fighting a cosmic war against the legions of Antichrist.» — la negativa que les atribuye: no se veían librando una guerra cósmica contra las legiones del Anticristo.
«Secularist and religious ideology blended creatively to enable the colonists, who had widely divergent hopes for America, to join forces against the imperial might of England.» — su tesis del mestizaje: ideología secularista y religiosa se mezclaron para juntar fuerzas contra Inglaterra.
«We shall find a similar alliance of religious and secularist idealism in the Islamic Revolution in Iran (1978–79), which was also a declaration of independence against an imperialist power.» — el paralelo que ella misma propone con la Revolución iraní de 1978-79, también declaración de independencia frente a una potencia imperial.
«Timothy Dwight (1752–1817), president of Yale University, spoke enthusiastically of the revolution ushering in “Immanuel’s Land,” and of America becoming “the principal seat of that new, that peculiar Kingdom which shall be given to the saints of the Most High.”» — lo que Timothy Dwight, rector de Yale, decía de la revolución y de América como sede principal de ese Reino peculiar.
«Thomas Paine was convinced that “we have it in our power to begin the world over again.» — la convicción que atribuye a Thomas Paine sobre empezar el mundo de nuevo.
«The rational pragmatism of the leaders would not itself have been sufficient to help people make the fearsome journey to an unknown future and break with the motherland.» — su tesis sobre el límite del pragmatismo racional de los líderes para hacer emprender el viaje al futuro desconocido.
«The enthusiasm, imagery, and mythology of Christian eschatology gave meaning to the revolutionary struggle and helped secularists and Calvinists alike to make the decisive, dislocating severance from tradition.» — lo que le adjudica a la escatología cristiana en ese trance: dar sentido a la lucha y permitir el corte con la tradición a secularistas y calvinistas por igual.
«In 1774, King George III became associated with the Antichrist when he granted religious freedom to the French Catholics in the Canadian territory conquered by England during the Seven Years War.» — la asociación del rey Jorge III con el Anticristo tras conceder libertad religiosa a los católicos franceses del Canadá.
«Thomas Jefferson disestablished the Anglican church in Virginia; his bill declared that coercion in matters of faith was “sinfull and tyrannical,” that truth would prevail if people were allowed their own opinions, and that there should be a “wall of separation” between religion and politics.» — lo que declaraba el proyecto de Jefferson sobre la coacción en materia de fe y el muro de separación entre religión y política.
«In 1787, when the federal Constitution was drafted at the Philadelphia Convention, God was not mentioned at all, and in the Bill of Rights (1789), the First Amendment of the Constitution formally separated religion from the state: “Congress shall make no laws respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”» — consigna que Dios no se menciona en la Constitución federal de 1787 y cita la Primera Enmienda.
«There was idealism in the Founders’ decision to disestablish religion and to secularize politics, but the new nation could not base its identity on any one sectarian option and retain the loyalty of all its subjects.» — su lectura del cálculo detrás de la separación: sin ella, la nación nueva no habría retenido la lealtad de todos sus súbditos.
«Paradoxically, however, by the middle of the nineteenth century the new secularist United States had become a passionately Christian nation.» — la paradoja que enuncia: a mediados del siglo XIX, los Estados Unidos secularistas se habían vuelto una nación apasionadamente cristiana.
«They now sacralized American independence: the new republic, they argued, was God’s achievement.» — el argumento que atribuye a ese clero: la república nueva como logro de Dios.
«Churchmen saw “deism” as the new satanic foe, making it the scapegoat for all the inevitable failures of the infant nation.» — el enemigo satánico que el clero puso en lugar del anterior, y su función de chivo expiatorio.
«Deism, they insisted, would promote atheism and materialism; it worshipped Nature and Reason instead of Jesus Christ.» — lo que se le imputaba al deísmo: ateísmo, materialismo, culto a la Naturaleza y a la Razón en lugar de Cristo.
«Americans still revere their Constitution and venerate the Founding Fathers, but they also see America as “God’s own nation”;» — su descripción de la doble reverencia estadounidense, a la Constitución y a la nación como propiedad de Dios.
«The people as a whole had still to decide the terms on which they were to enter the modern world, and many of the less privileged colonists were prepared to contest the cultural hegemony of the aristocratic Enlightenment elite.» — el pleito cultural que sitúa tras la revolución: los colonos menos privilegiados dispuestos a disputar la hegemonía de la élite ilustrada.
«Thomas Paine, and like a true modernist, he urged the people to throw off the shackles of superstition and ignorance, cast off the authority of the learned establishment, and think for themselves.» — lo que urgía Thomas Paine, y con él los predicadores populares: sacudirse superstición, ignorancia y autoridad de los doctos, y pensar por cuenta propia.
«When Barton Stone broke with the Presbyterians, he called his secession a “declaration of independence.”» — Barton Stone llamó declaración de independencia a su escisión de los presbiterianos.
«Still more radical was Joseph Smith (1805–44), who was not content to read the Bible, but claimed to have discovered an entirely new scripture.» — sobre Joseph Smith: no le bastó leer la Biblia y declaró haber hallado una escritura entera nueva.
«The Book of Mormon was one of the most eloquent of all nineteenth-century social protests, and mounted a fierce denunciation of the rich, the powerful, and the learned.» — su lectura del Libro de Mormón como protesta social, con denuncia de ricos, poderosos y doctos.
«The establishment looked with disdain upon Dow, Stone, and Joseph Smith, regarding them as mindless demagogues who had nothing to offer the modern world.» — el desdén del establishment hacia Dow, Stone y Joseph Smith, tenidos por demagogos sin nada que ofrecer.
«But they were wrong to dismiss them.» — su objeción a ese desdén, en cuatro palabras.
«Men such as Dow or Joseph Smith have been described as folk geniuses.» — la calificación de genios populares que recoge para hombres como Dow o Joseph Smith.
«These new prophets demanded recognition, and, though they were reviled by the established elite, their reception by the people showed that they answered a real need.» — lo que le adjudica a la recepción popular de esos profetas nuevos: respondían a una necesidad real.
«But this radical Christian rebellion against the scientific rationalism of the Enlightenment had a still more profound effect.» — sitúa esa rebelión cristiana contra el racionalismo científico ilustrado como la de efecto más hondo.
«The Second Great Awakening managed to lead many Americans away from the classical republicanism of the Founders to the more vulgar democracy and rugged individualism that characterize much American culture today.» — el desplazamiento que atribuye al Segundo Gran Despertar: del republicanismo clásico de los fundadores a una democracia más vulgar y al individualismo áspero.
«Miller was treating the mythos of Scripture as though it were logos, and he and his assistant Joshua Hines constantly stressed the systematic and scientific nature of Miller’s investigations.» — la formulación central sobre William Miller: trataba el mythos de la Escritura como si fuera logos, subrayando lo sistemático y científico de sus cálculos.
«The movement was also democratic: anybody could interpret the Bible for him or herself, and Miller encouraged his followers to challenge his calculations and come up with theories of their own.» — el rasgo democrático que le atribuye: cualquiera podía interpretar la Biblia y Miller alentaba a discutirle las cuentas.
«Inevitably, however, Millerism turned into an object lesson in the danger of interpreting the mythos of the Bible literally.» — lo que hace del millerismo, en su lectura, una lección sobre el peligro de leer literalmente el mythos bíblico.
«Nonetheless, this failure did not mean the end of millennialism, which became and has continued to be a major passion in the United States.» — niega que el fracaso acabara con el milenarismo, y lo da por pasión mayor y continuada en los Estados Unidos.
«Out of the “Great Disappointment” of 1843, other sects, such as the Seventh-Day Adventists, appeared, adjusted the eschatological timetable, and, by eschewing precise predictions, enabled new generations of Americans to look forward to an imminent End of history.» — lo que salió del Gran Desengaño de 1843: sectas que ajustaron el calendario escatológico y evitaron predicciones precisas.
«He thus helped to make this “evangelical” Christianity, based on a literal reading of the Gospels and intent on converting the secular nation to Christ, the dominant faith of the United States by the middle of the nineteenth century.» — lo que atribuye a Charles Finney: hacer dominante un cristianismo evangélico basado en lectura literal de los Evangelios.
«Finney used the uncouth, wild methods of the older prophets, but addressed lawyers, doctors, and merchants, urging them to experience Christ directly, without the mediation of the establishment, to think for themselves and rebel against the hegemony of the learned theologians in the denominations.» — los métodos que le adjudica con públicos de abogados, médicos y comerciantes: Cristo sin mediación y rebeldía contra los teólogos doctos.
«In Hegel’s The Phenomenology of Mind (1807), the universal Spirit could only achieve its full potential if it immersed itself in the limiting conditions of space and time; it was most fully realized in the human mind.» — así resume la Fenomenología del espíritu de Hegel sobre el Espíritu universal y las condiciones de espacio y tiempo.
«But above all, Hegel’s myth expressed the forward-thrusting dynamic of modernity.» — lo que ella misma llama el mito de Hegel, y el dinamismo moderno que expresa.
«Instead of the old conservative conviction that everything had already been said, Hegel envisaged a dialectical process in which human beings were constantly engaged in the destruction of past ideas that had once been sacred and incontrovertible.» — el contraste que traza entre la convicción conservadora de que ya todo estaba dicho y la destrucción dialéctica de ideas antes sagradas.
«By setting up God as the antithesis of humanity, Hegel’s pupil Ludwig Feuerbach (1804–72) argued, religion was bringing about “the disuniting of man from himself.… God is perfect, man imperfect; God eternal, man temporal; God almighty, man weak.”» — el argumento de Ludwig Feuerbach contra Hegel sobre la religión como desunión del hombre consigo mismo, con su serie de oposiciones.
«Instead of collecting facts, as Bacon had prescribed, Darwin put forward a hypothesis: animals, plants, and human beings had not been created fully formed (as the Bible implied), but had developed slowly in a long period of evolutionary adaptation to their environment.» — su lectura del método de Darwin: en vez de reunir hechos como prescribía Bacon, propuso una hipótesis.
«Darwin’s name has become a byword for atheism in fundamentalist circles, yet the Origin was not intended as an attack upon religion, but was a sober, careful exposition of a scientific theory.» — su objeción al uso fundamentalista del nombre de Darwin: el Origen no se dirigía contra la religión.
«They argued that the first five books of the Bible, traditionally attributed to Moses, were in fact written much later and by a number of different authors; the book of Isaiah had at least two different sources, and King David had probably not written the Psalms.» — los resultados de la crítica alemana que consigna: el Pentateuco tardío y de varios autores, dos fuentes al menos en Isaías, los Salmos probablemente no de David.
«Most of the miracles described in the Bible were simply literary tropes and could not be understood literally;» — sobre los milagros bíblicos como tropos literarios no entendibles literalmente. El verbatim se corta en el borde de plana.
«The new “Higher Criticism” represented the triumph of the rational discourse of logos over myth.» — su fórmula sobre la Alta Crítica como triunfo del discurso racional del logos sobre el mito.
«Rational science had subjected the mythoi of the Bible to radical scrutiny and found that some of its claims were “false.”» — lo que la ciencia racional halló al escrutar los mythoi de la Biblia, con el falso entrecomillado por la propia obra.
«The Higher Criticism would become a bogey of Christian fundamentalists, because it seemed a major assault upon religion, but this was only because Western people had lost the original sense of the mythical, and thought that doctrines and scriptural narratives were logoi, narratives that purported to be factually accurate and phenomena that could be investigated scientifically.» — su explicación de por qué la Alta Crítica se volvió coco de los fundamentalistas cristianos: los occidentales habían perdido el sentido de lo mítico y tomaban doctrinas y relatos por logoi.
«But in revealing how impossible it was to read the Bible in an entirely literal manner, the Higher Criticism could also have provided a healthy counterbalance to the growing tendency to make modern Christian faith “scientific.”» — la oportunidad perdida que le adjudica: contrapeso frente a la tendencia a volver científica la fe cristiana.
«Reason alone was truthful, and the myths of religion truthless.» — la posición que atribuye a Huxley: solo la razón dice verdad, y los mitos de la religión ninguna.
«Without myth, cult, ritual, and prayer, the sense of the sacred inevitably dies.» — su regla sobre lo que ocurre sin mito, culto, rito ni plegaria.
«Kant and Hegel both saw Judaism as a servile, degraded faith, utterly opposed to the rational,» — la lectura de Kant y de Hegel sobre el judaísmo como fe servil y degradada. El verbatim se corta en el borde de plana.
«while Karl Marx, himself of Jewish descent, argued that the Jews were responsible for capitalism, which, in his view, was the source of all the world’s ills.» — lo que Karl Marx, de ascendencia judía, argumentaba sobre la responsabilidad judía en el capitalismo.
«IF MODERNIZATION was difficult for the Christians of Europe and America, it was even more problematic for Jews and Muslims.» — su tesis comparativa: la modernización fue más problemática para judíos y musulmanes que para los cristianos.
«Muslims experienced modernity as an alien, invasive force, inextricably associated with colonization and foreign domination.» — cómo dice que los musulmanes vivieron la modernidad: fuerza ajena e invasora, unida a colonización y dominación extranjera.
«The Besht declared that prayer must take precedence over the study of Torah, a revolutionary step.» — lo que declaró el Besht sobre la primacía de la plegaria frente al estudio de la Torá, y que ella llama paso revolucionario.
«The Besht completely transformed this Hasidism, which sought to wrest control from the corrupt rabbis and to attend to the spiritual needs of the people.» — lo que le adjudica al Besht respecto del jasidismo anterior y de los rabinos corruptos.
«Hasidism denied the separations of modernity—of religion from politics, the sacred from the profane—and adopted a holistic vision that saw holiness everywhere.» — las separaciones modernas que el jasidismo negaba, y la visión holista que ella le atribuye.
«The Gaon was appalled by the Hasidic movement, especially its denigration of Torah study, which was his chief passion.» — lo que horrorizaba al Gaón del movimiento jasídico, sobre todo el desprecio del estudio de la Torá.
«His scholarship, however, was very different from the casuistic studies of the corrupt Polish rabbis, and had a deeply mystical cast.» — su matiz sobre la erudición del Gaón: distinta de la casuística de los rabinos polacos y de sesgo hondamente místico.
«The Gaon’s supporters, whom the Hasidim called Misnagdim (“opponents”), would sometimes observe the rites of mourning when one of their number became a Hasid, as though he had died; the Hasidim, for their part, did not regard the Misnagdim as proper Jews.» — los ritos de duelo de los Misnagdim por quien se hacía jasid, y el desconocimiento mutuo de la condición de judío.
«Zalman was not opposed to reason, but was simply making the old conservative point that rational thinking was not the sole mode of perception; reason and mystical intuition should work hand-in-hand.» — lo que Zalman sostenía sobre razón e intuición mística trabajando de la mano, que ella llama el viejo argumento conservador.
«When Jews engaged in rational speculation and in the study of modern secular subjects, Zalman argued, they became aware of the limitations of their minds and would seek to transcend them by means of ecstatic prayer.» — el movimiento que Zalman atribuía al estudio secular: advertir el límite de la mente y buscar trascenderlo por la plegaria extática.
«He believed that our rational powers alone were incapable of finding God; if we relied only upon our senses—as the scientists and philosophers bade us do—the world did indeed seem empty of the divine.» — lo que Zalman creía sobre la incapacidad de las solas potencias racionales para hallar a Dios.
«Zalman was also open to some of the Enlightenment ideals, which he tried to accommodate within a mystical framework.» — consigna la apertura de Zalman a ideales ilustrados dentro de un marco místico.
«Mendelssohn insisted that Judaism was a rational faith that was eminently suited to the temper of the times; its doctrines were based on reason.» — lo que insistía Mendelssohn: el judaísmo como fe racional, con doctrinas fundadas en la razón.
«He was reviled as a new Spinoza, a heretic who had abandoned the faith and gone over to the gentiles.» — el mote con que se vilipendió a Mendelssohn, un Spinoza nuevo, y la acusación de haber pasado a los gentiles.
«Yet this would have grieved Mendelssohn; while he clearly found much of traditional Judaism incredible and alien, he did not want to abandon the Jewish God or his Jewish identity.» — su matiz sobre Mendelssohn: hallaba increíble y ajeno mucho del judaísmo tradicional y no quería abandonar ni a su Dios ni su identidad judía.
«Mendelssohn was one of the first to devise a way out of the ghetto into modern Europe that did not oblige Jews to reject their people and their own cultural heritage.» — lo que le adjudica como primicia: una salida del gueto que no obligaba a rechazar pueblo ni herencia cultural.
«They were trying to find a modern way of being Jewish, to shed what they regarded as the superstitions of the past and to make Judaism acceptable to enlightened society.» — lo que buscaban los maskilim, en su lectura: un modo moderno de ser judío, sin lo que tenían por supersticiones.
«Rabbis declared that the French Revolution was the “second law from Mount Sinai,” “our exodus from Egypt, our modern Pesach”; “the Messianic age has arrived with this new society of liberté, egalité, fraternité.”» — lo que declararon algunos rabinos sobre la Revolución francesa como segunda ley del Sinaí y llegada de la era mesiánica. Es adjudicación de ellos.
«As the American historian Norman Cantor points out, Napoleon offered the Jews a “Faustian bargain”: they had to sell their unique Jewish soul in exchange for emancipation.» — recoge del historiador estadounidense Norman Cantor el pacto fáustico que Napoleón habría ofrecido a los judíos.
«For all its inspiring talk about liberté, the modern, centralized state was unable to tolerate autonomous anomalies such as the ghetto.» — su objeción al Estado moderno centralizado: incapaz de tolerar anomalías autónomas como el gueto, pese a su retórica de libertad.
«They must become assimilated, bourgeois Frenchmen, abandon their separate way of life, and privatize their religion: Jews as Jews had to vanish.» — el precio de la emancipación tal como ella lo formula: los judíos en cuanto judíos tenían que desaparecer.
«Russia, however, where governments used more coercive methods of abolishing Jewish separatism, millions of Jews were alienated from the modern state and clung defiantly to rabbinic and Hasidic traditions.» — el efecto contrario que atribuye a los métodos coercitivos rusos: millones de judíos aferrados a las tradiciones rabínicas y jasídicas.
«Reformers were willing—indeed, eager—to make a radical break with the past and to jettison traditional doctrines and devotions.» — la disposición que atribuye a los reformadores: ruptura radical con el pasado y descarte de doctrinas y devociones tradicionales.
«Judaism, they argued, was not a faith that had been revealed once and for all in the past; it had evolved slowly, becoming ever more rational and self-conscious in the process.» — el argumento reformista sobre un judaísmo evolutivo y no revelado de una vez por todas.
«Krochmal and Frankel agreed with traditionalists, for example, that the Torah had been revealed to Moses all at once on Mount Sinai, but enraged them by denying the divine origin of the Halakhah,» — el punto en que Krochmal y Frankel coincidían con los tradicionalistas y aquel en que los enfurecían: el origen divino de la Halajá.
«Frankel argued that the Halakhah was entirely man-made, the product of reason, and that it could, therefore, be changed to meet the needs of the age.» — la posición de Frankel: la Halajá enteramente humana, producto de la razón y por eso mudable.
«Krochmal argued that Jewish history showed that Judaism had always borrowed ideas from other cultures; this was how it had managed to survive.» — el argumento histórico de Krochmal sobre el préstamo de ideas ajenas como método de supervivencia del judaísmo.
«Geiger believed that Mendelssohn had inaugurated a new Jewish era; Reform Judaism would liberate the faith by giving it a healthy injection of enlightenment philosophy.» — lo que Geiger creía sobre Mendelssohn y sobre la inyección de filosofía ilustrada en la fe.
«Frankel and Zunz both believed that there was great danger in such wholesale abolition of tradition.» — la reserva de Frankel y de Zunz ante la abolición al por mayor de la tradición.
«Some change was certainly necessary, but the Reformers often seemed insensitive to the role of emotion in worship.» — su propia objeción a los reformadores, con el modal often: insensibles al papel de la emoción en el culto.
«gentile studies were, they believed, incompatible with Judaism.» — lo que creían los tradicionalistas sobre la incompatibilidad entre estudios gentiles y judaísmo.
«Fundamentalism—whether Jewish, Christian, or Muslim—rarely arises as a battle with an external enemy (in the case of Volozhin, this external enemy would have been gentile European culture); it usually begins, instead, as an internal struggle in which traditionalists fight their own coreligionists who, they believe, are making too many concessions to the secular world.» — su tesis general sobre el fundamentalismo en las tres religiones: rara vez empieza contra un enemigo externo y suele empezar como pleito interno contra los propios correligionarios. Nótese los modales rarely y usually.
«This retreat, however, has within it the potential for a future counteroffensive.» — lo que ve latente en ese repliegue: la potencia de una contraofensiva futura.
«The principal purpose of the Volozhin and its sister yeshivot was not, however, to do battle with the secular culture of Europe but to guard the souls of its young men by steeping them in the traditions of the old world.» — el fin que atribuye a Volozhin y a sus yeshivot hermanas: guardar las almas de sus jóvenes, no batallar con la cultura secular europea.
«Even when fundamentalists set their faces against modernity, their faith is, to an extent, modern and innovative.» — una de sus tesis vertebrales: la fe fundamentalista es en cierta medida moderna e innovadora aunque se plante contra la modernidad.
«As Hirsch pointed out, it was only in the ghetto that Jews had neglected the study of philosophy, medicine, and mathematics.» — lo que señalaba Hirsch: solo en el gueto habían desatendido los judíos filosofía, medicina y matemáticas.
«Judaism, Hirsch was convinced, had nothing to fear from contact with other cultures.» — la convicción de Hirsch sobre el contacto del judaísmo con otras culturas.
«His career shows, yet again, the voluntary nature of religious orthodoxy in the modern world.» — lo que le adjudica a la carrera de Hirsch: el carácter voluntario de la ortodoxia religiosa en el mundo moderno.
«Napoleon’s invasion was the beginning of the Western control of the Middle East, which has indeed been a reversal, causing the people to revise many of their most fundamental beliefs and expectations.» — su lectura de la invasión napoleónica de Egipto como inicio del control occidental de Oriente Medio y de una revisión de creencias y expectativas fundamentales.
«It seems that in order to bring a people into the modern world, a leader must be prepared to wade through blood.» — una de sus generalizaciones de trazo ancho, con el modal it seems: quien mete a un pueblo en el mundo moderno debe estar dispuesto a vadear sangre.
«In the absence of stable, democratic institutions, violence may be the only way to achieve strong government.» — su corolario, con el modal may: sin instituciones estables y democráticas, la violencia acaso sea la única vía a un gobierno fuerte.
«But the only way Muhammad Ali could make himself master of Egypt and independent of Europe was by absolute despotic control.» — el precio que adjudica a la independencia de Muhammad Ali frente a Europa: control despótico absoluto.
«The only way that Muhammad Ali could make Egypt a modern state was not by innovation (as in Europe) but by imitation of the West.» — el contraste con Europa que sostiene: no innovación, sino imitación de Occidente.
«As a result, army officers would often become the natural leaders and rulers, and modernity would acquire a military emphasis that was different—again—from that of the West.» — el sesgo militar que atribuye a esa modernidad, distinto una vez más del occidental.
«Two societies—one, consisting only of the military and administrative personnel, modernized, and the other unmodernized—operating on entirely different norms, were gradually emerging in modern Egypt.» — las dos sociedades con normas enteramente distintas que ve emergiendo en el Egipto moderno.
«Since opposition had become impossible, the ulema turned their backs on change, entrenching themselves in their scholarly traditions.» — lo que hicieron los ulema al volverse imposible la oposición: dar la espalda al cambio y atrincherarse en sus tradiciones eruditas.
«They did not regard modernity as an intellectual challenge but experienced it instead as a series of odious and destructive regulations, as theft of their power and wealth, and as an agonizing loss of prestige and influence.» — cómo dice que vivieron la modernidad: no como reto intelectual, sino como reglamentos odiosos, robo de poder y pérdida de prestigio.
«Muhammad Ali had severed that relationship and abruptly inaugurated a new secularism.» — el corte que atribuye a Muhammad Ali: rota la sociedad entre ulema y élite gobernante, inaugurado de golpe un secularismo nuevo.
«It had no ideological backing but had been imposed as a political fait accompli.» — lo que le faltaba a ese secularismo, en su lectura: respaldo ideológico; se impuso como hecho consumado político.
«For most Egyptians, however, secularization remained alien, foreign, and incomprehensible.» — lo que la secularización siguió siendo para la mayoría de los egipcios.
«He had the modern vision of autonomy, but all he achieved was a crippling dependency and, eventually, occupation by a European power.» — el desenlace que adjudica a la visión moderna de autonomía de Ismail: dependencia lisiante y ocupación europea.
«Ismail had dreamed of making Egypt part of Europe; he managed only to make it a virtual European colony.» — la fórmula con que cierra el caso de Ismail y su sueño europeo.
«It was not surprising that these men, with their very limited experience of Europe, were slow to grasp that a few military and technological reforms would not suffice to make them a “modern” nation.» — su exculpación parcial, con el modal not surprising: con experiencia europea muy limitada, tardaron en captar que unas reformas militares y técnicas no bastaban.
«The buildings of the new Cairo, built by Muhammad Ali and Ismail, represented an architecture of domination.» — su lectura del Cairo nuevo de Muhammad Ali e Ismail como arquitectura de dominación.
«Cairo “was not passing through the same stages of a unilinear sequence of development that Europe had already passed through on the way to capitalism.”» — recoge del antropólogo británico Michael Gilsenan que El Cairo no atravesaba las mismas etapas de una secuencia unilineal recorrida ya por Europa. La adjudicación es de él.
«The whole experience of modernization was crucially different in the Middle East: it was not one of empowerment, autonomy, and innovation, as it had been in Europe, but a process of deprivation, dependence, and patchy, imperfect imitation.» — su tesis comparativa sobre la modernización en Oriente Medio: privación, dependencia e imitación imperfecta en lugar de habilitación, autonomía e innovación.
«As Gilsenan points out, tourists, colonialists, and travelers have often found Oriental cities confusing and even frightening: the unnamed and unnumbered streets and twisting passages seem to have no order or orientation; Westerners get lost and can make no sense of their surroundings.» — lo que Gilsenan señala sobre el desconcierto de turistas, colonos y viajeros ante las ciudades orientales.
«Egyptians were thus forced to live in a dual world: one modern and Western, the other traditional.» — el mundo doble en que dice que quedaron obligados a vivir los egipcios.
«The Europeans presented themselves to the Iranians as the bearers of progress and civilization, but in fact both Britain and Russia promoted only those developments that furthered their own interests, and both blocked the introduction of such innovations as the railway, which could have benefited the Iranian people, lest it endanger their own strategic plans.» — su objeción a la autopresentación europea como portadora de progreso y civilización, con el bloqueo del ferrocarril como caso.
«But it is also fair to say that modernization would be much harder to achieve in Iran than in Egypt.» — su propia concesión sobre lo mucho más difícil que resultaba modernizar Irán que Egipto.
«When Sheikh Murtada Ansari became in effect the first mujtahid to be recognized as the sole and supreme “model for emulation” (marja-e taqlid), the deputyin-chief of the Hidden Imam, he was preferred to another, more learned candidate who had on his own admission become “involved with the affairs of the people,” acting as a legal adviser in commercial and personal matters to the merchants and pilgrims to the shrines.» — el caso de Sheikh Murtada Ansari, primer mujtahid reconocido como marja-e taqlid y adjunto en jefe del Imán Oculto, preferido a un candidato más docto pero metido en asuntos de la gente.
«The implication was that the supreme judge of the faithful should be a scholar, not a man of affairs.» — lo que ella lee en esa preferencia: el juez supremo de los fieles debe ser un erudito y no un hombre de negocios.
«During the second half of the nineteenth century, the ulema gave the merchants intellectual backing for their objections to foreign penetration: Iran, they argued, would no longer be an Islamic country if the shahs continued to give so much power to the infidels.» — el argumento con que los ulema respaldaron a los mercaderes: Irán dejaría de ser país islámico si los shas seguían dando poder a los infieles.
«They had their own rawda-khans, who recited the epic accounts of the Kerbala tragedy every day; they built a royal stage in Tehran for the performance of the annual passion play (taziyeh) commemorating Husain’s death, which took place on five consecutive nights during the sacred month of Muharram in the great court of the royal palace.» — los rawda-khans de la corte y el escenario real de Teherán para el taziyeh de las cinco noches de Muharram.
«Besides linking the monarchy with Husain and Kerbala, and thus helping to legitimate Qajar rule, they also served as a safety valve, giving the masses an outlet for their frustration and discontent.» — la doble función que atribuye a esos ritos: legitimar el gobierno qajar y servir de válvula de escape.
«While the actors expressed their horror and sorrow through the text, it was—and remains—the task of the audience to provide the explicit and violent expressions of grief, completing an essential part of the drama.» — el reparto de papeles que consigna entre actores y público en el drama de Kerbala.
«To this day, the American scholar William Beeman explains, the audience are taught to weep for their sins and their own troubles, and to remind themselves of Husain’s even greater suffering.» — recoge del estudioso estadounidense William Beeman lo que se enseña al público: llorar por los propios pecados y recordar el sufrimiento mayor de Husain.
«But these personal memories lead them to an emotional apprehension of the problem of evil: why do the good suffer and the wicked seem to prevail?» — adónde llevan esos recuerdos personales, en su lectura: a una aprehensión emocional del problema del mal.
«This popular faith was clearly very different from the legalistic, rationalistic Shiism of the mujtahids.» — el deslinde que traza entre esa fe popular y el chiismo legalista y racionalista de los mujtahids.
«Humanity was constantly changing and evolving, so that each prophet superseded the last.» — la doctrina shaykhí de una humanidad que cambia sin cesar y de un profeta que supera al anterior.
«The Shaykhi movement was, however, rooted in the old world, with its elitist vision of knowledge.» — su matiz sobre el movimiento shaykhí: arraigado en el mundo antiguo, con visión elitista del conocimiento.
«His mystical ideology can be seen as an attempt to open the minds of Iranians to a wholly new solution, but, for better or worse, the Western presence in Iran was a fact of life and no reform movement that was unable to accommodate it could succeed.» — su lectura de esa ideología mística como intento de abrir las mentes iraníes, con el juicio de que ningún reformismo que no acomodara la presencia occidental podía triunfar.
«Its founder, Sayyid Ali Muhammad (1819–50), had been involved in the Shaykhi movement in Najaf and Kerbala, but in 1844 he declared that he was the “gate” (bab) to the divine which the ulema declared to have been closed at the time of the Occultation of the Hidden Imam.» — lo que declaró en 1844 Sayyid Ali Muhammad: ser el bab, la puerta a lo divino que los ulema daban por cerrada desde la Ocultación.
«When the Bab made the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca that year, he stood beside the Kabah and declared that he was the incarnation of the Hidden Imam.» — lo que declaró el Bab junto a la Kaaba: ser la encarnación del Imán Oculto.
«But, as with Shabbetai, there ensued a shocking anticlimax.» — el paralelo que ella misma traza con Shabbetai: un anticlímax chocante.
«The court sent the Bab back to prison, gravely underestimating the threat he posed to the regime, for by this time, the Babi movement was no longer simply a call for moral and religious reform; it had become a demand for a new sociopolitical order.» — el giro que atribuye al movimiento babí: de llamada a la reforma moral y religiosa a demanda de un orden sociopolítico nuevo.
«The charismatic woman preacher Qurrat al-Ain removed her veil as a symbol of the end of female subjection and the end of the old Muslim era.» — el gesto de la predicadora Qurrat al-Ain al quitarse el velo, y lo que simbolizaba.
«They must feel free to reject the laws of the Shariah if they chose.» — la libertad que reclamaban los babíes frente a las leyes de la Shariah.
«The Babi rebellion can be seen as one of the great revolutions of modernity.» — su calificación de la rebelión babí como una de las grandes revoluciones de la modernidad.
«Yet again, the Babi revolution had shown that religion could help people to appropriate the ideals and enthusiasms of modernity, by translating them from an alien secular idiom into a language, mythology, and spirituality that they could understand and make their own.» — lo que la revolución babí le muestra: la religión traduciendo ideales modernos de un idioma secular ajeno a una mitología propia y apropiable.
«If modernity had proved difficult for the Christians of the West, it was even more problematic for Jews and Muslims.» — repite su tesis comparativa sobre lo más problemática que resultó la modernidad para judíos y musulmanes.
«It required a struggle—in Islamic terms, a jihad, which might sometimes become a holy war.» — el término islámico con que nombra esa lucha, con el modal might sometimes puesto por ella sobre la guerra santa.
«The Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) would discover that human beings were as strongly motivated by a death wish as by a desire for eros and procreation.» — lo que Sigmund Freud vino a hallar sobre el deseo de muerte a la par del eros, en su resumen.
«But the dream of universal brotherhood that had sustained Enlightenment thinkers was proving to be a chimera.» — su balance sobre el sueño ilustrado de fraternidad universal.
«The British critic George Steiner notes the curious school of painting that developed during the 1830s, which could be seen as a “counter-dream of modernity.”» — recoge del crítico británico George Steiner la escuela de pintura de los años treinta del XIX como contrasueño de la modernidad.
«The British writer I. F. Clarke has shown that between 1871 and 1914 it was unusual to find a single year in which a novel or short story describing a horrific future war did not appear in some European country.» — recoge del escritor británico I. F. Clarke el dato de la ficción europea de guerra futura entre 1871 y 1914.
«At the very end of the nineteenth century, however, British novelist H. G. Wells punctured this utopian dream in The War of the Worlds (1898) and showed where it was leading.» — lo que atribuye a H. G. Wells en La guerra de los mundos respecto de ese sueño utópico.
«Despite the achievements of modernity, there was a nihilistic death wish, as the nations of Europe cultivated a perverse fantasy of self-destruction.» — su diagnóstico del fin de siglo europeo: un deseo nihilista de muerte y una fantasía perversa de autodestrucción.
«Preachers spoke of an approaching Armageddon, of a battle between light and darkness, liberty and slavery.» — lo que predicaban los púlpitos: un Armagedón próximo, batalla entre luz y tinieblas, libertad y esclavitud.
«The new premillennialism was preached in America by the Englishman John Nelson Darby (1800–82), who found few followers in Britain but toured the United States to great acclaim six times between 1859 and 1877.» — sobre John Nelson Darby y la difusión del premilenarismo nuevo en los Estados Unidos, con pocos seguidores en Gran Bretaña.
«His vision could see nothing good in the modern world, which was hurtling toward destruction.» — la visión que le atribuye a Darby sobre el mundo moderno.
«Darby divided the whole of salvation history into seven epochs or “dispensations,” a scheme derived from a careful reading of scripture.» — el esquema de siete dispensaciones que atribuye a Darby, derivado de una lectura cuidadosa de la Escritura.
«Human beings were currently living in the sixth, or penultimate, dispensation, which God would shortly bring to an end in an unprecedentedly terrible disaster.» — sitúa a la humanidad, en ese esquema, en la sexta dispensación, a punto de acabar en un desastre sin precedentes.
«Antichrist, the false redeemer whose coming before the End had been predicted by St. Paul,9 would deceive the world with his false allure, take everybody in, and then inflict a period of Tribulation upon humanity.» — la figura del Anticristo en esa doctrina, con la predicción paulina en que dice que se apoya.
«For seven years, Antichrist would wage war, massacre untold numbers of people, and persecute all opposition, but eventually Christ would descend to earth, defeat Antichrist, engage in a final battle with Satan and the forces of evil on the plain of Armageddon outside Jerusalem, and inaugurate the Seventh Dispensation.» — el guion completo de la Tribulación, Armagedón y Séptima Dispensación tal como lo expone.
«Despite its dream of divine redemption and millennial bliss, it was a nihilistic vision expressive of the modern death wish.» — su juicio sobre esa visión: nihilista y expresiva del deseo moderno de muerte, pese a su sueño de redención.
«On the basis of a chance remark of St. Paul’s, who believed that Christians alive at the time of Christ’s Second Coming would be “taken up in the clouds … to meet the Lord in the air,”10 Darby maintained that just before the beginning of the Tribulation, there would be a “Rapture,” a snatching-up of born-again Christians, who would be taken up to heaven and so would escape the terrible sufferings of the Last Days.» — el Rapto que Darby sostuvo, y la observación de la propia obra sobre la base textual: un dicho ocasional de san Pablo.
«Premillennialism was a fantasy of revenge: the elect imagined themselves gazing down upon the sufferings of those who had jeered at their beliefs, ignored, ridiculed, and marginalized their faith, and now, too late, realized their error.» — así llama al premilenarismo: fantasía de venganza, con los elegidos mirando desde arriba el sufrimiento de quienes se burlaron.
«Ironically, premillennialism had more in common with the secular philosophies it despised than with true religious mythology.» — su objeción de fondo: el premilenarismo tenía más en común con las filosofías seculares que despreciaba que con la mitología religiosa verdadera.
«Scripture meant exactly what it said: a millennium meant ten centuries; 485 years meant precisely that; if the prophets spoke of “Israel,” they were not referring to the Church but to the Jews;» — el principio de lectura literal que consigna: la Escritura significa exactamente lo que dice, y Israel son los judíos y no la Iglesia.
«It was an understandable desire, but the mythoi of the Bible had never pretended to be factual in the way that Pierson expected.» — su matiz compasivo y su objeción a la vez: el deseo de certeza era comprensible, pero los mythoi bíblicos nunca pretendieron ser factuales de ese modo.
«Mythical language could not satisfactorily be translated into rational language without losing its raison d’être.» — su regla sobre la traducción del lenguaje mítico al racional.
«Once theology tried to turn itself into science, it could only produce a caricature of rational discourse, because these truths are not amenable to scientific demonstration.» — lo que sale, según ella, cuando la teología intenta volverse ciencia.
«The theologian’s task was not to look for a meaning beyond the words, Hodge insisted, but simply to arrange the clear teachings of scripture into a system of general truths.» — la tarea que Charles Hodge asignaba al teólogo: ordenar las enseñanzas claras de la Escritura en un sistema, sin buscar sentido más allá de las palabras.
«Every word of the Bible was divinely inspired and must be taken seriously; it should not be distorted by allegorical or symbolic exegesis.» — el principio de Hodge contra la exégesis alegórica o simbólica, con cada palabra divinamente inspirada.
«All the stories and statements of the Bible were “absolutely errorless and binding for faith and obedience.”» — la fórmula de inerrancia que consigna, absolutamente sin error y obligatoria para la fe y la obediencia.
«If the Bible said it was inspired, it was inspired,16 a circular argument that was anything but scientific.» — su objeción al argumento circular de la inspiración, que llama cualquier cosa menos científico.
«“Christianity makes its appeal by right reason,” Warfield contended in a later article.» — lo que sostenía Warfield sobre el cristianismo y la recta razón.
«But for the traditionalists, “Higher Criticism” was a scare term.» — lo que la Alta Crítica era para los tradicionalistas: un término de espanto.
«The rational bias of the modern world now made it impossible for many Western Christians to understand the role and value of myth.» — su tesis sobre el sesgo racional del mundo moderno y la imposibilidad consiguiente de entender el papel y el valor del mito.
«Faith had to be rational, mythos had to be logos.» — la fórmula más apretada de esa tesis.
«There was a deep fear that these new biblical theories would undermine the basic structure of Christianity and leave nothing at all.» — el temor de fondo que atribuye a los tradicionalistas ante las teorías bíblicas nuevas.
«“If we have no infallible standard,” argued the American Methodist clergyman Alexander McAlister, “we may as well have no standard at all.”» — el argumento del clérigo metodista Alexander McAlister sobre el patrón infalible. Es posición suya.
«Discount one miracle, and consistency demanded that you reject the lot.» — la consecuencia que se exigía en ese razonamiento: descontado un milagro, había que rechazarlos todos.
«In 1886, the revivalist Dwight Moody (1837–99) founded the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago to combat the teachings of the Higher Criticism.» — sobre Dwight Moody y la fundación del Moody Bible Institute en 1886 para combatir las enseñanzas de la Alta Crítica.
«Unfortunately, the quest for a distinct identity often goes hand-in-hand with the development of a terror of the stereotyped “other” against whom people measure themselves.» — su regla sobre la búsqueda de identidad y el terror al otro estereotipado, con el modal often.
«A paranoid fear of conspiracy would continue to characterize the response to the upheavals of modernization, and would be especially evident in the fundamentalist movements created by Jews, Christians, and Muslims, all of which would cultivate a distorted and often pernicious image of their enemies, who were sometimes depicted as satanically evil.» — lo que atribuye por igual a los fundamentalismos judío, cristiano y musulmán: miedo paranoide a la conspiración y una imagen distorsionada del enemigo, a veces pintado como satánico.
«It forged “pastoral letters,” supposedly from American Catholic bishops, urging their flocks to murder all Protestants and overthrow the heretical government of the United States.» — las cartas pastorales falsificadas que se atribuyeron a los obispos católicos estadounidenses. Es fabricación de terceros, consignada como tal.
«Giving Catholics the vote would make America vulnerable to satanic influence; already the United States had suffered an immigration of Romanists that was twice as large as that of the invasion of the Goths and Vandals which had brought down the Roman empire in the fifth century.» — el argumento que se hacía contra el voto católico, con la comparación entre la inmigración romanista y la invasión de godos y vándalos.
«At the same time, however, “the Jew” also became a symbol upon which people could fasten their fears and reservations about the social upheaval of modernization.» — el papel simbólico que dice haber recaído sobre el judío en el trastorno de la modernización.
«Modern anti-Semitism gave those who were disturbed by the turmoil of modernization and the awesome scale of social confusion a target for their distress and resentment.» — lo que el antisemitismo moderno daba, en su lectura, a quien estaba perturbado por el desorden social.
«By the 1880s, the tolerance of the Enlightenment was shown to be tragically skin-deep.» — su balance sobre la tolerancia ilustrada hacia la década de 1880.
«These Haredim (“the trembling ones”) were anxious about the future of Judaism in the new world and would try desperately to re-create the old.» — traduce el nombre Haredim como los que tiemblan y describe su empeño en rehacer el mundo antiguo.
«These “enemies” were not the tsar and his officials; Lubavitch Hasidism was becoming a fundamentalist movement, which, in the usual way of such movements, began with a campaign against coreligionists.» — aplica su regla del pleito interno al jasidismo de Lubavitch como movimiento fundamentalista.
«For the Fifth Rebbe, God’s enemies were other Jews: the Maskilim, the Zionists, the Jewish socialists, and the Misnagdim, who were, in his view, gravely endangering the faith.» — quiénes eran, para el Quinto Rebbe, los enemigos de Dios: maskilim, sionistas, socialistas judíos y misnagdim.
«They were to be “soldiers in the Rebbe’s army,” who would fight “without concessions or compromise” to ensure that true Judaism would survive.» — la consigna de soldados en el ejército del Rebbe, sin concesiones ni compromiso.
«In 1845, Yehuda Hai Alkalai (1798–1878), a Sephardic Jew of Sarajevo, had tried to make the old messianic myth of the return to Zion a program for practical action.» — lo que intentó Yehuda Hai Alkalai en 1845: volver programa de acción práctica el viejo mito mesiánico del retorno a Sion.
«The Messiah would not be a person but a process that “will begin with an effort of the Jews themselves; they must organize and unite, choose leaders, and leave the land of exile.”» — la reformulación del Mesías como proceso y no persona, que la obra le atribuye.
«Since the shock of that fiasco, the old prohibition against treating the messianic mythos as though it were logos, capable of pragmatic application, had acquired in the Jewish imagination the force of a taboo.» — el tabú que dice haberse formado en la imaginación judía tras el fiasco shabbateano: no tratar el mythos mesiánico como si fuera logos.
«To take any kind of initiative amounted to a rebellion against God, who alone could bring Redemption; anyone who took such action was going over to the “Other Side,” the demonic world.» — el contenido de ese tabú: toda iniciativa como rebelión contra Dios y paso al Otro Lado, el mundo demoníaco.
«It is largely through Zionism that secular modernity has entered Jewish life and changed it forever.» — lo que le adjudica al sionismo: la vía por la que la modernidad secular entró en la vida judía y la cambió para siempre.
«However practical their approach, Zionists recognized that no other land could really “save” the Jews and bring them psychic healing.» — el reconocimiento que atribuye a los sionistas, con toda su vocación práctica, sobre la curación psíquica ligada a una tierra concreta.
«But their endorsement of this mythical, sacred geography would be as problematic as ever when they tried to translate it into hard fact.» — su tesis sobre esa geografía sagrada: el problema aparece al intentar traducir el mito en hecho duro.
«There is an assumption that “Islam” and the West are quite incompatible, their ideals utterly opposed, and that “Islam” is at odds with everything that the West stands for.» — enuncia el supuesto corriente sobre la incompatibilidad entre islam y Occidente para objetarlo acto seguido.
«It is, therefore, important to realize that this is not the case.» — su objeción, en una línea.
«It is not surprising, therefore, that at the end of the nineteenth century, many leading Muslim thinkers were entranced by the West.» — el atractivo que Occidente ejerció, según ella, sobre muchos pensadores musulmanes de fin del siglo XIX.
«True religion, Kirmani insisted, meant rational enlightenment and equal rights.» — lo que insistía Kirmani sobre la religión verdadera como ilustración racional e igualdad de derechos.
«But, of course, Kirmani was wrong.» — su objeción a Kirmani, sin rodeos.
«Western institutions might be beneficial, but they could not by themselves transform the mentality of a people whose horizons were still those of the conservative period.» — el límite que pone a las instituciones occidentales por sí solas frente a una mentalidad de horizontes conservadores.
«Mulkum Khan’s vision was more like the old Falsafah ideal of a philosopher-king guiding the ignorant masses than the democratic vision of a modern political scientist.» — su lectura de la visión de Mulkum Khan: más cerca del rey filósofo de la Falsafah que de la ciencia política moderna.
«They were simply expanding the ancient Muslim conception of ilm (“essential knowledge”) to include Western scientific rationalism.» — lo que hacían esos pensadores, en su lectura: ampliar el ilm, el conocimiento esencial del islam, para incluir el racionalismo científico occidental.
«The fatwa was rational, pragmatic, and effective, but made sense only in the old mythical context, deriving as it did from the Imam’s authority.» — su análisis de la fatwa del tabaco: racional, pragmática y eficaz, y con sentido solo dentro del contexto mítico del que derivaba su autoridad.
«He admired the rational acuity and precision of French culture, noting that the Parisians “are not prisoners of tradition, but always love to know the origin of things and the proofs of them.”» — lo que Tahtawi admiraba de la cultura francesa, con la cita sobre los parisinos y el origen y las pruebas de las cosas.
«Modern science could be no threat to Islam; Europeans had originally learned their science from the Muslims of Spain, so when they studied Western sciences the Arabs would simply be taking back what had originally belonged to them.» — el argumento de restitución que consigna: los europeos aprendieron su ciencia de los musulmanes de España.
«The government must not stamp down on progress and innovation, but lead the way forward, since change was now the law of life.» — lo que Tahtawi pedía al gobierno, con el cambio vuelto ley de la vida.
«He was intoxicated by the promise of modernity; he wrote a poem in praise of the steam engine, and saw the Suez Canal and the transcontinental railways of the United States as engineering feats that would bring the far-flung peoples of the earth together in brotherhood and peace.» — el entusiasmo que le atribuye, con el poema al motor de vapor y los ferrocarriles como obras de hermandad universal.
«In particular, these Christian Arabs were keen that the Muslim states should become secular, and insisted that science alone and not religion was the basis of civilization.» — lo que insistían esos árabes cristianos sobre la ciencia como única base de la civilización.
«For Tahtawi, the British and French were simply bearers of progress.» — cómo veía Tahtawi a británicos y franceses.
«He was determined to teach the Muslim world to unite under the banner of Islam and to use religion to counter the threat of Western imperialism.» — el propósito que atribuye a Afghani: unir al mundo musulmán bajo la bandera del islam y usar la religión contra el imperialismo occidental.
«If religion was weak, in his view, Muslim society was bound to disintegrate.» — lo que Afghani sostenía sobre la debilidad de la religión y la desintegración de la sociedad musulmana.
«He was also right to argue that Islam must change in order to deal creatively with these radically new conditions.» — le da la razón a Afghani en que el islam debía cambiar para responder a condiciones radicalmente nuevas.
«He practiced the mysticism of Mulla Sadra, whose vision of evolutionary change was deeply appealing to him.» — consigna que Afghani practicaba el misticismo de Mulla Sadra y que su visión del cambio evolutivo le atraía hondamente.
«He pointed out that the Koran taught Muslims to take nothing on trust and to demand proof; it was, therefore, admirably suited to the modern world.» — el argumento coránico de Afghani: nada se toma por confianza y se exige prueba.
«Afghani went so far as to argue that Islam was identical with modern scientific rationalism, that the Law that the Prophet had received was at one with the laws of Nature, and that all the doctrines of Islam could be demonstrated by logic and natural reason.» — hasta dónde llegó Afghani, según ella: islam idéntico al racionalismo científico moderno y Ley del Profeta a una con las leyes de la Naturaleza.
«He wanted his faith to be wholly rational, but, like any mystic of the conservative period, he knew in his heart that the mythos of his religion gave humanity insights that science could not.» — su matiz sobre esa posición: como místico del periodo conservador, sabía en su fuero que el mythos daba lo que la ciencia no.
«Afghani rightly pointed out that Islam was a faith that expressed itself in action.» — le concede a Afghani el punto de que el islam es una fe que se expresa en acción.
«Afghani’s revolutionary schemes were often self-destructive and morally dubious.» — su objeción a los esquemas revolucionarios de Afghani, con el modal often.
«Renan believed that the Semitic languages Hebrew and Arabic were corrupt and an example of arrested development.» — lo que Renan creía sobre el hebreo y el árabe como lenguas corruptas y de desarrollo detenido. Es posición suya.
«Islam was especially incompatible with modernity, as witness the obvious inferiority of the Muslim countries, the decadence of their governments, and the “intellectual nullity” of the Muslims themselves.» — el argumento de Renan sobre la incompatibilidad del islam con la modernidad y la nulidad intelectual de los musulmanes.
«Renan confidently predicted, Islam would wither away and would, in the near future, cease to exist.» — la predicción de Renan sobre la extinción próxima del islam.
«Lord Cromer was a typical colonialist. In his view, the Egyptians were an inherently backward people and needed to be colonized for their own good.» — así presenta a lord Cromer: colonialista típico, convencido de que los egipcios eran atrasados y debían ser colonizados por su bien.
«He assumed that Europeans had always been rational, efficient, and modern, while the Orientals were naturally illogical, unreliable, and corrupt.» — el reparto de atributos que Cromer daba por sentado entre europeos y orientales.
«Islam “as a social system was a complete failure,” and incapable of reform or development.» — el veredicto de Cromer sobre el islam como sistema social fallido e irreformable.
«He described the modern period as a “torrent of science” drowning the traditional men of religion:» — la imagen con que Abdu describía el periodo moderno: un torrente de ciencia que ahogaba a los hombres de religión tradicionales.
«Abdu had been initially drawn into Afghani’s circle by his love of mystical religion (irfan), which, he used to say, was “the key to his happiness.”» — lo que atrajo primero a Abdu al círculo de Afghani: el irfan, y la llave de su felicidad.
«Abdu regarded Kamil as an empty demagogue.» — lo que Abdu pensaba del nacionalista Mustafa Kamil.
«Abdu could see that Egyptian society was fragmenting; it was, therefore, essential to link modern legal and constitutional developments to traditional Islamic norms.» — el diagnóstico de Abdu sobre la fragmentación social y su remedio: enlazar lo legal y constitucional moderno con las normas islámicas tradicionales.
«In the religious schools and madrasahs, which were still ruled by the conservative ethos, students were discouraged from thinking independently;» — lo que Abdu observaba de las escuelas religiosas y madrasas regidas aún por el ethos conservador. El verbatim se corta en el borde de plana.
«Those who had been educated by the ulema resisted all change, while Western-educated youth accepted any change at all, but were only superficially conversant with European culture and estranged from their own.» — el reparto que Abdu veía entre los formados por los ulema y la juventud de educación occidental, superficialmente versada y ajena a lo propio.
«The struggles of both Abdu and Afghani show how difficult it was to adapt a faith that had come to fruition in the conservative period to the entirely different ethos of the modern world.» — su balance sobre Abdu y Afghani: lo difícil de adaptar una fe madurada en el periodo conservador al ethos moderno.
«They were both aware—and rightly so—of the dangers of too rapid secularization.» — le da la razón a los dos sobre los peligros de una secularización demasiado rápida.
«When they insisted that reason was the sole arbiter of truth and that all doctrines must be capable of rational proof, they spoke as practicing mystics.» — la paradoja que les señala: hablaban como místicos practicantes al exigir la razón como único árbitro.
«This loss of transcendent meaning would not be counterbalanced, as in the West, by the benefits of liberation and independence, because, increasingly, it was the West that set the agenda—even in religious matters.» — lo que dice que no compensaría esa pérdida de sentido trascendente, con Occidente fijando la agenda incluso en materia religiosa.
«Abdu himself had argued that the Koran presents men and women as equal before God, and that traditional rulings concerning divorce or polygamy were not essential to Islam: they could and should be changed.» — lo que argumentaba Abdu sobre la igualdad ante Dios en el Corán y sobre lo mudable de las reglas de divorcio y poligamia.
«The veiling of women is neither an original nor a fundamental practice in Islam.» — su propia afirmación sobre el velo como práctica ni originaria ni fundamental en el islam.
«Arab writers refused to accept this estimate of their society, and in the course of this heated debate the veil turned into a symbol of resistance to colonialism.» — lo que le pasó al velo en ese debate, en su lectura: símbolo de resistencia al colonialismo.
«By using feminist arguments, for which most had little or no sympathy, as part of their propaganda, the colonialists tainted the cause of feminism in the Muslim world, and helped to distort the faith by introducing an imbalance that had not existed before.» — lo que atribuye al uso colonialista de argumentos feministas: manchar la causa del feminismo en el mundo musulmán e introducir un desequilibrio que antes no existía.
«There was a growing conviction that religion had to become as rational as modern science.» — la convicción creciente que consigna: la religión debía volverse tan racional como la ciencia moderna.
«In the early years of the twentieth century, a new defensiveness would lead to the first clear manifestation of the embattled religiosity that we now call fundamentalism.» — sitúa en los primeros años del siglo XX la primera manifestación clara de lo que hoy se llama fundamentalismo.
«After the war, no thinking person could be serenely optimistic about the progress of civilization.» — su balance de la posguerra sobre el optimismo del progreso.
«The pointlessness and futility of trench warfare defied the logic and rationalism of the age, and had nothing whatever to do with human need.» — lo que la guerra de trincheras hizo, en su lectura, con la lógica y el racionalismo de la época.
«The Irish poet W. B. Yeats (1865–1939) saw the “Second Coming” not as a triumph of righteousness and peace, but as the birth of a savage, pitiless era:» — cómo leyó W. B. Yeats la Segunda Venida: no triunfo de justicia y paz, sino nacimiento de una era salvaje y despiadada.
«Freud had no time for conventional religion, which he regarded as the most serious enemy of the logos of science.» — la posición que atribuye a Freud sobre la religión convencional como enemiga mayor del logos de la ciencia.
«The most prescient realized that it was impossible for fully modernized people to be religious in the old way.» — lo que advirtieron los más previsores, según ella: la imposibilidad de ser religioso a la manera antigua estando plenamente modernizado.
«The quest continues; as yet, no definitive or even very satisfactory solution has emerged.» — su abstención expresa sobre el estado de esa búsqueda: no ha emergido solución definitiva ni satisfactoria.
«In the early years of the century, conservative Christians were just as involved in social programs as the liberal Protestants; however, their ideology was different.» — el deslinde ideológico que traza entre conservadores y protestantes liberales en los programas sociales de comienzos de siglo.
«They might see their social crusades as a war against Satan or as a spiritual challenge to the prevailing materialism, but they were just as concerned about low wages, child labor, and poor working conditions as such liberals as Stelzle.» — lo que compartían pese a esa diferencia: la preocupación por salarios bajos, trabajo infantil y malas condiciones laborales.
«But in 1909, Charles Eliot, professor emeritus of Harvard University, delivered an address entitled “The Future of Religion” which struck dismay into the hearts of the more conservative.» — sobre la conferencia de Charles Eliot en 1909 y el desaliento que causó entre los conservadores.
«The new religion, Eliot believed, would have only one commandment: the love of God, expressed in the practical service of others.» — el único mandamiento de la religión nueva que Eliot proponía. Es propuesta suya.
«There would be no churches and no scriptures; no theology of sin, no need for worship.» — lo que esa religión no tendría, según Eliot: ni iglesias, ni escrituras, ni teología del pecado, ni culto.
«Faith without infallible doctrine was not Christianity in their view, and they felt obliged to counter this liberal danger.» — la posición conservadora frente a eso: sin doctrina infalible no hay cristianismo.
«But during the Great War, an element of terror entered conservative Protestantism and it became fundamentalist.» — el momento que data como paso al fundamentalismo: la entrada del terror en el protestantismo conservador durante la Gran Guerra.
«Americans had always had a tendency to see a conflict as apocalyptic, and the Great War confirmed many of them in their premillennial convictions.» — la tendencia apocalíptica que atribuye a los estadounidenses y su confirmación premilenarista en la Gran Guerra.
«Three big Prophecy Conferences were held between 1914 and 1918, where participants combed through the Scofield Reference Bible to find more “signs of the times.”» — las tres Conferencias de Profecía de 1914 a 1918 y el rastreo de señales de los tiempos en la Biblia de Scofield.
«The Hebrew prophets had foretold that the Jews would return to their own land before the End, so when the British government issued the Balfour Declaration (1917), pledging its support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, the premillennialists were struck with awe and exultation.» — cómo se leyó la Declaración Balfour de 1917 a la luz de la profecía del retorno judío antes del Fin.
«What had been in the late nineteenth century a purely doctrinal dispute with the liberals in their denominations, was becoming a struggle for the future of civilization.» — el cambio de escala que consigna: de disputa doctrinal con los liberales a lucha por el futuro de la civilización.
«Peace-keeping institutions, such as the League of Nations, would henceforth always be imbued with absolute evil in the eyes of the fundamentalists.» — el lugar que las instituciones de paz pasaron a ocupar en la mirada fundamentalista.
«The liberals were entirely unprepared for this onslaught, and the response to the fundamentalist speakers was so enthusiastic that Riley believed that he had launched a new Reformation.» — lo que Riley creyó haber lanzado ante el entusiasmo de la respuesta.
«I believe the time has come,” wrote E. A. Wollam in the Christian Workers Magazine, “when the evangelistic forces of this country, primarily the Bible Institutes, should not only rise up in defense of the faith, but should become a united and offensive power.”» — las palabras de E. A. Wollam en Christian Workers Magazine sobre pasar de la defensa a una fuerza ofensiva y unida.
«Curtis Lee Laws defined the “fundamentalist” as one who was ready to regain territory which had been lost to Antichrist and “to do battle royal for the fundamentals of the faith.”» — la definición de fundamentalista de Curtis Lee Laws: quien está listo a recobrar el territorio perdido ante el Anticristo.
«This was not just an isolated battle, “it is a war from which there is no discharge.”» — el corolario de esa definición sobre una guerra sin licencia.
«In his celebrated book Christianity and Liberalism (1923), the Presbyterian theologian J. Gresham Machen (1881– 1937), the most intellectual of the fundamentalists, argued that the liberals were pagans, who, by denying the literal truth of such core doctrines as the Virgin Birth, denied Christianity itself.» — el argumento de J. Gresham Machen en Christianity and Liberalism contra los liberales, por negar la verdad literal de doctrinas como el nacimiento virginal.
«Not only had the notion that only the strong could or should survive “laid the foundation for the bloodiest war in history,” Byran concluded, but “the same science that manufactured poisonous gases to suffocate soldiers is preaching that man has a brutal ancestry and eliminating the miraculous and supernatural from the Bible.”» — las conclusiones de Bryan enlazando la supervivencia del más fuerte con la guerra y los gases venenosos con la eliminación de lo milagroso en la Biblia. Es posición suya.
«Bryan’s conclusions were superficial, naive, and incorrect, but people were ready to listen to him.» — su objeción a Bryan, junto con la constatación de que se le escuchaba.
«As Charles Hodge had argued fifty years earlier, the Darwinian hypothesis was repugnant to the Baconian mind-set of the fundamentalists, who still clung to the scientific outlook of early modernity.» — recoge de Charles Hodge, cincuenta años antes, por qué la hipótesis darwiniana repugnaba a la mentalidad baconiana de los fundamentalistas, aún instalados en la ciencia de la modernidad temprana.
«Once Darrow and Bryan became involved, the trial ceased to be simply about civil liberties, and became a contest between God and science.» — el cambio de naturaleza del juicio de Dayton al entrar Darrow y Bryan.
«Both Darrow and Bryan were defending crucial American values; Darrow was for free speech, and Bryan for the rights of the ordinary people, who had long been leery of the influence of learned experts and specialists.» — su reparto simétrico de valores estadounidenses entre los dos: libertad de expresión y derechos de la gente común.
«Where Darrow was able to argue brilliantly for the freedom that science must have to express itself and advance, Bryan, the Presbyterian and Baconian, insisted that, in the absence of definite proof, people had a right to reject an “unsupported hypothesis” such as Darwinism because of its immoral effects.» — el argumento de Bryan, presbiteriano y baconiano: a falta de prueba definitiva, cabe rechazar una hipótesis sin respaldo por sus efectos inmorales.
«Fundamentalists belonged to the past; they were the enemies of science and intellectual liberty, and could take no legitimate part in the modern world.» — el veredicto que quedó sobre los fundamentalistas tras el juicio.
«At Dayton, the secularists won the battle and, by pouring scorn on the fundamentalists, seemed to have vanquished them by showing that they could not and should not be taken seriously.» — su balance de Dayton: los secularistas ganaron la batalla y pareció que los habían vencido a fuerza de escarnio.
«They felt embittered and nursed a deep grievance against mainstream culture.» — el sedimento que atribuye a esa derrota: amargura y agravio hondo contra la cultura dominante.
«Fundamentalist faith was rooted in deep fear and anxiety that could not be assuaged by a purely rational argument.» — su explicación de por qué el argumento racional no bastaba: la fe fundamentalista arraigaba en miedo y ansiedad hondos.
«Before the trial, evolution had not been an important issue for them, and even such literalists as Charles Hodge had accepted that the age of the world was more than six thousand years, whatever it said in the Bible.» — el dato que consigna sobre el antes de Dayton: la evolución no era asunto importante y hasta un literalista como Hodge admitía una tierra de más de seis mil años.
«Fundamentalism exists in a symbiotic relationship with an aggressive liberalism or secularism, and, under attack, invariably becomes more extreme, bitter, and excessive.» — una de sus tesis más citables: el fundamentalismo vive en relación simbiótica con un liberalismo o secularismo agresivo y, atacado, se vuelve invariablemente más extremo.
«Time alone would tell how successful this attempt would be religiously, but Dayton had revealed that fundamentalism was bad science, which could not measure up to the scientific standards of the twentieth century.» — su balance sobre Dayton y la mala ciencia, con la reserva de que solo el tiempo diría cuánto lograba el intento religiosamente.
«Pentecostalists bypassed language, which, as the mystics had always insisted, could not adequately express the Reality that lies beyond concepts and reason.» — lo que atribuye a los pentecostales respecto del lenguaje, con el apoyo de lo que los místicos siempre sostuvieron sobre lo que está más allá de conceptos y razón.
«Seymour became convinced that it was this racial integration rather than the gift of tongues that was the decisive sign of the Last Days.» — la convicción que atribuye a Seymour: la señal decisiva de los Últimos Días era la integración racial y no el don de lenguas.
«Harvey Cox has argued in an illuminating study of Pentecostalism, the movement was an attempt to recover many of the experiences that the modern West had rejected.» — recoge de Harvey Cox la lectura del pentecostalismo como recuperación de experiencias rechazadas por el Occidente moderno.
«While fundamentalists were trying to make their Bible-based religion entirely reasonable and scientific, Pentecostalists were returning to the core of religiousness, defined by Cox as “that largely unprocessed nucleus of the psyche in which the unending struggle for a sense of purpose and significance goes on.”» — el contraste que traza entre fundamentalistas y pentecostales, con el núcleo de la religiosidad definido por Cox.
«The meteoric explosion of this form of faith showed that by no means everybody was enthralled by the scientific rationalism of modernity.» — lo que la explosión de esa forma de fe muestra, en su lectura, sobre el hechizo del racionalismo científico.
«The fundamentalists, however, were moving in quite the opposite direction.» — el rumbo contrario que atribuye a los fundamentalistas.
«Yet both Pentecostalists and fundamentalists were reacting, in their different ways, to the fact that by the early decades of the twentieth century, Western discourse had reached an unprecedented complexity.» — lo que ve común a las dos reacciones: la complejidad sin precedentes del discurso occidental.
«Warfield argued that the age of miracles had ceased; the Pentecostalists were as bad as the Roman Catholics in their belief that God overturned the laws of nature on a regular basis today.» — el argumento de Warfield contra los pentecostales por el cese de la edad de los milagros.
«Other fundamentalists accused the Pentecostalists of superstition and fanaticism; one went so far as to call the movement “the last vomit of Satan.”» — las acusaciones de otros fundamentalistas contra los pentecostales, hasta la de último vómito de Satán. Son imputaciones de ellos.
«But, despite their differences, both the fundamentalists and the Pentecostalists were trying to fill the void left by the victory of reason in the modern Western world.» — lo que ella ve en común pese a esas diferencias: llenar el vacío dejado por la victoria de la razón.
«If conventional religion no longer worked, they would create a secularist spirituality that filled their lives with transcendent meaning.» — lo que atribuye a esos judíos: una espiritualidad secularista que llenara sus vidas de sentido trascendente.
«Religion, he believed, was only the outer shell of Judaism.» — la posición que consigna sobre la religión como cáscara exterior del judaísmo.
«The Zionist writer Asher Ginsberg (1856–1927), who wrote under the pseudonym Ahad Ha-Am (“One of the People”), was convinced that Jews had to develop a more rational and scientific way of looking at the world.» — lo que Asher Ginsberg, Ahad Ha-Am, estaba convencido de que hacía falta.
«Gordon was an Orthodox Jew and Kabbalist, but he was also a student of Kant, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Marx, and Tolstoy.» — sobre Aharon David Gordon: judío ortodoxo y cabalista, y a la vez lector de Kant, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Marx y Tolstói.
«The soul of the Jew,” Gordon insisted, “is the offspring of the natural environment of the Land of Israel.”» — lo que insistía Gordon sobre el alma del judío y el entorno natural de la Tierra de Israel.
«By means of labor (avodah) a pioneer would experience “the divine unknown,” and would re-create himself, as the mystics had done in the course of their spiritual exercises.» — lo que Gordon esperaba de la avodah: experimentar lo divino desconocido y recrearse a sí mismo como los místicos en sus ejercicios.
«By working on the land, “the unnatural, defective, splintered person” that he had become in the Diaspora would be “changed into a natural, wholesome human being who is true to himself.”» — el cambio que Gordon atribuía al trabajo de la tierra sobre la persona quebrada de la Diáspora.
«For Gordon it was no accident that avodah, the word for “labor” or “service,” had once applied to the liturgy in the Temple.» — lo que Gordon leía en que avodah hubiera nombrado antes la liturgia del Templo.
«Kook was anxious lest Zionism become equally oppressive and the Jewish state a dangerous idolatry.» — el temor de Kook ante el sionismo y el Estado judío como idolatría peligrosa.
«But he was also convinced that any attempt to separate a Jewish state from God was doomed, because Jews were existentially connected to the divine, whether they knew it or not.» — la convicción de Kook sobre la conexión existencial entre judíos y lo divino, la sepan o no.
«Religious and secularist Jews needed one another; neither could exist without the other.» — la fórmula de Kook sobre la necesidad mutua de judíos religiosos y secularistas.
«There are times when the laws of the Torah must be overridden,” Kook argued audaciously.» — lo que Kook argumentaba, y que la obra llama audaz, sobre saltarse las leyes de la Torá.
«All the civilizations of the world will be renewed by the renaissance of our spirit,” he prophesied;» — la profecía de Kook sobre la renovación de todas las civilizaciones por el renacimiento del espíritu judío.
«It is not for Jacob to engage in government, as long as it entails bloodshed, as long as it requires a knack for wickedness.» — la reserva de Kook sobre el gobierno mientras entrañe derramamiento de sangre y maña para la maldad. Es posición suya.
«When people were searching for a different path, everything was new and unprecedented, so “there is no one to show the legitimate way and so the aim is accomplished by a bursting of bounds.”» — el argumento de Kook sobre la falta de guía legítima cuando se busca camino nuevo, y el fin alcanzado por rotura de límites.
«Kook put forward no political solution to the pressing problems of Zionist activity in Palestine.» — su constatación sobre Kook: no propuso solución política alguna a los problemas de la actividad sionista en Palestina.
«Kook was “disgusted with the terrible iniquities of ruling during the evil age.”» — el asco de Kook hacia las iniquidades del gobernar en la edad malvada, en las palabras que la obra entrecomilla.
«The whole of creation was being propelled, often painfully, toward a final reunion with the divine.» — la doctrina de Kook sobre toda la creación impulsada, muchas veces dolorosamente, hacia la reunión final con lo divino.
«Even the agony of the First World War could be seen, in Lurianic terms, as a “breaking of the vessels,” part of the creative process, which would eventually reinstate the sacred in our world.» — la lectura luriánica que Kook hacía de la Primera Guerra Mundial como una rotura de los vasos dentro del proceso creador.
«Kook did not gloss over the difficulties. Between religious and secular Jews “there is a great war.”» — consigna que Kook no disimulaba la dificultad y hablaba de una gran guerra entre judíos religiosos y seculares.
«Kook argued that it was necessary to smash the sacred laws of the past and start afresh.» — lo que Kook argumentaba sobre romper las leyes sagradas del pasado y empezar de nuevo.
«Mizrachi was quite different from and less radical than Rabbi Kook, who saw the secular Zionist enterprise in Palestine as a profoundly religious development.» — el deslinde que traza entre Mizrachi y el rabino Kook, que veía la empresa sionista secular como desarrollo hondamente religioso.
«They were now accustomed to the modern world, and no longer sought simply to contain the shock of the new but wanted to change it.» — el cambio de actitud que consigna: ya no contener el choque de lo nuevo, sino cambiarlo.
«For Jacob Rosenheim (1870–1965), the founding of Agudat was not simply a slightly regrettable necessity, as it was for the eastern Jews, but a cosmic event.» — lo que la fundación de Agudat era para Jacob Rosenheim: un acontecimiento cósmico, y no una necesidad algo lamentable.
«Nevertheless, Rosenheim still felt slightly queasy about politics, and wanted Agudat to confine its activities to maintaining Jewish schools and protecting Jews’ economic rights.» — el malestar que le queda a Rosenheim ante la política y su preferencia por escuelas y derechos económicos.
«But once society has become more completely secular and rational, some find its innovations unacceptable.» — su tesis sobre el momento en que aparece el rechazo: cuando la sociedad ya se ha vuelto más completamente secular y racional.
«Fundamentalism would not appear in the Islamic world until these early stratagems had, in the eyes of some Muslims, proved to be inadequate.» — el corolario que aplica al mundo islámico sobre el retraso de su fundamentalismo.
«The Jewish scholar Alan L. Mittelman notes that the early experience of Agudat shows the way fundamentalism works.» — recoge del estudioso judío Alan L. Mittelman lo que la experiencia temprana de Agudat muestra sobre el funcionamiento del fundamentalismo.
«The massacre of at least one million Armenians was the first act of genocide in the twentieth century, and showed that, as Rabbi Kook had feared, secular nationalism could be lethal and certainly as dangerous as the crusades and purges conducted in the name of religion.» — su lectura del genocidio armenio a la luz del temor de Kook: el nacionalismo secular podía ser tan letal como cruzadas y purgas hechas en nombre de la religión.
«He was determined to “Westernize” Islam and reduce it to a private creed, without legal, political, or economic influence.» — el propósito que atribuye a Atatürk: occidentalizar el islam y reducirlo a credo privado sin influencia legal, política ni económica.
«Religion must be made subordinate to the state.» — la fórmula de esa subordinación.
«But in the Middle East, secularization was experienced as a violent and coercive assault.» — su contraste sobre cómo se vivió la secularización en Oriente Medio.
«When later Muslim fundamentalists claimed that secularization meant the destruction of Islam, they would often point to the example of Atatürk.» — el uso que los fundamentalistas musulmanes posteriores harían del caso de Atatürk, con el modal often.
«He was convinced that the secret of Western success was the ideal of nationalism, and felt it essential to graft modern institutions onto an Islamic base.» — lo que estaba convencido Ali Abd ar-Raziq sobre el nacionalismo y el injerto de instituciones modernas en base islámica.
«the journalist Rashid Rida (1865–1935) declared that this kind of thinking could only weaken the unity of the Muslim peoples and cause them to fall prey more easily to Western imperialism.» — lo que declaró el periodista Rashid Rida sobre el efecto de esa manera de pensar en la unidad de los pueblos musulmanes.
«He wanted to counter a foreign threat by returning ad fontes.» — el gesto que atribuye a Rida: responder a una amenaza extranjera volviendo ad fontes.
«Modern Muslims could create a new and vibrant Islam only by returning to the ideals of the salaf, the first generation of Muslims.» — el programa salafí que consigna: solo volviendo a los ideales de la primera generación de musulmanes.
«Rida was no fundamentalist; he was still trying to effect a marriage between Islam and modern Western culture instead of creating a counterdiscourse, but his work would influence the fundamentalists of the future.» — su deslinde expreso: Rida no era fundamentalista, aunque influiría en los fundamentalistas venideros.
«Rida believed that in the Middle East—if not in the Christian West—persecution and intolerance were due to the decline of religion.» — lo que Rida creía sobre la persecución y la intolerancia en Oriente Medio como efecto del declive de la religión.
«Some scholars believe that they were motivated chiefly by the desire to protect their own prerogatives and interests, and to ward off the encroachment of the infidel West;89 others point out that in promoting a constitution that would limit the despotic power of the shahs, the more liberal ulema were fulfilling the ancient Shii duty of opposing tyranny.» — recoge las dos explicaciones de los estudiosos sobre el motivo de los ulema constitucionalistas, sin arbitrar entre ellas.
«he argued that since all government was illegitimate during the absence of the Hidden Imam, the new parliament was un-Islamic.» — el argumento de Nuri: siendo ilegítimo todo gobierno en ausencia del Imán Oculto, el parlamento nuevo era antiislámico.
«Under this new system, however, the clergy would simply become one institution among others; they would no longer be the chief spiritual guides of the people and religion would be jeopardized.» — el temor institucional que le atribuye: el clero vuelto una institución más entre otras.
«They rejected Nuri’s plea for a Shariah state on the grounds that it was not possible to implement law correctly without the direct guidance of the Hidden Imam.» — el argumento contrario de los mujtahids de Najaf: sin guía directa del Imán Oculto no cabe aplicar bien la ley.
«Yet again, the spiritual insights of the Shiah promoted a secularization of the polity, and still regarded state power as incompatible with religion.» — su lectura del resultado: las intuiciones espirituales de la Shiah promoviendo una secularización de la política.
«Naini argued that representative government was the next best thing to the Hidden Imam; to set up an assembly capable of restraining a despotic ruler was clearly an act worthy of the Shiah.» — el argumento de Naini: el gobierno representativo como lo mejor disponible en ausencia del Imán Oculto.
«A tyrannical ruler was guilty of idolatry (shirk), the cardinal sin of Islam, because he arrogated to himself divine power and behaved as though he were God himself, lording it over his subjects.» — la calificación de shirk que Naini aplicaba al gobernante tiránico por arrogarse poder divino.
«The constitution had not been the panacea they had hoped for, but had simply thrown the fundamental impotence of Iran into cruel and clear relief.» — su balance sobre la constitución: no fue la panacea esperada, sino que dejó cruda la impotencia de Irán.
«EVER SINCE Nietzsche had proclaimed the death of God, modern people had, in various ways, become aware of a void at the heart of their culture.» — el diagnóstico con que abre esa sección: un vacío en el corazón de la cultura moderna desde que Nietzsche proclamó la muerte de Dios.
«The French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre (1905– 80) called it the God-shaped hole in human consciousness, where the divine had always been but had disappeared, leaving an emptiness behind.» — el término que toma de Jean-Paul Sartre para nombrarlo. La adjudicación es de él.
«The astonishing achievements of scientific rationalism had made the very idea of God incredible and impossible for many Westernized people, since it had gone hand-in-hand with a suppression of the old mythical consciousness.» — lo que hizo increíble la idea de Dios, en su lectura: los logros del racionalismo científico y la supresión concurrente de la conciencia mítica antigua.
«The world was in many ways a much better place, and they were evolving new secularist spiritualities, seeking in literature, art, sexuality, psychoanalysis, drugs, or even in sport, a sense of transcendent meaning that gave their lives value and put them in touch with the deeper currents of existence hitherto revealed by the confessional religions.» — las espiritualidades secularistas nuevas que consigna, en literatura, arte, sexualidad, psicoanálisis, drogas y hasta deporte.
«By the middle of the twentieth century, most Western people assumed that religion would never again play a major part in world events.» — lo que la mayoría de los occidentales daba por hecho a mediados del siglo XX sobre el papel futuro de la religión.
«For decades, men and women had dreamed of a final apocalypse wrought by God; now, it appeared, human beings no longer needed a supernatural deity to end the world.» — el traslado que señala: ya no hacía falta una deidad sobrenatural para acabar el mundo.
«The Holocaust was an example of scientific and rational planning, in which everything is subordinated to a single, limited, and clearly defined objective.» — su lectura del Holocausto como planificación científica y racional con un objetivo único y definido.
«At the very least, the Holocaust showed that a secularist ideology could be just as lethal as any religious crusade.» — su conclusión mínima sobre el caso, con el modal at the very least: una ideología secularista podía ser tan letal como cualquier cruzada religiosa.
«The Holocaust was also a reminder of the dangers that can accrue from the death of God in human consciousness.» — lo que además le recuerda: los peligros de la muerte de Dios en la conciencia humana.
«Modern human beings now prized autonomy and freedom so greatly that the idea of an omnipotent divine legislator was abhorrent to them, and this development marked a great advance in human dignity.» — su reconocimiento del avance en dignidad humana que trajo el aprecio moderno de autonomía y libertad.
«In his view, Agudat members were collaborating with the Zionists and infecting the minds of innocent schoolchildren with the “poisonweed and wormwood” of the goyische Enlightenment, as well as “songs that speak of the settlement of the Land, and the fields and the vineyards of Eretz Israel—just like the Zionist poets.”» — la acusación de Shapira contra los miembros de Agudat, con la mala hierba de la Ilustración goyische.
«They were defiling the Holy Land, which was intended only for prayer and sacred study, by tilling its sacred soil.» — el cargo de profanación por labrar el suelo sagrado, destinado solo a plegaria y estudio.
«Their view of Agudat, which had come into existence precisely to oppose Zionism, was inaccurate; the group was also aware that they were at odds with the vast majority of the Orthodox in eastern and western Europe, who disapproved of Zionism but regarded Shapira’s ban on Agudat as too extreme.» — su objeción a esa lectura: era inexacta, porque Agudat había nacido justamente para oponerse al sionismo.
«When Shapira and Teitelbaum contemplated the Zionist kibbutzim in Palestine, they felt the same outrage and dread as, later, people felt when they heard about the Nazi death camps.» — el horror que atribuye a Shapira y a Teitelbaum ante los kibutzim, comparado con el que después produjeron los campos de exterminio.
«Teitelbaum, who narrowly escaped extermination by migrating with his people to America, put the entire blame for the Holocaust on the great sin of the Zionists, who had “lured the majority of the Jewish people into awful heresy, the like of which has not been seen since the world was created.… And so it is no wonder that the Lord lashed out in anger.”» — la adjudicación de Teitelbaum de toda la culpa del Holocausto al pecado de los sionistas. Es posición suya.
«For Shapira, the Land was too holy to be settled by any ordinary Jew, let alone by self-confessed Zionist rebels.» — lo que Shapira sostenía sobre la santidad de la Tierra frente a cualquier judío ordinario.
«The Holy Land itself, therefore, was teeming with wicked forces “which excite God’s anger and fury.”» — las fuerzas malignas que Shapira veía bullendo en la Tierra Santa.
«The Zionists, Shapira explained, were simply the external manifestation of these demonic influences.» — lo que los sionistas eran para Shapira: manifestación externa de influencias demoníacas.
«any innovation was utterly forbidden: “Care should be taken that the right lapel overlaps the left, so that the right hand of the Most High, ‘the right hand of the Lord uplifted,’ in its exalted Love (hesed), predominates over the left side, which represents Power (din), the strength of the Evil Impulse.”» — la regla de indumentaria con su justificación cabalística, con hesed a la derecha predominando sobre din a la izquierda.
«Rational arguments are of no avail, because the divergence springs from a deeper and more instinctual level of the mind.» — su explicación de por qué no sirven los argumentos racionales en esa divergencia.
«Both revealed the absence of God, and were, therefore, satanic and nihilistic, destructively trampling upon every sacred value that these Haredim held dear.» — lo que esos haredim veían por igual en secularismo y exterminio: ausencia de Dios, y por eso satánico y nihilista.
«To an outsider, such an equation is shocking, false, and perverse, but it gives us some idea of the profound horror that secularism can inspire in the heart of a fundamentalist.» — su propia distancia respecto de esa ecuación, y a la vez lo que dice que nos deja ver del horror que el secularismo inspira.
«The new group formed by Blau and Katzenellenbogen gave itself the Aramaic title Neturei Karta (“The Guardians of the City”): Jews would not be protected by the militant activities of the Zionists but by the devout and punctilious religious observance of the Orthodox.» — el nombre arameo de Neturei Karta y la doctrina de protección por observancia devota en lugar de por acción militante.
«They declared that it had no religious value and that Jews who lived in Israel were still in exile, just as they had been in the Diaspora.» — lo que declararon sobre el Estado: sin valor religioso, y los judíos de Israel todavía en exilio.
«There could be no possibility of reconciliation, because the State of Israel was the creation of Satan.» — la imposibilidad de reconciliación que consigna, con el Estado de Israel dado por creación de Satán.
«As Teitelbaum explained, it was not possible for a Jew “to adhere to both faith in the state and faith in our holy Torah, for they are complete opposites.”» — la fórmula de Teitelbaum sobre la incompatibilidad entre fe en el Estado y fe en la Torá.
«Even if the politicians and cabinet ministers were Talmudic sages and devout observers of the commandments, the state would still be a demonic profanity because it had rebelled against God and tried to snatch salvation and to advance the End of Days.» — el argumento que hacía indiferente la piedad de los gobernantes: el Estado seguía siendo profanidad demoníaca por intentar adelantar el Fin de los Días.
«This was simply converting a divine law into human law; it amounted to an annulment of the Torah and to a desecration of the Halakhah.» — el cargo de convertir ley divina en ley humana, y con ello anular la Torá y profanar la Halajá.
«Such acts of violence are seen as kiddush hashem, “sanctification of God’s Name,” and a blow against the forces of evil that surround the Haredim on all sides and threaten to devour them.» — el término kiddush hashem aplicado a esos actos de violencia, y la lectura de fuerzas del mal que los rodean.
«When they stone cars on the Sabbath or tear down posters displaying scantily clad women advertising swimwear, they are rebelling against the secularist ethos of the Jewish state in which the only criterion for a course of action is its rational, practical utility.» — lo que ella lee en el apedreamiento de coches en sábado: rebelión contra un ethos donde el único criterio es la utilidad práctica.
«Fundamentalists in all three of the monotheistic faiths are in revolt against the pragmatic logos that dominates modern society to the exclusion of the spiritual, and which refuses the restraints imposed by the sacred.» — su tesis unificadora sobre los fundamentalismos de las tres fes monoteístas y su revuelta contra el logos pragmático.
«Their sense of weakness and tacit acknowledgment of their dependence upon the state in times of war, for example, can only increase the fundamentalists’ rage.» — lo que dice que aumenta la rabia fundamentalista: la conciencia tácita de depender del Estado.
«It is an act of piety to the millions of Haredim who died in Hitler’s camps, and an act of rebellion against the forces of evil.» — el doble sentido que atribuye al estudio continuo: piedad hacia los haredim muertos en los campos y rebelión contra las fuerzas del mal.
«Any secular study not only was a waste of time, but was tantamount to assimilation with the murderous gentile culture.» — lo que el estudio secular pasó a ser en esa doctrina: pérdida de tiempo y asimilación a una cultura gentil asesina.
«Any form of Judaism which tried to absorb aspects of modern culture—religious Zionism, Reform, Conservative, or Neo-Orthodox—was illegitimate.» — el veredicto de ilegitimidad sobre toda forma de judaísmo que absorbiera algo de la cultura moderna.
«The true Jew must separate himself from this world and devote himself wholly to the texts.» — la consigna de separación del mundo y entrega total a los textos.
«The holy texts were all that remained from the Jews’ crushing confrontation with modernity during the twentieth century.» — lo que los textos sagrados eran, en esa lectura, tras la confrontación aplastante con la modernidad.
«The truly religious farmer should challenge the rational materialism of the secular pioneers, which might be “Zionist” but was not at all “Jewish.”» — lo que el Hazon Ish pedía al agricultor verdaderamente religioso frente al materialismo racional de los pioneros seculares.
«In an age which had so horrifically cast the divine law aside, Jews would observe it more accurately than ever before.» — la fórmula que resume esa contracultura: observar la ley divina con más exactitud que nunca en una época que la había desechado.
«In the yeshivot, the methods of study were just as crucial as the material itself, and the object of yeshiva education was not greater facility in this world but a quest for the divine in a society which had tried to exclude God.» — el objeto que atribuye a la educación de la yeshivá: no destreza para este mundo, sino búsqueda de lo divino en una sociedad que quiso excluir a Dios.
«Among the Haredim, it was the inferior sex who went out into what the goyim considered the “real” world of affairs (tacitly proclaiming its secondary status), while the men led an enclosed, protected life with the true Reality in the yeshiva.» — el reparto de mundos entre los sexos que consigna entre los haredim, con los hombres en la Realidad verdadera de la yeshivá.
«A yeshiva student, however, was excused military service, turned his back on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), proclaimed that he was the true “guardian” of the Jewish people, and was on the front line of a holy war against the evil forces that pressed aggressively upon the yeshiva on all sides.» — el papel que se atribuía el estudiante exento del servicio militar: guardián verdadero del pueblo judío y en primera línea de una guerra santa.
«As a Haredi educationalist explained, the yeshiva not only taught a young man “total dedication to Torah,” but also how “to distance himself from the experiences of this world.”» — lo que un educador haredí explicaba sobre distanciarse de las experiencias de este mundo.
«The Sixth Rebbe (Joseph Isaac Schneerson, 1880–1950) could only see these measures as the “birth pangs of the Messiah.”» — lo que el Sexto Rebbe veía en esas medidas: dolores de parto del Mesías.
«Now it was not only the yeshiva students who were to be soldiers in the Rebbe’s army but every single Habad Jew.» — la extensión de la consigna de soldados del Rebbe a todo judío del Habad.
«But he also believed that the discoveries of modern science about the connection between body and soul, or matter and energy, were leading human beings to a new appreciation of the organic unity of reality, which, in turn, would predispose them to monotheism.» — lo que Zalman creía sobre los hallazgos científicos acerca de cuerpo y alma, materia y energía, y su predisposición al monoteísmo.
«There was no such person as a “secular Jew,” and even the goyim had a potential for holiness.» — la doctrina del Rebbe sobre la inexistencia del judío secular y la potencia de santidad de los gentiles.
«they concentrated, like Haredi Jews, on creating their own defensive counterculture.» — el paralelo que traza entre los fundamentalistas protestantes y los judíos haredíes al crear una contracultura defensiva.
«After the Scopes trial, Protestant fundamentalists retreated from the public arena and withdrew to their own churches and colleges.» — el repliegue posterior a Dayton hacia iglesias y colegios propios.
«Fundamentalists also formed their own publishing and broadcasting empires.» — los imperios editoriales y de radiodifusión que los fundamentalistas se dieron.
«They felt themselves to be outsiders, pushed to the periphery of society, but their new colleges and radio and television stations gave them a home in a hostile world.» — la condición de forasteros que se atribuían, y la casa que esas instituciones les dieron en un mundo hostil.
«Bob Jones University was a world unto itself: it made the difficult decision not to seek academic accreditation, believing any such compromise with the secular establishment to be sinful.» — el caso de Bob Jones University y su decisión de no buscar acreditación académica por tener el compromiso por pecaminoso.
«Fundamentalism was becoming a religion of rage, but, as in Haredi Judaism, this rage was rooted in deep fear.» — su fórmula sobre el fundamentalismo como religión de rabia arraigada en miedo hondo.
«Fundamentalists proper, however, insisted on separatism and segregation.» — lo que exigían los fundamentalistas propiamente dichos: separatismo y segregación.
«The atomic bomb, they believed, had been foretold by St. Peter, who had predicted that on the last day, “with a roar the sky will vanish, the elements will catch fire and fall apart, the earth and all that it contains will be burnt up.”» — la lectura de la bomba atómica como cumplimiento de la profecía de san Pedro sobre el cielo desvanecido y los elementos ardiendo.
«the atomic holocaust would not affect the true believers, since, as we have seen, they were convinced that they would be raptured up to heaven before the End.» — la exención que la doctrina del Rapto concedía a los creyentes ante el holocausto atómico.
«John Darby had taught that Antichrist would slaughter two-thirds of the Jews living in Palestine in the End-time: Zachariah had predicted this, and, like all such prophecies, his words must be interpreted literally.» — lo que Darby enseñaba sobre la matanza de dos tercios de los judíos de Palestina, con la regla de lectura literal aplicada a Zacarías.
«Protestant fundamentalists were enthusiastic Zionists, but their vision had a darker side.» — su fórmula sobre el sionismo entusiasta de los fundamentalistas protestantes y su lado oscuro.
«MUSLIMS HAD AS YET produced no fundamentalist movement, because their modernization process was not yet sufficiently advanced.» — la razón que da para el retraso del fundamentalismo musulmán: una modernización todavía poco avanzada.
«But these were practical and rational matters that must go hand-in-hand with a spiritual and psychological reformation.» — la articulación que atribuye a Banna entre lo práctico y racional y una reforma espiritual y psicológica.
«The condition of the ummah, the Muslim community, is as crucial a religious value in Islam as a particular doctrinal formulation in Christianity.» — su equivalencia comparativa: el estado de la ummah pesa en el islam como una formulación doctrinal en el cristianismo.
«Islam was not a Western-style ideology, or a set of creeds.» — el deslinde de Banna sobre lo que el islam no es: ni ideología al modo occidental ni conjunto de credos.
«To make the ummah strong again, they must rediscover their Muslim souls.» — la consigna de Banna para volver fuerte a la ummah.
«The ulema had turned their backs on the modern scene, and could offer the people no effective guidance, and the politicians made no sustained attempt to deal with the social, economic, or educational problems of the masses.» — su diagnóstico del vacío que Banna vino a llenar: ulema de espaldas al presente y políticos sin plan para los problemas de las masas.
«Banna always insisted that he had no intention of staging a coup or seizing power.» — la negativa que Banna sostuvo siempre sobre el golpe y la toma del poder.
«He believed that when the people had absorbed the message of Islam and allowed it to transform them, the nation would become Muslim without a violent takeover.» — lo que Banna creía sobre la transformación previa del pueblo y una nación musulmana sin toma violenta.
«They should not have to copy the French or Russian revolutions, because the Prophet Muhammad had already proclaimed the need for liberty, equality, fraternity, and social justice 1300 years before.» — el argumento de Banna sobre libertad, igualdad, fraternidad y justicia social proclamadas por el Profeta trece siglos antes.
«As long as Muslims imitated other people, they would remain “cultural mongrels.”» — la fórmula de Banna sobre los musulmanes que imitan a otros pueblos.
«There was no shortcut to freedom and dignity; Muslims would have to rebuild themselves and their society from the ground up.» — su resumen de la posición de Banna: no hay atajo, hay que rehacerse desde el cimiento.
«Banna did not intend his Society to be violent or radical, but was principally concerned with the fundamental reform of Muslim society, which had been undermined by the colonial experience and cut off from its roots.» — su deslinde expreso sobre la Sociedad: ni violenta ni radical en la intención de Banna, sino de reforma fundamental.
«The Society, however, was run according to the conservative piety of the Shariah, which helped Muslims to build the Muhammadan archetype within themselves by living in a certain way.» — el papel del arquetipo mahomético en la piedad conservadora con que se regía la Sociedad.
«The Brothers had no definite notions about the kind of polity the future Islamic state should have, but they insisted that to be faithful to the spirit of the Koran and Sunnah, there must be a fairer distribution of wealth than there was in the Saudi Kingdom.» — lo que los Hermanos exigían para ser fieles a Corán y Sunnah, con la distribución de la riqueza como caso.
«But Banna always felt that precise discussions about a possible Islamic state were premature, because there was still much basic preparation to be done.» — la posición de Banna sobre lo prematuro de discutir el Estado islámico.
«Nevertheless, once a movement has started killing in the name of God, it has embarked on a nihilistic course that denies the most fundamental religious values.» — su regla sobre lo que ocurre cuando un movimiento empieza a matar en nombre de Dios, con el nihilismo negando los valores religiosos más fundamentales.
«Neither the British nor the Egyptian nationalists had understood that it was not possible to impose a modern system of government on a country that, as a result of superficial and too rapid modernization, was still basically feudal and agrarian.» — lo que ni británicos ni nacionalistas egipcios entendieron, en su lectura: no cabía imponer un gobierno moderno sobre un país todavía feudal y agrario.
«It is not clear how far Banna himself was implicated in the activities of the Secret Apparatus.» — su abstención expresa sobre el grado de implicación de Banna en el Aparato Secreto.
«Nasser was also a determined secularist; nothing, including religion, must be allowed to interfere with the national interest; everything, including religion, must be subordinated to the state.» — el secularismo que atribuye a Nasser, con todo subordinado al Estado, la religión incluida.
«But there was an incipient tension, especially when it became clear that, despite his populist Muslim rhetoric, Nasser had no intention of creating an Islamic state.» — la tensión incipiente que consigna pese a la retórica musulmana populista de Nasser.
«But his triumph over the Brotherhood proved in the end to be a Pyrrhic victory.» — su balance sobre el triunfo de Nasser frente a los Hermanos.
«It simply imposed modern institutions on old agrarian structures, an approach that had failed in Egypt and would fail here.» — su diagnóstico del método de Reza: instituciones modernas impuestas sobre estructuras agrarias antiguas, lo que ya había fallado en Egipto.
«There was no fundamental reform of society.» — la ausencia que resume el caso: ninguna reforma fundamental de la sociedad.
«One “nation” comprised the small Westernized elite of the upper and middle classes, who had benefited from Reza’s modernization program; the other “nation” consisted of the vast mass of the poor, who were bewildered by the new secular nationalism of the regime, and relied more than ever upon the ulema for guidance.» — las dos naciones que ve dentro de Irán, con la masa pobre desconcertada por el nacionalismo secular y más apoyada que nunca en los ulema.
«His Iranian nationalism tried to cut out Islam altogether, and was based on the ancient Persian culture of the region.» — el nacionalismo iraní que atribuye a Reza, basado en la cultura persa antigua y con el islam recortado.
«Reza tried to suppress the Ashura celebrations in honor of Imam Husain (recognizing their revolutionary potential), and Iranians were forbidden to go on the hajj to Mecca.» — la supresión de Ashura y la prohibición del hach, con el potencial revolucionario de esos ritos reconocido por el propio régimen.
«The clergy were permitted to deal only with questions of personal status; all other cases were referred to the new civil courts.» — el confinamiento del clero a las cuestiones de estatuto personal.
«The ulema were happier, however. The new shah was not yet strong enough to oppose their demands: the Ashura passion plays and recitations were allowed to resume, Iranians were permitted to go on the hajj, and women could wear the veil.» — el reflujo bajo el sha siguiente: taziyeh y recitaciones permitidos de nuevo, hach reabierto y velo consentido.
«In Britain and the United States, the media portrayed Musaddiq as a dangerous fanatic, a thief (even though he had always promised compensation), and a communist, who would hand Iran over to the USSR (even though Musaddiq was a nationalist who wanted to free Iran from all foreign control).» — cómo pintaron los medios británicos y estadounidenses a Musaddiq, con los paréntesis correctivos que la propia obra intercala.
«He had been imprisoned by the British for pro-German activities in 1943: the iniquities of the Nazis were less important, in Kashani’s eyes, than the fact that they might help the Iranians to get rid of the British.» — la jerarquía de males que atribuye a Kashani respecto de los nazis y los británicos.
«The 1953 coup could not have succeeded had there not been considerable disaffection in the country, but it is also true that it would not have taken place without foreign intervention.» — su balance sobre el golpe de 1953, con las dos condiciones necesarias declaradas juntas.
«America proudly proclaimed its belief in freedom and democracy, but warmly supported a shah who permitted no opposition to his rule, and denied Iranians fundamental human rights.» — la contradicción que señala entre la proclama estadounidense de libertad y el respaldo a un sha sin oposición permitida.
«There seemed to be a double standard.» — la fórmula con que cierra ese contraste.
«And Iran was not unique. By the middle of the twentieth century, the societies of all the countries we are considering were being divided into two camps.» — su generalización comparativa sobre las sociedades de todos los países que trata, partidas en dos campos.
«Some saw the modern age as liberating and empowering; others experienced it as an evil assault.» — el reparto de esa partición entre quienes vivieron la modernidad como liberación y quienes como asalto malvado.
«They called for a more just and equal system, protested against the materialism, imperialism, and chauvinism of their governments, refused to fight in their nation’s wars or to study in its universities.» — lo que pedían esos jóvenes contra el materialismo, el imperialismo y el chovinismo de sus gobiernos.
«This was not a rejection of rationality per se, but of its more extreme forms.» — su matiz sobre la reacción de los años sesenta: no rechazo de la racionalidad, sino de sus formas más extremas.
«But because the understanding of such disciplined ways of arriving at a more intuitive knowledge had been neglected in the West since the advent of modernity, the sixties quest for spirituality was often wild, self-indulgent, and unbalanced.» — su objeción a esa búsqueda, con las razones puestas en el descuido occidental de las disciplinas de conocimiento intuitivo.
«The historian Edmund Burke (1729–97) was one of the first people to realize that if a group of people wished to challenge the ideology of the establishment (which may itself once have been revolutionary), they will have to develop a counterrevolutionary ideology of their own.» — recoge de Edmund Burke la idea de que quien quiere desafiar la ideología del establishment debe darse una contraideología propia.
«They were all in a weak position and all convinced, sometimes with reason, that the secularists and liberals wanted to annihilate them.» — la convicción compartida que atribuye a esos movimientos, con la reserva sometimes with reason puesta por ella.
«In the premodern period, myth had never been intended to have a practical application.» — repite su regla sobre el mito premoderno y la aplicación práctica.
«It was not meant to provide a concrete plan of action; on occasions when people had used myth as a springboard for political activity, the results had been disastrous.» — el corolario histórico de esa regla, con los resultados desastrosos del mito usado como trampolín político.
«The Syrian scholar Zaki al-Arsuzi believed that instead of dwelling on the fact that the Arabs had given Islam to the world, historians should stress their contribution to material culture (their transformation of the alphabet from hieroglyphics to letters, for example).» — lo que el estudioso sirio Zaki al-Arsuzi creía que debían subrayar los historiadores árabes.
«Shibli al-Aysami argued that it was deplorable that the pre-Islamic Arabian civilization should be dismissed by Muslim historians as jahiliyyah (“the Age of Ignorance”), since its cultural achievements in the ancient Yemen had been considerable.» — el argumento de Shibli al-Aysami contra el descarte de la civilización árabe preislámica como jahiliyyah.
«Religion was responsible for the “false consciousness” that held the Arabs back.» — la responsabilidad que se adjudicaba a la religión en esa historiografía: la falsa conciencia que frenaba a los árabes.
«It must, therefore, be eliminated like all other impediments to rational and scientific progress.» — el corolario eliminacionista de esa posición. Es doctrina de esos ideólogos, no de la autora.
«It is neither for us to decide the aim and purpose of our existence nor to prescribe the limits of our worldly authority, nor is anyone else entitled to make these decisions for us.…» — las palabras de Mawdudi sobre quién decide el fin de nuestra existencia y los límites de nuestra autoridad mundana.
«Because God alone was sovereign, nobody was obliged to take orders from any other human being.» — el corolario de la soberanía divina única: nadie obligado a tomar órdenes de otro ser humano.
«In such a case, revolution was not simply a right but a duty.» — el paso siguiente de ese razonamiento: la revolución como deber y no solo como derecho.
«Muslims, therefore, must resist the Westernized forms of government imposed upon them by the colonial powers, since such governments constitute a rebellion against God and usurp his authority.» — lo que de ahí se sigue sobre los gobiernos de forma occidental impuestos por las potencias coloniales.
«Islam, he declared, was a revolutionary ideology that was similar to Fascism and Marxism, but there was an important difference.» — la comparación que Mawdudi declaró entre el islam como ideología revolucionaria, el fascismo y el marxismo.
«The Nazis and Marxists had enslaved other human beings, whereas Islam sought to free them from subjection to anything other than God.» — la diferencia que Mawdudi ponía: nazis y marxistas esclavizaban, el islam liberaba de toda sujeción salvo a Dios.
«An Islamic state, Mawdudi argued, would be totalitarian, because it subjected everything to the rule of God; but how would that differ in practice from dictatorship, which, Mawdudi rightly insisted, was condemned by the Koran?» — su objeción a Mawdudi sobre el Estado islámico totalitario y la dictadura que él mismo daba por condenada en el Corán.
«Jihad (“struggle”) was not a holy war to convert the infidel, as Westerners believed, nor was it purely a means of self-defense, as Abdu had argued.» — el deslinde de jihad frente a la guerra santa de conversión que suponen los occidentales y frente a la autodefensa de Abdu.
«Mawdudi defined jihad as a revolutionary struggle to seize power for the good of all humanity.» — la definición que Mawdudi le dio: lucha revolucionaria por el poder para bien de toda la humanidad.
«Never before had jihad figured so centrally in official Islamic discourse.» — su dato histórico sobre la centralidad inédita del jihad en el discurso islámico oficial.
«Even though a ruler such as Nasser outwardly professed Islam, his words and actions proved that he had in fact apostatized.» — el argumento de Qutb sobre la apostasía de un gobernante que profesa el islam de boca para afuera.
«He now looked back to the life and career of the Prophet to create an ideology that would mobilize a dedicated vanguard in a jihad to turn back the tide of secularism and force its society to return to the values of Islam.» — el programa que le atribuye: una vanguardia entregada a un jihad para revertir la marea del secularismo.
«Qutb was a man of the modern world, and he would create a compelling logos, but he was also profoundly aware of the world of myth.» — su caracterización de Qutb: hombre del mundo moderno que crea un logos convincente y a la vez consciente del mundo del mito.
«He respected reason and science but did not see them as the sole guides of truth.» — lo que Qutb concedía a razón y ciencia sin tenerlas por guías únicas de la verdad.
«No matter how rational the human intellect became, he wrote, it was constantly swimming in “the sea of the unknown.”» — la imagen de Qutb sobre el intelecto humano nadando en el mar de lo desconocido.
«All philosophical and scientific developments certainly constituted progress of a sort, but they were simply glimpses of permanent cosmic laws, as superficial as the waves “in a vast ocean; they do not change the currents, being regulated by constant natural factors.”» — la comparación de Qutb entre los avances y las olas de un océano que no cambian las corrientes.
«“Jahiliyyah is not a period in time,” he explained in Milestones, his most controversial book.» — la fórmula de Qutb en Milestones sobre la jahiliyyah y el tiempo.
«Any attempt to deny the reality and sovereignty of God is jahili.» — el criterio de Qutb sobre qué es jahili.
«The first ummah created by the Prophet in Medina was a “bright beacon,” designed by God “so that this unique image might be materialised in the situations of real life and recourse might be had to it, in order to repeat it within the limit of human capacity.”» — lo que Qutb sostenía sobre la primera ummah de Medina como faro brillante repetible dentro del límite de la capacidad humana.
«In the life of Muhammad, Qutb argued, God had revealed a divine program (manhaj), and it was, therefore, superior to all man-made ideologies.» — el término manhaj y la superioridad que Qutb le adjudicaba sobre toda ideología humana.
«Qutb always insisted that the armed struggle for God would not be an oppressive, coercive campaign to impose Islam by force.» — la insistencia de Qutb sobre lo que la lucha armada por Dios no sería.
«Qutb’s ideology was essentially modern; apart from the centrality of God in his thought, he was in many ways a man of the sixties in his rejection of the modern system.» — su caracterización de la ideología de Qutb como esencialmente moderna, y de él como hombre de los años sesenta salvo por la centralidad de Dios.
«The Koran condemns all warfare as abhorrent, and permits only a war of self-defense.» — lo que ella sostiene que condena y permite el Corán en materia de guerra.
«The Koran is adamantly opposed to the use of force in religious matters.» — su afirmación sobre la oposición coránica al uso de la fuerza en materia religiosa.
«The Koran categorically and with great emphasis insisted that “There shall be no coercion in matters of faith.”» — el versículo con que la sostiene, sin coacción en materia de fe.
«Qutb qualified this: there could only be toleration after the political victory of Islam and the establishment of a true Muslim state.» — la salvedad que Qutb ponía a esa tolerancia: solo tras la victoria política del islam.
«He always argued that the stockpiling of weapons by the Brothers was a defensive measure only, to prevent a repetition of the events of 1954.» — el argumento defensivo que Qutb sostuvo siempre sobre las armas acopiadas por los Hermanos.
«As a result, the basic structures of society remained untouched and an even greater gulf yawned between the Westernized rich and the traditional poor, who had been left behind in the old agrarian ethos.» — el efecto que atribuye a la reforma incompleta: estructuras intactas y una brecha mayor entre ricos occidentalizados y pobres tradicionales.
«He expressed what has been described as the “agonized schizophrenia” of the Western-educated Iranians, who felt pulled in two directions,39 and though he could articulate the problem memorably, he had no solution to propose—though it appears that, toward the end of his life, he was beginning to see Shiism as an authentically Iranian institution that could provide a basis for a genuine national identity and become a healing alternative to the Westernizing disease.» — la esquizofrenia agonizante que otros describieron en los iraníes de formación occidental, y el giro final de Al-e Ahmad hacia el chiismo como institución auténticamente iraní.
«The Land Reform contravened Shariah laws of ownership, and Borujerdi may have feared that to deprive the people of rights guaranteed by Islamic Law in one sphere could lead to worse abuses in other areas.» — su hipótesis, con el modal may have feared, sobre el temor de Borujerdi ante la reforma agraria y los derechos garantizados por la ley islámica.
«A group of ulema argued that Shiism should become more democratic, and that it was not realistic to expect one man to be the Supreme Guide in this complex new world.» — el argumento de un grupo de ulema por un chiismo más democrático, sin un único Guía Supremo.
«The reformers were convinced that, because Islam is a total way of life, the ulema should not be so wary of intervening in politics.» — la convicción de esos reformistas: siendo el islam un modo de vida total, los ulema no debían recelar de intervenir en política.
«They argued that the curriculum of the madrasahs should be revised, to dilute the heavy concentration on fiqh.» — lo que pedían para el currículo de las madrasas, con la concentración en fiqh diluida.
«But in 1963, Khomeini suddenly broke his cover, and speaking from his pulpit, in his official capacity, began a sustained and outright attack upon the shah, whom he portrayed as the enemy of Islam.» — el momento en que Khomeini rompió su reserva en 1963 y atacó al sha desde el púlpito como enemigo del islam.
«For Khomeini, as for Sadra, mysticism and politics were inseparable. There could be no social reformation of society unless it was accompanied by a spiritual reformation.» — la inseparabilidad de mística y política que atribuye a Khomeini y a Mulla Sadra, con la reforma social supeditada a una reforma espiritual.
«The American scholar Hamid Algar suggests that when he began to speak against the shah in 1963, Khomeini had completed the preliminary and essential “journey to God,” and felt ready to take an active role in politics.» — recoge del estudioso estadounidense Hamid Algar la hipótesis de que Khomeini había completado el viaje a Dios antes de entrar en política.
«The shah, Khomeini claimed, was like Yazid, the villain of Kerbala.» — la equiparación que Khomeini hizo del sha con Yazid, el villano de Kerbala.
«Khomeini’s vision was flawed by the usual fundamentalist paranoia.» — su objeción a Khomeini: la visión viciada por la paranoia fundamentalista de siempre.
«Western people tended to see Khomeini as a throwback to the Middle Ages, but in fact much of his message and developing ideology was modern.» — su objeción a la lectura occidental de Khomeini como retroceso medieval, y lo moderno que halla en su mensaje.
«These “mullahs of modernization” would explain the White Revolution to the peasants, promote literacy, build bridges and reservoirs, and vaccinate livestock.» — los mullahs de la modernización que el régimen despachó al campo, y sus tareas.
«Not only was this a tasteless demonstration of the immense gap that now existed between rich and poor in Iran, but it was a very public assertion of the regime’s desire to found its identity on Islam’s pre-Islamic heritage.» — lo que ella lee en la fiesta de Persépolis: la voluntad del régimen de fundar su identidad en la herencia preislámica.
«Shariati had not had a conventional madrasah education, but had studied at the University of Mashhad and at the Sorbonne, where he had written a dissertation on Persian philosophy and studied the work of the French orientalist Louis Massignon, the existential philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, and the Third World ideologist Frantz Fanon.» — la formación de Shariati: Mashhad y la Sorbona, con Massignon, Sartre y Fanon como lecturas.
«Ayatollah Motahhari, one of the reformers who had helped to set it up, could write that, thanks to the husainiyyah, “our educated youth, after passing through a period of being astonished, even repulsed [by religion] are paying an attention and a concern for it that defies description.”54» — lo que el ayatolá Motahhari escribió sobre la atención de la juventud educada tras la husainiyyah.
«Shariati was a creative intellectual, but he was also a spiritual man.» — su caracterización de Shariati como intelectual creativo y hombre espiritual a la vez.
«Because the spiritual was not in a realm apart, it was, therefore, impossible to separate religion from politics in the way that the regime was attempting.» — el argumento de Shariati contra la separación de religión y política, apoyado en que lo espiritual no está en un reino aparte.
«To split religion and politics was to betray the principle of tawhid (“unification”), the cardinal tenet of Islam, which should help Muslims to achieve an integrity that reflected the divine unity.» — el principio de tawhid que Shariati invocaba, con la integridad humana reflejando la unidad divina.
«Shariati insisted on bazgasht beh khishtan, a “return to the self.”» — la consigna de Shariati, bazgasht beh khishtan, el retorno al sí mismo.
«In Shariati’s book, the pilgrimage became a journey to God, not unlike the fourfold interior journey described by Mulla Sadra.» — lo que el hach llega a ser en el libro de Shariati: un viaje a Dios cercano al viaje interior cuádruple de Mulla Sadra.
«Not everybody is capable of mysticism, which requires a special talent and temperament, but the rites of the hajj are accessible to all Muslim men and women.» — el argumento de accesibilidad que ella misma añade: la mística exige don y temple, los ritos del hach están al alcance de todos.
«Shariati was disgusted by the quietist ulema, who had locked themselves away in their madrasahs and had, in his view, distorted Islam by making it a purely private creed.» — lo que a Shariati le repugnaba de los ulema quietistas: haber vuelto el islam un credo puramente privado.
«If the Shiah followed Husain’s example and led all the people of the Third World in a campaign against tyranny, they would compel the Hidden Imam to appear.» — la doctrina activista de Shariati sobre seguir el ejemplo de Husain hasta obligar al Imán Oculto a aparecer.
«They saw Islam in purely literal terms, as a set of clear directives to be followed to the letter, whereas the genius of Shiism was its symbolism.» — su objeción a esos ulema: veían el islam en términos puramente literales, siendo el símbolo el genio del chiismo.
«Shariati was not entirely fair to the Usuli doctrines of “Safavid Shiism.” They had arisen in response to a particular need, and, though they had always been controversial, they had expressed the spirituality of the premodern age, which could not permit the individual too much freedom.» — su reparo a Shariati: no fue del todo justo con las doctrinas usulíes, nacidas para una necesidad concreta y expresivas de la espiritualidad premoderna.
«The notion of ijtihad (“independent judgment”) implied a constant intellectual effort to renew and rebuild; it was not, Shariati insisted, the privilege of a few ulema, but the duty of every Muslim.» — el ijtihad que Shariati reclamaba como deber de todo musulmán y no privilegio de unos ulema.
«Even intizar (“waiting for the return of the Hidden Imam”) suggested a constant alertness to the possibility of transformation and implied a refusal to accept the status quo: “It makes [man’s] responsibility for his own course, the course of truth, the course of mankind, heavy, immediate, logical, and vital.”» — lo que Shariati leía en el intizar: alerta constante a la posibilidad de transformación y rechazo del statu quo.
«For centuries, Shiis had declared all government to be illegitimate during the absence of the Hidden Imam, and had never thought it correct for the ulema to rule the state.» — el punto de partida que recuerda antes de exponer la novedad: siglos de ilegitimidad de todo gobierno y de ulema fuera del Estado.
«But in Islamic Government, Khomeini argued that the ulema must take over the government in order to safeguard the sovereignty of God.» — el argumento de Khomeini en Islamic Government por que los ulema tomen el gobierno para salvaguardar la soberanía de Dios.
«Like Shariati, Khomeini was trying to prove that Islam was not a medieval faith but had always championed values that the West thought it had invented.» — el paralelo que traza entre Shariati y Khomeini en su empeño por mostrar un islam no medieval.
«People wanted to separate religion and politics on the Western model, and this had perverted the faith: “Islam lives among the people as if it were a stranger,” Khomeini lamented.» — el lamento de Khomeini sobre el islam viviendo entre la gente como un extraño.
«He believed that the way to heal this alienation was to create a society based entirely on the laws of Islam, which were not only more natural for Iranians than the imported law codes of the West, but were of sacred origin.» — el remedio que Khomeini proponía a esa alienación: una sociedad enteramente basada en leyes de origen sagrado.
«He was known to be a mystic and to embody divine knowledge in a way that was similar, if not identical, to that of the Imams.» — lo que se sabía de Khomeini: místico y portador de conocimiento divino de un modo parecido, si no idéntico, al de los Imanes.
«Now in Najaf, living beside the shrine of Imam Ali, Khomeini seemed rather like the Hidden Imam: physically inaccessible to his people, he still guided them from afar and would one day return.» — el paralelo con el Imán Oculto que la obra ve en el Khomeini de Najaf: inaccesible y guiando de lejos.
«In 1972, the year after the publication of Islamic Government, Khomeini wrote an article which he called “The Greater Jihad,” which found a mystical justification for the controversial Velayat-e Faqih.» — el artículo de 1972, La Gran Jihad, con la justificación mística que Khomeini le halló al Velayat-e Faqih.
«If a man believes in God Almighty and with the eye of his heart sees Him as clearly as he sees the sun, it is impossible for him to commit any act of sin.» — las palabras de Khomeini sobre quien ve a Dios con el ojo del corazón y la imposibilidad de pecar. Es doctrina suya.
«There was a potential idolatry here, but, again, it must be emphasized that in 1972 nobody, not even Khomeini, believed that it would be feasible to topple the shah in an Islamically inspired revolution.» — su advertencia sobre la idolatría potencial de ese planteamiento, y el recordatorio de que en 1972 nadie creía factible derribar al sha.
«IN ISRAEL, a new form of Jewish fundamentalism had already started to translate myth into hard political fact.» — la fórmula con que abre el caso israelí: una forma nueva de fundamentalismo judío traduciendo el mito en hecho político duro.
«Far from being incompatible with modernity, the Law would complete it.» — lo que el sionismo religioso sostenía sobre la Ley y la modernidad.
«There was a desire for wholeness that would always characterize religious Zionism; it was a way of finding healing and a more holistic vision after the trauma and constrictions of exile.» — el deseo de integridad que atribuye siempre al sionismo religioso, como curación tras el trauma del exilio.
«They refused to allow the secularists to “own” Zionism completely.» — lo que se negaban a conceder a los secularistas.
«They called themselves Gahelet (“glowing embers”), linking their Haredi rigor with an intense nationalism.» — el nombre Gahelet, brasas encendidas, y el enlace entre rigor haredí y nacionalismo intenso.
«“Zionism is a heavenly matter,” Rabbi Zvi Yehuda insisted.» — lo que insistía el rabino Zvi Yehuda sobre el carácter celestial del sionismo.
«The soldiers were as righteous as Torah scholars,» — la equiparación entre soldados y estudiosos de la Torá en cuanto a justicia.
«Kook the Younger believed that the messianic age had begun» — lo que Kook el Joven creía sobre el comienzo de la era mesiánica.
«Everything was proceeding in accordance with a preordained pattern.» — la fórmula que resume esa lectura providencial de los hechos.
«An earthly reality could become a symbol of the divine, but was never itself holy;» — el deslinde tradicional que recuerda: una realidad terrena puede volverse símbolo de lo divino, nunca ser santa ella misma.
«But Kook had overridden these distinctions and created what some might call idolatry.» — su objeción a Kook por saltarse esas distinciones, con el modal some might call y la palabra idolatría puesta en boca ajena.
«Traditionally, messianism had inspired people to criticize the status quo, but Kook would use it to give absolute sanction to Israeli policy.» — el vuelco que le atribuye al mesianismo en manos de Kook: de crítica del statu quo a sanción absoluta de la política israelí.
«The Gahelet did not take this view, however. Rabbi Kook’s holistic ideology made Zionism a religion, and was just what they had been looking for.» — lo que la ideología holista de Kook dio al Gahelet: el sionismo vuelto religión.
«But for Kookists the war was even more crucial.» — lo que la guerra de 1967 significó para los kookistas.
«Nor were they disturbed that the “miracle” of the war had a perfectly natural explanation: the Israeli victory was entirely due to the efficiency of the IDF and the ineptitude of the Arab armies.» — la explicación natural del milagro que ella misma consigna, y la indiferencia de los kookistas ante ella.
«The secular state had not solved the Jewish problem; anti-Semitism was worse than ever.» — el argumento de Amital sobre el Estado secular y el antisemitismo.
«The Yom Kippur War was God’s punishment and a reminder. Now religious Jews must come to the nation’s rescue.» — la lectura de la guerra de Yom Kipur como castigo y aviso de Dios, y el rescate encomendado a los judíos religiosos.
«One Kookist rabbi compared secular Israel to a soldier falling in the desert after fighting an heroic war.» — la comparación de un rabino kookista entre el Israel secular y un soldado que cae en el desierto tras una guerra heroica.
«The secular Jews, whose Zionism had been so lamentably inadequate that it had brought the nation to the brink of catastrophe, had tried to fuse Judaism with the empirical rationalism and democratic culture of the modern West.» — el cargo contra los judíos seculares: haber intentado fundir el judaísmo con el racionalismo empírico y la cultura democrática de Occidente.
«God had permitted the Yom Kippur War to warn the Jews to return to themselves.» — la lectura providencial de la guerra como aviso para que los judíos vuelvan a sí mismos.
«Amital was articulating a theory which had much in common with the fundamentalism that was then emerging in Egypt and Iran.» — el paralelo que ella traza entre la teoría de Amital y el fundamentalismo que emergía en Egipto y en Irán.
«The chaos of the 1960s, with its permissive youth culture, sexual revolution, and the promotion of equal rights for homosexuals, blacks, and women, seemed to shake the very foundations of society.» — lo que el desorden de los años sesenta pareció sacudir, en la percepción que consigna.
«Many were convinced that this cataclysm, plus the tumult in the Middle East, could only mean that Rapture was nigh.» — la lectura que muchos hicieron de ese cataclismo sumado al tumulto de Oriente Medio.
«In 1979, the year that fundamentalists staged their comeback, George Gallup’s national poll showed that one out of every three of the American adults questioned had experienced a religious (“born-again”) conversion; nearly 50 percent believed that the Bible was inerrant, and over 80 percent saw Jesus as a divine figure.» — los datos de la encuesta Gallup de 1979 sobre conversión, inerrancia bíblica y divinidad de Jesús.
«Fundamentalists were particularly outraged by the Supreme Court decisions banning obligatory worship in public schools on the grounds that this violated the “wall of separation” that Jefferson had decreed should divide religion and politics.» — lo que indignó a los fundamentalistas de las sentencias del Tribunal Supremo, apoyadas en el muro de separación de Jefferson.
«The Court was responding to the increasing pluralism of American culture; it declared that it had nothing against religion, but insisted that it be confined to the private domain.» — la razón que el Tribunal daba, en su lectura: nada contra la religión, pero confinada al ámbito privado.
«Only fundamentalists, it appeared, were not allowed “free exercise” of the principles of their faith.» — la queja que consigna sobre el libre ejercicio negado solo a los fundamentalistas.
«It was another clash between two value systems, similar to the Scopes trial of 1925.» — el paralelo que traza con el juicio de Scopes de 1925 como choque de dos sistemas de valores.
«They felt “colonized” by the world of Manhattan, Washington, and Harvard.» — el término con que esos fundamentalistas describían su relación con Manhattan, Washington y Harvard.
«When they reflected that in the 1920s, two-thirds of the states had voted for the prohibition of liquor, but that now throughout North America people were openly campaigning for the legalization of marijuana, they could only conclude that America was falling under the influence of Satan.» — el contraste que hacían entre la prohibición del licor en los años veinte y las campañas por la marihuana, y la conclusión que extraían.
«During the 1970s, more parents than ever before removed their children from the public schools to Christian establishments, where they could be instructed in Christian values and were given Christian role models, and where all learning was conducted within a biblical context.» — el traslado de niños a colegios cristianos donde todo aprendizaje se conducía en contexto bíblico.
«It was a “hothouse” atmosphere to form committed and, if need be, militant Christians prepared to fight the secularization of life in the United States.» — la atmósfera de invernadero que atribuye a esas escuelas y el tipo de cristiano que buscaban formar.
«During the 1960S and 1970S, Protestant fundamentalist ideologues defined the enemy as “secular humanism.”» — el nombre con que los ideólogos fundamentalistas protestantes definieron al enemigo en los años sesenta y setenta.
«They saw secular humanism as a rival religion, which had its own creed, its own objectives, and a distinctive organization.» — lo que veían en el humanismo secular: una religión rival con credo, objetivos y organización propios.
«Fundamentalists would use this later to argue that the beliefs and values of the “secular humanism” practiced by the government and the legislators should be outlawed from public life as firmly as conservative Protestantism.» — el uso legal que harían de esa equiparación, para proscribir el humanismo secular de la vida pública como al protestantismo conservador.
«The term “secular humanism” and all that it stands for filled fundamentalists with visceral dread.» — el terror visceral que el término les inspiraba, en su descripción.
«They saw it as a conspiracy of evil forces that, in the words of Tim LaHaye, one of the chief and most prolific fundamentalist ideologues, was “anti-God, antimoral, anti-self-restraint, and anti-American.”» — la definición de Tim LaHaye del humanismo secular. Es formulación suya.
«Secular humanism was run by a small cadre which controlled the government, the public schools, and the television networks, in order to “destroy Christianity and the American family.”» — el cuadro conspirativo que se le atribuía: un cuadro pequeño controlando gobierno, escuelas y televisión.
«Jefferson’s “wall of separation” was designed, Whitehead believed, to protect religion from the state, not vice versa.» — la lectura de John Whitehead sobre el muro de Jefferson: proteger la religión del Estado y no al revés.
«Secular humanism, therefore, amounted to a rebellion against God’s sovereignty, and its worship of the state was idolatrous.» — la calificación de rebelión contra la soberanía de Dios y de culto idólatra al Estado.
«For the fundamentalist writer Pat Brooks, the secular humanists formed “a huge conspiratorial network” which was “fast approaching its goal of bringing in a ‘new world order,’ a vast world government that would reduce the world to slavery.”» — la red conspirativa que Pat Brooks describía, con su nuevo orden mundial y su gobierno mundial esclavizador. Es doctrina suya.
«Like Jewish and Muslim fundamentalists, American Protestants also felt that their backs were to the wall and that they would have to fight in order to survive.» — el paralelo que ella traza entre los protestantes estadounidenses y los fundamentalistas judíos y musulmanes en cuanto a estar contra la pared.
«The Founding Fathers of the American Republic, according to Pat Robertson, were inspired by Calvinist, biblical ideals.» — lo que Pat Robertson sostenía sobre los ideales calvinistas y bíblicos de los padres fundadores.
«Fundamentalists were ready. They had an enemy to fight, a vision of what America should be that was very different from that of the liberal mainstream, and they now believed, despite all their fears, that they were powerful enough to succeed in their crusade.» — su balance del momento: enemigo, visión propia y la creencia de tener fuerza para triunfar en la cruzada.
«Televangelism had also become more adept at packaging and marketing Christianity.» — lo que atribuye al televangelismo: mayor destreza para empaquetar y comercializar el cristianismo.
«When they heard of the vast sums of money that Pat Robertson or the Bakkers could raise in their programs each week in donations, fundamentalists became convinced that God was the answer to the problems of the economy.» — lo que los fundamentalistas concluían al ver las sumas recaudadas por Robertson o los Bakker.
«In the Kingdom of God, according to Robertson, “there is no economic recession, no shortage.”» — lo que Robertson decía del Reino de Dios en materia económica.
«Falwell was creating an alternative society to undercut secular humanism.» — lo que Falwell estaba creando, en su lectura: una sociedad alternativa para socavar el humanismo secular.
«Like other fundamentalist educators, Falwell was creating a cadre for the future, “a spiritual army of young people who are pro-life, pro-moral, and pro-America.”» — el cuadro para el futuro que Falwell decía formar, un ejército espiritual de jóvenes.
«Falwell was planning an offensive, and was doing so in modern terms.» — su fórmula sobre Falwell: planeaba una ofensiva, y la planeaba en términos modernos.
«It was no use arguing with Falwell, LaHaye, or Robertson in the hope of convincing them that there was no secular humanist conspiracy.» — su constatación sobre lo inútil de discutirles la inexistencia de la conspiración humanista.
«Yet for all Falwell’s apparently hardheaded approach, the fundamentalists who responded to him were filled with fear.» — lo que ella ve debajo del enfoque práctico de Falwell: miedo.
«Those Americans and Europeans who had imagined that religion had had its day were now forced to see that not only could the old faiths still inspire a passionate allegiance, but that millions of committed Jews, Christians, and Muslims loathed the secular, liberal culture of which they were so proud.» — lo que los europeos y estadounidenses se vieron forzados a ver a fines de los setenta.
«In fact, as we have seen, the fundamentalist resurgence was neither sudden nor surprising.» — su corrección a la idea de un resurgimiento súbito y sorprendente.
«Secularist observers had, for the most part, been unaware of this religious reaction.» — el desconocimiento previo que atribuye a los observadores secularistas.
«These early offensives represented the glory days of the fundamentalist era, but, as we shall see in the following chapter, it is very difficult for a religiously inspired movement to retain its integrity once it has entered the plural, rational, and pragmatic world of modern politics.» — su tesis sobre la dificultad de conservar la integridad de un movimiento religioso una vez entrado en el mundo plural, racional y pragmático de la política moderna.
«The Iranian Revolution was the event that first drew the attention of the world to the fundamentalist potential, but it was not the first movement to make a successful venture into the world of politics.» — sitúa la Revolución iraní como lo que llamó la atención del mundo, sin ser la primera incursión política exitosa.
«It was the last cause—the weakening of religion—which, in the view of the religious members of the Gush, was crucial.» — lo que era decisivo para los miembros religiosos del Gush entre las causas del declive.
«They were determined to replace the old socialist and nationalist discourse with the language of the Bible.» — el reemplazo de discurso que se propusieron: el lenguaje de la Biblia en lugar del socialista y nacionalista.
«There was, therefore, for Kookists, no way that secular Zionism could ever have worked.» — la conclusión kookista sobre la imposibilidad de que el sionismo secular funcionara.
«The near-disaster of the Yom Kippur War had shown that it was essential to act immediately in order to hasten the redemptive process, which the policies of the “false” secular Zionism had retarded.» — la urgencia que extrajeron de la guerra de Yom Kipur para apresurar el proceso redentor.
«The cadres of the Gush saw themselves as more authentically Jewish and Zionist than the Laborites, linking themselves not only with such holy warriors of ancient times as Joshua, David, and the Maccabees, but also with such Zionist heroes as Theodor Herzl, Ben-Gurion, and the early pioneers,» — la genealogía que se daban los cuadros del Gush, de Josué y los Macabeos a Herzl y Ben-Gurión.
«The government tried to dislodge the settlers, since the garin was illegal, but the Gush felt no need to comply with the declarations of the United Nations that demanded Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied territories, since Jews were not bound by the laws of other peoples.» — el argumento con que el Gush desatendía las resoluciones de la ONU: los judíos no están obligados por las leyes de otros pueblos.
«Levinger had become a new kind of Jewish hero.» — así presenta a Levinger: un héroe judío de tipo nuevo.
«“Levinger symbolizes the return of Zionism,” maintained the veteran and self-confessed terrorist Geula Cohen.» — lo que sostenía Geula Cohen sobre Levinger y el retorno del sionismo.
«In the same way, Gush rabbis have declared: “Before we sink into the gutter of politics, we should purify ourselves in the mikveh, as it is like delving into the secrets of the Torah.”» — lo que han declarado rabinos del Gush sobre purificarse en la mikvé antes de hundirse en la política, como al entrar en los secretos de la Torá.
«Since 1967, Kookists had often experienced the shock of historical events as a “burst of light,” a favorite image of Kook the Elder, but they were also acutely aware of the darkness of political failure, setbacks, and obstacles.» — la imagen de estallido de luz que Kook el Viejo prefería, y la conciencia paralela de la oscuridad del fracaso político.
«Israeli victories were hailed as great miracles, but they were also recognized to have been brought about by modern technology and military expertise.» — la doble lectura que consigna de las victorias israelíes, milagro y a la vez tecnología y pericia militar.
«Begin was an outspoken admirer of Levinger, he liked to call Gush Emunim his “very dear children,” and often used biblical imagery when expounding his hawkish policies.» — la relación de Begin con Levinger y con Gush Emunim, y su uso de imágenes bíblicas al exponer políticas duras.
«As Gush rabbi Eleazar Waldman explained, Israel was engaged in a battle against evil, on which hung the fate of the entire world:» — lo que explicaba el rabino Eleazar Waldman del Gush sobre una batalla contra el mal de la que pende el destino del mundo entero. El verbatim termina donde arranca la cita en bloque.
«The Redemption is not only the Redemption of Israel, but the Redemption of the whole world.» — la extensión universal que le daba a la Redención.
«However hawkish or biblical Begin’s rhetoric, he had no intention of letting mythos interfere with the practical logos of politics.» — su tesis sobre Begin: por bíblica que fuera la retórica, no dejaba que el mythos estorbara al logos práctico de la política.
«Moshe Levinger declared that Zionism had been infected by the “virus of peace.”» — la fórmula de Moshe Levinger sobre el sionismo infectado por el virus de la paz.
«Levinger reminded the settlers of the Jewish wars against Rome (66–72 CE), during which 960 men, women, and children had committed suicide in the fortress of Masada rather than submit to the Roman army.» — el recuerdo de Masada que Levinger puso ante los colonos.
«The Gush rabbis consulted Israel’s two chief rabbis, who ruled against martyrdom, however, and once again Rabbi Levinger tore his garments in mourning.» — la consulta a los dos grandes rabinos de Israel, que dictaminaron contra el martirio.
«Despite their best endeavors, the Gush could not make God’s politics work in the real world.» — su balance sobre el Gush y la política de Dios en el mundo real.
«Yet, on the surface, Sadat was good to religion.» — su reconocimiento, con la reserva on the surface, del trato de Sadat a la religión.
«Like the Iranians, many Egyptians felt that it was time to “return to themselves” and create a modern but distinctively Islamic identity.» — el retorno a sí mismos que atribuye a muchos egipcios, con una identidad moderna y a la vez claramente islámica.
«Where Nasser had persecuted Islamist groups, Sadat appeared to be their liberator.» — el contraste con Nasser que consigna, con el modal appeared to be.
«The Brothers wanted a state ruled by Muslim law, but saw this as a long-term goal which could only be achieved by peaceful and legal methods.» — el objetivo de los Hermanos y el método que se daban: largo plazo, medios pacíficos y legales.
«Yet even though the Brotherhood claimed to be returning to the pristine spirit of the Society, it was now in fact a very different organization.» — su objeción a la pretensión de continuidad: la organización era de hecho muy distinta.
«Where Banna had appealed especially to the working and middle classes, in the 1970s what scholars sometimes call the “Neo-Brotherhood” attracted those members of the bourgeoisie who had profited from Sadat’s Open Door.» — el cambio de base social que consigna hacia la Neo-Hermandad de los años setenta.
«The anti-Semitism of al-Dawah claimed to go back to the Prophet, but was in fact a recent Islamic innovation, which relied heavily on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion rather than on Islamic sources.» — su objeción de fondo al antisemitismo de al-Dawah: innovación islámica reciente apoyada en los Protocolos de los Sabios de Sion y no en fuentes islámicas.
«Throughout 1978, al-Dawah called the Islamic legitimacy of the regime into question.» — el cuestionamiento de la legitimidad islámica del régimen que la revista sostuvo durante 1978.
«In the prisons, these more extreme Muslims practiced the strict segregation demanded by Qutb.» — la segregación estricta exigida por Qutb que esos musulmanes practicaban en las cárceles.
«Qutb had believed that it would be a long time before his vanguard were ready to begin a jihad against jahili society.» — lo que Qutb creía sobre el plazo antes de que su vanguardia estuviera lista para el jihad contra la sociedad jahili.
«Some of the young extremists in the prisons, therefore, agreed that they were currently in a state of “weakness” and in no position to challenge the evil regime.» — el estado de debilidad que algunos jóvenes extremistas se reconocían.
«When Shukri was released from the Abu Zabal camp on October 16, 1971, he founded a new group which he called the Society of Muslims.» — la fundación de la Society of Muslims por Shukri en octubre de 1971 tras salir del campo de Abu Zabal.
«Since the whole of Egyptian society was corrupt, they refused to worship in the mosques and pronounced the edict of excommunication (takfir) upon the religious and secularist establishment alike.» — el takfir que pronunciaron sobre el establishment religioso y secularista por igual, con la negativa a rezar en las mezquitas.
«Shukri’s story reminds us that it is not always accurate to condemn such a movement as merely lunatic.» — su advertencia de método, en voz propia: no siempre es exacto condenar un movimiento así por meramente lunático.
«Like Shukri’s Society, the jamaat saw themselves as Qutb’s vanguard; however, they did not practice a radical withdrawal from the mainstream, but tried to create an Islamic space for themselves in a society that seemed oblivious to their needs.» — el deslinde entre las jamaat y la Sociedad de Shukri: no retiro radical, sino espacio islámico dentro de la sociedad.
«Egypt was still in effect controlled by infidels, and there could be no true independence unless there was a great religious awakening.» — el diagnóstico de las jamaat sobre el control infiel de Egipto y la necesidad de un gran despertar religioso.
«Preachers and speakers discussed the bitter disappointment of the modern experiment, which may have worked beautifully in Europe or America, but which only worked to the advantage of the rich in Egypt.» — el desengaño del experimento moderno que se discutía en esos campamentos.
«Not only did they experience modernity in the university as alien, impersonal, and bewildering, but they were given no other intellectual tools to enable them to criticize the regime in the course of their mediocre education.» — lo que atribuye a esos estudiantes: modernidad vivida como ajena e impersonal, sin herramientas intelectuales para criticar al régimen.
«Donning a veil, a scarf, and a long dress could be a symbol of that “return to the self” which Islamists were attempting with such difficulty in the postcolonial period.» — lo que el velo, el pañuelo y el vestido largo podían simbolizar: el retorno al sí mismo intentado en el periodo poscolonial.
«It is true that, like all premodern law, the Shariah reduces women to a secondary, inferior position.» — su concesión sobre la Shariah y la posición secundaria de las mujeres, con toda ley premoderna en el mismo saco.
«But, as Leila Ahmed points out in Women and Gender in Islam, these women were attempting to return, like so many Muslim reformers of the past, to the “true Islam” of the Koran and the Sunnah, rather than to the medieval fiqh of al-Azhar.» — recoge de Leila Ahmed en Women and Gender in Islam el retorno de esas mujeres al islam verdadero del Corán y la Sunnah frente al fiqh medieval de al-Azhar.
«They believed that “true Islam” preached equality and justice to all, women included.» — lo que esas mujeres creían sobre la igualdad y la justicia del islam verdadero.
«Ahmed agrees that they could be vulnerable to cooption by the patriarchal establishment, and notes that when an Islamic regime comes to power, this has generally led to a deterioration in the status of women.» — la reserva que Leila Ahmed añade sobre la cooptación patriarcal y el deterioro del estatus femenino bajo regímenes islámicos.
«The Turkish scholar Nilufar Göle argues that veiled women are often militant, outspoken, and well-educated.» — lo que argumenta la estudiosa turca Nilufar Göle sobre las mujeres veladas, con el modal often.
«A survey conducted in Egypt in 1982 showed that while veiled women were generally more conservative than those who preferred Western clothes, a remarkably high proportion of the Islamists held progressive views on gender issues.» — la encuesta egipcia de 1982 sobre mujeres veladas y opiniones progresistas en materia de género.
«The Islamists of Minya refused to accept the universal expansion of Western civilization and were trying to change the map.» — lo que atribuye a los islamistas de Minya: rechazo de la expansión universal de la civilización occidental y voluntad de cambiar el mapa.
«Like the adoption of Islamic dress, the conversion of a profane space into a mosque constituted a rebellion against a wholly secularized way of life.» — su lectura de la conversión de un espacio profano en mezquita como rebelión contra un modo de vida enteramente secularizado.
«They were protesting against the centrality of the Western viewpoint, and pushing their own out of the margins and into the limelight once more.» — el desplazamiento que ve en ese gesto: sacar el punto de vista propio del margen al centro.
«Egypt is Muslim, not pharaonic … the youth of the jamaat islamiyyah are the true representatives of Egypt, and not the Avenue of the Pyramids, the theatre performances, and the films.…» — la fórmula de esos jóvenes sobre quién representa de verdad a Egipto frente a la avenida de las Pirámides, el teatro y el cine.
«Repression and coercion had their usual effect.» — su fórmula sobre el efecto habitual de la represión y la coacción.
«Khomeini’s victory showed that Islam was not destined for destruction; it could take on powerful secularist forces and win.» — lo que la victoria de Khomeini mostró a los militantes islámicos egipcios.
«In Qum, Ayatollah Shariatmadari, the most senior mujtahid, opposed any political confrontation with the regime, though he was anxious to see the 1906 constitution restored.» — la posición del ayatolá Shariatmadari, el mujtahid más antiguo, contra toda confrontación política con el régimen.
«Ayatollah Taleqani, who had been jailed many times for demanding a strict application of the constitution and protesting against the excesses of the regime, worked alongside such lay reformers as Mehdi Bazargan and Abolhassan Bani Sadr, who wanted to see an Islamic republic in Iran but not clerical rule.» — el caso del ayatolá Taleqani y los reformistas laicos que querían república islámica sin gobierno clerical.
«It was not the clergy but the writers of Iran who made the most eloquent protest against the government in 1977.» — su dato sobre quién hizo la protesta más elocuente en 1977, y no fue el clero.
«However mistaken American policy may have been, it did not deserve to be condemned in this way.» — su objeción a la condena en esos términos de la política estadounidense, con el modal however mistaken.
«It confirmed the prevailing belief that the Iranian revolutionaries were all fanatical, hysterical, and unbalanced.» — lo que esa condena reforzó, en su lectura, sobre la imagen de los revolucionarios iraníes.
«In Christianity, Satan is a figure of overpowering evil, but in Islam he is a much more manageable figure.» — el deslinde comparativo que traza entre el Satán cristiano y el musulmán.
«Those Iranians who called America “the Great Satan” were not saying that the United States was diabolically wicked but something more precise.» — lo que quienes llamaban Gran Satán a los Estados Unidos estaban diciendo, según ella, y lo que no.
«During the White Revolution, Iranians had acquired electricity, television, and modern transport, but the religious revival in the country showed that for many people these external (zaheri) achievements were simply not enough.» — el término zaheri y lo que los logros externos de la Revolución Blanca no bastaban a cubrir.
«As the American anthropologist William Beeman explained, an Iranian who believed himself to be trapped on the material surface of life felt that he had lost his soul.» — recoge del antropólogo estadounidense William Beeman lo que sentía un iraní atrapado en la superficie material de la vida.
«This was most graphically expressed in the depiction of the United States as the Great Satan.» — dónde se expresó eso de manera más gráfica, en su lectura.
«William Beeman points out that Iranians will put up with a great deal, but that a single act of bad faith can cause an irrevocable breach in personal, business, and political relationships.» — recoge de Beeman la observación sobre el único acto de mala fe y la ruptura irrevocable en las relaciones iraníes.
«Khomeini issued no strategic orders from Najaf, but from the moment the Ettelaat article appeared, he was the unseen instigator and inspiration of the uprising.» — el papel que atribuye a Khomeini desde Najaf: instigador e inspiración no vistos, sin órdenes estratégicas.
«Thus on February 18, forty days after the Qum massacre, crowds of mourners, led by the ulema and bazaaris, swarmed onto the streets of major Iranian cities to weep for the dead.» — el ciclo de duelo a los cuarenta días que puso a las multitudes en la calle.
«This was the ultimate passion play.» — la fórmula con que nombra ese ciclo: el taziyeh definitivo.
«People spoke of the Revolution as a transforming and purifying experience; they felt that they were purging themselves and their society of a poison that had debilitated them and that, in the struggle, they were returning to themselves.» — cómo se hablaba de la Revolución: experiencia transformadora y purificadora, y retorno a sí mismos.
«Even though their views were different from those of Khomeini, the middle-class liberals could see that he had grassroots support that they could never command, and were willing to join forces with him to get rid of the shah.» — el cálculo de los liberales de clase media al aliarse con Khomeini pese a diferir de él.
«Secularist rule had been a disaster in Iran, and they were ready to try something different.» — la disposición que consigna tras el fracaso del gobierno secularista.
«Khomeini gave orders that instead of holding the usual passion plays, rawdahs, and processions in honor of the martyrdom of Husain, the people should demonstrate against the regime.» — la orden de Khomeini de sustituir taziyeh, rawdahs y procesiones por manifestaciones contra el régimen.
«The radical potential of these pious ceremonies had reached its apotheosis.» — la fórmula con que juzga ese momento: la potencia radical de esas ceremonias piadosas llegada a su apoteosis.
«For committed liberal secularists, inside and outside Iran, it was a dark moment, a triumph of superstition over rationality.» — lo que la llegada de Khomeini significó para los secularistas liberales.
«But for many Muslims, Sunni as well as Shii, who had long feared that Islam was about to be annihilated, it seemed a luminous reversal.» — lo que significó, en cambio, para muchos musulmanes suníes y chiíes que temían la aniquilación del islam.
«For some Iranian Shiis, Khomeini’s return seemed a miracle, and inevitably, it resembled the mythical return of the Hidden Imam.» — el parecido con el retorno mítico del Imán Oculto que la obra registra sin suscribirlo.
«As he drove through the streets of Tehran, the crowds shouted for “Imam Khomeini,” confident that a new age of justice had dawned.» — lo que gritaban las multitudes de Teherán y la confianza en una era nueva de justicia.
«Senior mujtahids, such as Ayatollah Shariatmadari, were incensed by this use of the title of Imam, and it was firmly and officially stated that Khomeini was not the Hidden Imam.» — la indignación de mujtahids veteranos como Shariatmadari por ese uso del título de Imán, y el desmentido oficial.
«But whatever the official line, for millions of the Iranian masses, Khomeini was an Imam until the day he died.» — lo que la línea oficial no logró cambiar en la percepción de millones.
«His life and career seemed clear evidence that the divine was present and active in history after all.» — lo que la vida y la carrera de Khomeini parecían mostrar, en la lectura de esos fieles: lo divino presente y activo en la historia.
«Like the Revolution itself, Khomeini seemed to make an ancient myth an actual reality.» — su formulación central sobre ese momento, con el modal seemed: un mito antiguo vuelto realidad efectiva.
«Khomeini liked to quote the hadith in which the Prophet Muhammad, on returning from battle, announces that he is returning from the lesser to the greater jihad; the more difficult, crucial, and exacting struggle was not the physical, political battle, but the conquest of self and the implementation of justice and truly Islamic values in society.» — el hadiz que Khomeini gustaba de citar sobre la vuelta de la jihad menor a la mayor, con la conquista del yo como la lucha más ardua.
«Despite their conviction that they were outsiders, Protestant fundamentalists were very much at home in America.» — su contraste sobre los fundamentalistas protestantes: forasteros por convicción y a la vez muy en casa en América.
«These liberals had become what Jerry Falwell called “an immoral minority.”» — el nombre que Falwell le puso a esos liberales.
«“There are millions of us—and only a handful of them,” claimed Tim LaHaye.» — el argumento numérico de Tim LaHaye.
«If Christians took action, America could be reprieved before the Rapture.» — la expectativa que se ofrecía: si los cristianos actuaban, América podía obtener indulto antes del Rapto.
«For the televangelist James Robison, “Any teaching of peace prior to [Christ’s] return is heresy.… It’s against the word of God; it’s Antichrist.”» — lo que sostenía el televangelista James Robison sobre toda enseñanza de paz previa al retorno de Cristo. Es doctrina suya.
«For Beverley LaHaye, feminism was “more than an illness”; based on Marxist and humanist teachings, “it is a philosophy of death.…» — lo que Beverley LaHaye decía del feminismo, con las enseñanzas marxistas y humanistas por origen.
«They associated the integrity and even the survival of their society with the traditional position of women.» — el vínculo que esos activistas establecían entre la supervivencia de su sociedad y la posición tradicional de la mujer.
«Fundamentalists were almost unanimous in seeing homosexuality as identical with pederasty.» — la identificación entre homosexualidad y pederastia que consigna como casi unánime entre ellos.
«He could be ruthless: Christians must also be aggressive, Tim LaHaye insisted in Battle for the Family.» — la agresividad que Tim LaHaye reclamaba a los cristianos en Battle for the Family.
«This desire for a militant, virile Christianity also explains Moral Majority’s hostility to gun-control legislation.» — lo que ella lee en la hostilidad de Moral Majority al control de armas: el deseo de un cristianismo militante y viril.
«Now Christian activists began to target candidates who voted the “wrong” way on the gun laws, funding for abortion clinics, or the Equal Rights Amendment.» — los asuntos con que los activistas cristianos empezaron a marcar candidatos.
«To hold the wrong views on defense, school prayer, or gay rights was to be anti-family, anti-America, and anti-God.» — el encadenamiento de calificativos que se seguía de sostener las opiniones equivocadas.
«At first, the fundamentalist activists tended to be inept, but gradually they learned to play the modern political game.» — su balance del aprendizaje: torpes al principio, aprendieron a jugar el juego político moderno.
«Phyllis Schlafly and the campaigning of local Christian Right activists halted the amendment’s momentum:» — lo que Phyllis Schlafly y los activistas locales lograron frenar.
«In Arkansas and Louisiana, however, bills were passed to ensure that the literal teachings of Genesis were given equal time with Darwinian evolution in the school curriculum.» — las leyes de Arkansas y Luisiana para dar a la enseñanza literal del Génesis el mismo tiempo lectivo que a la evolución darwiniana.
«Their victories might seem small and insignificant, but the Christian Right had learned how to conduct themselves in the political arena; they had re-enfranchised themselves, and, to an extent, resacralized American politics in a way that never ceases to amaze the more secular countries of Europe.» — su balance sobre la Derecha Cristiana: se reincorporó a la arena política y resacralizó en cierta medida la política estadounidense.
«During his presidential campaign, Pat Robertson spoke guardedly but politely about the mainstream denominations, even though fundamentalist orthodoxy demands that the apostate churches be attacked at every available opportunity.» — la prudencia de Robertson con las denominaciones establecidas, contra la ortodoxia fundamentalista que exige atacarlas siempre que se pueda.
«Their victories filled secularists with dismay; this was not the tamed, decorous, privatized faith of the Enlightenment era.» — lo que esas victorias no eran: la fe domesticada, decorosa y privatizada de la era ilustrada.
«But Westerners had to face the fact that most Iranian people did want Islamic rule.» — el hecho que dice que los occidentales tuvieron que encarar sobre la voluntad de la mayoría iraní.
«There was no agreement about what form an Islamic government should take, however.» — su matiz inmediato: no había acuerdo sobre la forma que debía tomar ese gobierno islámico.
«pressed for Khomeini’s Velayat-e Faqih, but both Ayatollah Shariatmadari and Ayatollah Taleqani were vehemently opposed to this vision of a mystically inspired cleric ruling the nation, since it violated centuries of sacred Shii tradition.» — la oposición vehemente de Shariatmadari y de Taleqani al Velayat-e Faqih por violar siglos de tradición chií sagrada.
«He was careful never to attack Khomeini himself, but was sharply critical of what he called the reactionary clergy in the Islamic Revolutionary Party who were responsible for the proposed constitutional clauses which, he claimed, violated the whole purpose of the Islamic Revolution.» — la crítica de Taleqani al clero reaccionario del Partido Republicano Islámico, sin atacar nunca a Khomeini en persona.
«Despite the denunciation of America as the Great Satan, relations between the United States government and the new Islamic regime in Tehran after the Revolution had been cautious but correct.» — su dato sobre las relaciones entre Washington y Teherán tras la Revolución, cautelosas pero correctas pese a la retórica del Gran Satán.
«To this day, it is not clear whether Khomeini knew of the students’ decision to invade the embassy beforehand.» — su abstención expresa sobre lo que Khomeini sabía de antemano acerca de la toma de la embajada.
«Instead of remaining a practical politician, he became, in his own view, the leader of the ummah in its struggle against Western imperialism; the word “revolution” acquired an almost sacred value in his speech, on a par with conventional Islamic terminology: he alone was able to take a stand against the most powerful imperialist power in the world and reveal the limits of its might.» — el desplazamiento que atribuye a Khomeini: de político práctico a jefe de la ummah, con revolución vuelta palabra casi sagrada.
«Khomeini condemned the excesses of these komitehs, which, he declared, contravened Islamic law and undermined the integrity of the Revolution.» — la condena de Khomeini a los excesos de los komitehs por contravenir la ley islámica.
«Despite the high-flown talk during the crisis of the iniquity of the Great Satan, there was nothing religious or Islamic about this hostage-taking.» — su afirmación sobre la toma de rehenes: nada de religioso ni de islámico había en ella.
«Even though the capture of the hostages was not popular with all Iranians, many could appreciate its symbolism.» — su matiz sobre la recepción: no gustó a todos los iraníes, y muchos apreciaron su simbolismo.
«Yet to some it seemed appropriate that American citizens should be held captive in their own embassy in Iran, because for decades Iranians felt that they had been prisoners in their own country with the connivance of the United States, which had supported the Pahlavi dictatorship.» — el simbolismo que reconstruye: ciudadanos estadounidenses cautivos en su embajada frente a décadas de iraníes presos en su país.
«But this was revenge politics, not religion.» — su calificación de ese acto, en cinco palabras.
«Indeed, this type of hostage-taking violates specific Islamic laws about the treatment of prisoners.» — su argumento de derecho islámico contra la toma de rehenes.
«It insists that it is unlawful to take prisoners, except during the fighting of a regular war (which, in itself, rules out the taking and retention of the American hostages).» — la regla que invoca sobre lo ilícito de tomar prisioneros fuera de una guerra regular.
«A hadith attributes this directive about the treatment of prisoners to the Prophet himself.» — la adjudicación de esa directiva a un hadiz del propio Profeta.
«For Shiis, who venerate Imams who were held hostage in a foreign land by a tyrannical government for its own pragmatic ends, hostage-taking should be especially repugnant.» — el argumento chií que añade: los Imanes venerados fueron rehenes de un gobierno tiránico.
«Khomeini, as we have seen, suffered from the paranoid fantasies that afflict so many fundamentalists.» — su objeción a Khomeini por las fantasías paranoides que atribuye a tantos fundamentalistas.
«He insisted that his “infallibility” did not mean that he did not make mistakes.» — lo que Khomeini insistía sobre el alcance de su infalibilidad.
«“This does not mean that simply because I made a statement yesterday, I should adhere to it.”» — la consecuencia que él mismo extraía sobre no atarse a lo dicho el día anterior.
«Khomeini was convinced that the Revolution had been a rebellion against the rational pragmatism of the modern world.» — la convicción de Khomeini sobre la Revolución como rebelión contra el pragmatismo racional del mundo moderno.
«The people had shown that they were willing to die in order to achieve a polity with transcendent goals.» — lo que el pueblo había mostrado, en su lectura: disposición a morir por una política de fines trascendentes.
«Scientific rationalism could not answer questions about the ultimate meaning of life; that had always been the preserve of myth.» — el reparto de competencias que ella misma vuelve a enunciar entre racionalismo científico y mito.
«The battle was to preserve the unity of the ummah, which must reflect the unity of God.» — el fin que Khomeini adjudicaba a esa lucha: preservar la unidad de la ummah como reflejo de la unidad de Dios.
«Khomeini sometimes blurred the crucial distinction between mythos and logos.» — su objeción central a Khomeini, con el modal sometimes: difuminaba la distinción crucial entre mythos y logos.
«Khomeini was aware of the tension between the mystical and the practical.» — su matiz inmediato: Khomeini era consciente de la tensión entre lo místico y lo práctico.
«Velayat-e Faqih was thus an attempt to provide a mythical foundation for the practical activities of parliament, and contain the modern within a traditional vision.» — su lectura del Velayat-e Faqih como intento de dar fundamento mítico a la actividad parlamentaria y contener lo moderno en una visión tradicional.
«What sounded good on paper, as it were, proved to be problematic when put into practice in Iran.» — su fórmula sobre lo que sonaba bien en el papel y resultó problemático en la práctica.
«The clergy, he said, “should in no way interfere in matters for which they are not qualified.”» — lo que Khomeini dijo al clero sobre no interferir en materias para las que no está cualificado.
«Khomeini could, Rafsanjani suggested, cite the Islamic principle of maslahah (“public necessity”), which allowed a jurist to legislate “secondary ordinances” about issues not directly provided for in the Koran and the Sunnah, if the welfare of the people demanded it.» — el principio de maslahah que Rafsanjani le propuso invocar para legislar ordenanzas secundarias.
«He was beginning to realize that the position of the Supreme Faqih could weaken the authority of the institutions that the Islamic republic needed if it was to survive in the modern world.» — lo que Khomeini empezaba a advertir sobre el Faqih Supremo y la autoridad de las instituciones.
«If he kept intervening and overturning the decisions of government institutions on the basis of his personal charisma, the Majlis and Council would lose their credibility and integrity, and the Islamic constitution would not survive his death.» — el riesgo que veía en intervenir por carisma personal: instituciones sin credibilidad y constitución que no sobrevive a su muerte.
«But it also shows how perilous it can be to translate a mystical, mythical imperative into a pragmatic, military or political policy.» — su regla, dicha aquí en voz propia, sobre lo peligroso de traducir un imperativo místico y mítico en política pragmática.
«Khomeini, who supported the populist Majlis against the more elitist and reactionary ulema on the Council, declared that the state had the power to replace fundamental Islamic systems if the welfare of the people demanded it.» — la declaración de Khomeini sobre el poder del Estado para reemplazar sistemas islámicos fundamentales si lo exige el bienestar del pueblo.
«Khomeini had made a declaration of independence. The state must have a “monopoly” in such practical matters, and must be emancipated from the constraining laws of traditional religion.» — su lectura de esa declaración como declaración de independencia, con el Estado emancipado de las leyes de la religión tradicional.
«Now Imam Khomeini, the Supreme Faqih, had delegated his authority to the Majlis, which must also make up new laws, on its own initiative.» — la delegación de autoridad del Faqih Supremo al Majlis, obligado a legislar por iniciativa propia.
«This right to legislate did not come from the people but from God, who had passed his authority to the Prophet, to the Imams, and now to Imam Khomeini, and it was they—not the people—who gave legitimacy to the rulings of the Majlis.» — la cadena de legitimidad que consigna, de Dios al Profeta, a los Imanes y al Imán Khomeini, y no del pueblo.
«His fatwa commanded Muslims all over the world “to put to death Salman Rushdie and his publishers, wherever they are found.”» — el contenido de la fatwa sobre Salman Rushdie y sus editores.
«It is not permissible in Islamic law to sentence an offender without trial, nor to apply Muslim law in a non-Muslim country.» — su objeción de derecho islámico: ni condena sin juicio ni aplicación de la ley musulmana en país no musulmán.
«Mulla Sadra, one of Khomeini’s chief spiritual mentors, had been adamantly opposed to any such inquisitorial violence and coercion.» — el argumento que añade con Mulla Sadra, mentor espiritual de Khomeini, opuesto a esa violencia inquisitorial.
«For them, humanity—not a supernatural God—was the measure of all things; men and women must have the freedom to fulfill their potential in their pursuit of artistic excellence.» — el principio que atribuye al bando occidental: la humanidad y no un Dios sobrenatural como medida de todas las cosas.
«Muslims, for whom the sovereignty of God is the supreme value, could not accept this.» — lo que ese principio tenía de inaceptable para los musulmanes que ponen la soberanía de Dios por valor supremo.
«The Rushdie affair was a clash of two irreconcilable orthodoxies; neither side could understand the viewpoint of the other.» — su fórmula sobre el caso Rushdie: choque de dos ortodoxias irreconciliables, sin comprensión mutua.
«Mystical powers were no longer attributed to the Supreme Faqih, nor was he to be instated, as Khomeini had been, by popular acclaim.» — el cambio que consigna sobre el Faqih Supremo tras Khomeini: sin poderes místicos atribuidos ni aclamación popular.
«If there were several possible candidates, “political perspicacity” was to be the decisive quality of the new leader.» — la cualidad decisiva que quedó fijada para elegir al nuevo líder.
«There is no retreat from Islam.» — la fórmula que cierra ese balance sobre el islam en Egipto.
«Religion becomes most violent when suppressed.» — una de sus generalizaciones más rotundas sobre la religión y la represión.
«Unlike Khomeini, Sadat was a Muslim ruler they could understand.» — lo que Sadat era para los dirigentes occidentales, por contraste con Khomeini.
«Any deviation in thought, word, or deed from the established order was to be punished with loss of civil rights and confiscation of passports and property.» — el alcance de la Ley de la Vergüenza sobre toda desviación en pensamiento, palabra u obra.
«In the Koran, God tells Muslims clearly that “fighting is ordained for you, even though it be hateful to you.”» — el versículo coránico que Faraj invocaba sobre el combate ordenado aunque sea odioso.
«But Faraj had a difficulty. The Koran targets only idolaters (“who ascribe divinity to aught beside God”), whereas Sadat claimed that he was a Muslim who observed the five “pillars.”» — la dificultad que ella le señala a Faraj: el Corán apunta a los idólatras y Sadat se decía musulmán observante de los cinco pilares.
«The current rulers of Egypt, Faraj declared, were worse than the Mongols.» — la comparación de Faraj entre los gobernantes de Egipto y los mongoles. Es adjudicación suya.
«Faraj insisted that the sword was the only way to establish a just society.» — la insistencia de Faraj sobre la espada como único camino a una sociedad justa.
«Faraj admitted that in Islamic law, jihad had been defined as a collective duty.» — lo que Faraj admitía sobre el jihad definido en la ley islámica como deber colectivo.
«But, Faraj insisted, this law only applied when the ummah was under attack from external enemies.» — la restricción con que Faraj acotaba esa definición, y de la que sacaba el deber individual.
«Even though they were planning an assassination, Jihad members wanted to behave as morally as possible.» — el afán de comportamiento moral que consigna entre los miembros de Jihad, pese al magnicidio planeado.
«There was obviously concern about undertaking a jihad against Sadat before Jerusalem had been liberated from Israel: which should take priority?» — la duda de prioridad entre el jihad contra Sadat y la liberación de Jerusalén.
«Faraj replied that the jihad for Jerusalem should be led only by a devout Muslim leader, not by an infidel.» — la respuesta de Faraj sobre quién debe encabezar el jihad por Jerusalén.
«He also revealed a fatal confidence in God’s direct intervention.» — lo que ella señala en esa respuesta: una confianza fatal en la intervención directa de Dios.
«From a literal reading of this text, Faraj concluded that if Muslims took the initiative, God “will then intervene [and change] the laws of nature.”» — la conclusión de Faraj a partir de una lectura literal del texto: si los musulmanes toman la iniciativa, Dios cambiará las leyes de la naturaleza.
«Could militants expect miraculous help? Faraj tragically answered “yes.”» — la pregunta sobre la ayuda milagrosa y la respuesta de Faraj, que ella califica de trágica.
«A Muslim’s duty was to obey God’s commands.» — el deber que Faraj dejaba en pie por encima de todo cálculo.
«They find that a stringent Muslim lifestyle gives them a viable alternative to the secularist option, helps them to make the difficult transition from a rural to a modern urban culture, and gives them a sense of authenticity and belonging.» — lo que un estilo de vida musulmán estricto da, en su lectura, a quien pasa de una cultura rural a una urbana moderna.
«Two realms existed side by side in Egypt in a schizophrenic rift that shows no sign of healing.» — su imagen de los dos ámbitos coexistiendo en Egipto en una fractura esquizofrénica sin señales de curación.
«Not surprisingly, therefore, there is war between the “two nations.”» — el corolario que extrae de esa fractura, con el modal not surprisingly.
«Desperation and helplessness have continued to inspire a minority of Sunni Muslims in Egypt to turn Islam into an ideology that, in its justification of murder, is a total distortion of religion.» — su afirmación sobre esa minoría suní: un islam vuelto ideología que, al justificar el asesinato, distorsiona por completo la religión.
«LIKE EGYPT, Israel was also becoming a more religious country.» — el paralelo que traza entre Egipto e Israel en cuanto a religiosidad creciente.
«This move showed the indifference of the Haredim toward the political welfare of the State of Israel.» — lo que ese movimiento mostró, en su lectura, sobre la indiferencia haredí ante el bienestar político del Estado de Israel.
«The secularist politicians, who had previously despised the Orthodox and regarded them as hopeless anachronisms, now had to come to them cap in hand to ask them to join their camp and enable them to form a government.» — el vuelco que consigna: los políticos secularistas acudiendo con el sombrero en la mano a los ortodoxos antes despreciados.
«They regarded their political work as a necessary evil, an act of self-defense.» — cómo entendían los haredim su propio trabajo político: mal necesario y acto de autodefensa.
«It could “be defined as stealing into the camp of the enemy,” wrote Rabbi Nathan Grossman» — la imagen que el rabino Nathan Grossman usó para definirlo.
«Since the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, no religious Jew had been as powerful as Rabbi Schach, who by 1988 led two political parties and was courted by major politicians for his decisive vote.» — su comparación histórica sobre el poder del rabino Schach desde la destrucción del Templo en el año 70.
«The ultra-Orthodox had invaded the heart of secular Israel and, for that evening at least, had taken over one of its chief citadels.» — lo que ella lee en el mitin del estadio: la ultraortodoxia invadiendo el corazón del Israel secular y tomando una de sus ciudadelas.
«The wars we are fighting [against those who oppose tradition] did not begin today; they began already at the time of the First World War, and only the Master of the Universe knows what else is expected,» — las palabras de Schach sobre unas guerras que vienen desde la Primera Guerra Mundial y cuyo desenlace solo conoce el Dueño del Universo.
«The Jew cannot be destroyed. He may be killed, but his children will continue to cleave to the Torah.» — la fórmula de Schach sobre la indestructibilidad del judío y los hijos que seguirán apegados a la Torá.
«When they are in the Knesset, they are not interested in strengthening religiosity. To the contrary, they seek to pass laws that will destroy the Jewish religion.» — el cargo de Schach contra quienes están en la Knesset. Es acusación suya.
«The significance of that evening in Yad Eliahu Stadium did not lie simply in the fact that Rabbi Schach, alone and unaided, appeared effortlessly to have swung the balance in favor of Likud, but that it marked the extraordinary journey of the Haredim from a despised out-group to the heart of power.» — su lectura del significado de esa noche: el viaje de los haredim de grupo despreciado al corazón del poder.
«They were rebels, mounting what they saw as a revolution against secular nationalism on the one hand, and Orthodoxy on the other.» — cómo se veían a sí mismos los kookistas: rebeldes en revolución contra el nacionalismo secular y contra la ortodoxia.
«As a result, the Gush’s mystical joy in the Land became an ecstasy of rage, which could on occasion erupt in terrifying violence, in the first instance against the Arabs.» — el vuelco que atribuye al gozo místico del Gush por la Tierra: un éxtasis de rabia con erupciones de violencia.
«Most Kookists believed that Arabs should be allowed to stay in Eretz Israel, but only as gerim toshavim (“resident aliens”).» — el estatuto de gerim toshavim, extranjeros residentes, que la mayoría de los kookistas reservaba a los árabes.
«He argued that the Palestinians were to Jews what darkness was to light, and that they deserved the same fate as the Amalekites.» — el argumento de luz y tinieblas y la suerte de los amalecitas aplicada a los palestinos. Es doctrina de ese autor, no de la obra.
«In the same year, the Gush settler Haim Tzuria wrote that hatred was “natural and healthy”:» — lo que escribió el colono del Gush Haim Tzuria sobre el odio natural y sano.
«The Dome of the Rock, which was completed in 691, was the first major Muslim monument ever built and was believed to mark the spot where Abraham offered his son to God in sacrifice;» — los datos que da sobre la Cúpula de la Roca, terminada en 691, primer gran monumento musulmán, en el lugar del sacrificio de Abraham según la creencia.
«For centuries, however, there had been no tension between Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem; Jews had come to believe that their Temple, which had been destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, could only be rebuilt by the Messiah, so they had no designs on the area, which Muslims call the Haram al-Sharif (the Most Noble Sanctuary).» — su dato de larga duración: siglos sin tensión entre judíos y musulmanes en Jerusalén, porque el Templo solo podía reconstruirlo el Mesías.
«The Temple could not be rebuilt until the Messiah had brought about the Redemption; it was a prohibition that over the centuries had acquired the force of a taboo.» — la prohibición que, dice, había adquirido con los siglos fuerza de tabú.
«Livni and Etzion were not the only Jewish extremists who dreamed of rebuilding the Temple as a prelude to the Redemption.» — su matiz sobre el alcance de ese sueño: Livni y Etzion no eran los únicos extremistas judíos que soñaban con reconstruir el Templo.
«How could the Messiah return when the sacred site was “polluted” by the Dome of the Rock?» — la pregunta con que esos conspiradores razonaban sobre el lugar sagrado y la Cúpula.
«If they took the first step, God would certainly intervene and reward this act of faith by intervening in history, sending the long-awaited Messiah and redeeming the people of Israel.» — el cálculo teológico de esos conspiradores sobre el primer paso y la intervención de Dios.
«The Dome of the Rock, in their eyes, was an “abomination,” and the “root cause of all the spiritual errors of our generation.”» — lo que la Cúpula de la Roca era a sus ojos: abominación y raíz de todos los errores espirituales de la generación.
«One of the chief ideologues of the Jewish underground was Yeshua ben Shoshan, a gentle, soft-spoken Kabbalist who believed that the Dome of the Rock was the abode of the evil forces of the “Other Side” that were impeding redemption.» — sobre Yeshua ben Shoshan, cabalista, y su doctrina de la Cúpula como morada de las fuerzas malignas del Otro Lado que impedían la redención.
«The specter of nuclear catastrophe did not trouble these extreme Kookists, however.» — la indiferencia de esos kookistas extremos ante el espectro de una catástrofe nuclear.
«They were convinced that by instigating an apocalypse here on Earth, they would activate powers in the divine world and “oblige” God to intervene on their behalf and send the Messiah to save Israel.» — el cálculo apocalíptico que les atribuye: activar poderes en el mundo divino y obligar a Dios a intervenir.
«It is a terrifying example of the fundamentalist tendency to use mythology as a blueprint for action.» — su calificación del caso como ejemplo aterrador de la tendencia fundamentalista a usar la mitología como plano de acción.
«All that stopped them was that they could find no rabbi who was willing to sanction their plan.» — lo único que los detuvo, según ella: no hallaron rabino que sancionara el plan.
«The Dome of the Rock plot represented an abdication of reason, a reliance upon the miraculous, and a nihilism that could have entirely destroyed the Jewish state.» — su balance sobre el complot: abdicación de la razón, confianza en lo milagroso y nihilismo capaz de destruir el Estado judío.
«His Judaism was so reductionist and ruthlessly selective that it become a deadly caricature of the faith.» — su objeción al judaísmo de Meir Kahane, tan reduccionista y selectivo que resultaba una caricatura mortífera de la fe.
«The message was simply this: “God wanted us to come to this country and create a Jewish state.”» — el mensaje único que Kahane declaraba.
«The Jewish doctrine of holiness (kodesh: “separateness” “a setting apart”), which had symbolically celebrated the distinction of things by means of ritual, now had, in Kahane’s interpretation, a uniquely political meaning: “God wants us to live in a country on our own, isolated, so that we have the least possible contact with what is foreign.”» — el sentido político que Kahane le dio a la doctrina judía de la santidad, kodesh, separación y apartamiento.
«Because Israel failed, the Messiah would still come, but in a huge anti-Semitic catastrophe, far worse than the Holocaust, which would finally force all Jews to obey God’s one commandment and settle in Israel.» — la escatología de Kahane: una catástrofe antisemita peor que el Holocausto que forzaría a todos los judíos a asentarse en Israel.
«Kahane’s theology sees enemies everywhere, enemies that are ultimately one and the same, whether they are Christians, Nazis, blacks, Russians, or Arabs.» — los enemigos que su teología ve en todas partes, y que ella describe como en el fondo uno solo.
«He was also contending for the soul of Palestine against the nationalists: the cultural identity of the Palestinian people, he believed, should be Muslim rather than secular.» — lo que Sheikh Ahmed Yasin creía sobre la identidad cultural palestina, musulmana antes que secular.
«HAMAS believed that the success of Israel was due to Jewish faith, and that Israel was dedicated to the destruction of Islam.» — lo que HAMAS creía sobre el origen del éxito de Israel y sobre su propósito respecto del islam.
«They claimed, therefore, to be fighting a war of self-defense.» — la calificación de guerra de autodefensa que reclamaban para sí.
«Other Gush rabbis raised the question whether Rabin had become a rodef (“pursuer”), one who actively threatens the life of a Jew, and so is deemed worthy of death under Jewish law.» — la figura legal de rodef, el perseguidor merecedor de muerte, que algunos rabinos del Gush plantearon a propósito de Rabin.
«His study of Jewish law, he said later, had persuaded him that Rabin was just such a rodef, an enemy of the Jewish people; he had a duty to kill him.» — lo que el asesino declaró después sobre su estudio de la ley judía y el deber de matar. Es adjudicación suya.
«Like the murder of Sadat, the assassination of Rabin showed that two wars are being fought in the Middle East.» — el paralelo que traza con el asesinato de Sadat y las dos guerras que ve libradas en Oriente Medio.
«When speaking about Gush Emunim, Oz called it “a cruel and obdurate sect” which had emerged “from a dark corner of Judaism, and is threatening to destroy all that is dear and holy to us.”» — lo que el novelista israelí Amos Oz dijo de Gush Emunim, con la secta cruel y obstinada salida de un rincón oscuro del judaísmo. Es juicio suyo.
«The real aim of the Gush, he continued, was not the conquest of Nablus or Hebron, but the imposition of an ugly and distorted version of Judaism upon the State of Israel.» — lo que Oz sostenía sobre el fin verdadero del Gush: imponer una versión distorsionada del judaísmo al Estado de Israel.
«Fundamentalists did not assassinate their presidents, lead revolutions, or take hostages.» — su contraste sobre lo que los fundamentalistas estadounidenses no hicieron.
«Other polls showed that even though only 9 percent of Americans identified themselves as “fundamentalists,” core tenets of Protestant fundamentalism were more widely held.» — el dato de las encuestas: solo un 9 por ciento se declaraba fundamentalista y los principios centrales estaban mucho más extendidos.
«The success of American fundamentalism was not entirely due to the adroit marketing of Jerry Falwell and other televangelists.» — su matiz sobre las causas del éxito, que no atribuye solo al mercadeo de los televangelistas.
«Because of the Christian concern with doctrine, Protestant fundamentalism had set out in a different direction from the other movements we have considered.» — su explicación de por qué el fundamentalismo protestante tomó otro rumbo: la preocupación cristiana por la doctrina.
«Protestant fundamentalists had perverted myth in a different way.» — la fórmula que resume ese rumbo: una perversión distinta del mito.
«Since the late nineteenth century, American fundamentalists had responded to the challenge of modernity by trying to make their faith wholly rational.» — su balance del programa fundamentalista desde fines del siglo XIX: volver la fe enteramente racional.
«They had emphasized the virtues of reason and plain sense; they had embraced a sober literalism that eschewed imagination and fantasy; they had organized the world into watertight compartments in which right was utterly and obviously distinct from wrong, and true believers in an entirely different category from secularists and liberal Christians.» — los rasgos de ese programa: razón y sentido llano, literalismo sobrio sin imaginación ni fantasía, y compartimentos estancos entre el bien y el mal.
«Theirs had been an ethic of separation; fundamentalists had created a counterculture that was supposed to be everything that the Godless mainstream was not: it was a faith that offered cast-iron certainty and hierarchy to challenge the doubts, open questions, and shifting roles of the modern world.» — la ética de separación y la contracultura que debía ser todo lo que la corriente sin Dios no era, con certeza de hierro y jerarquía.
«By trying to make their faith scientific and rational, the fundamentalists had pushed religion into an unnatural mode.» — su tesis central sobre el caso: al querer volver científica y racional su fe, empujaron la religión a un modo antinatural.
«As fundamentalists had rebelled against the scientific rationalism of Darwin, based on hypothesis and free inquiry, by clinging to the Baconian ideal, so now the Bakkers revolted against the rationalism of the old-style fundamentalists like Falwell.» — el paralelo de rebeldías que traza: los fundamentalistas contra Darwin aferrados al ideal baconiano, y los Bakker contra el racionalismo de Falwell.
«Instead of insisting that truth was factual, the exhibits in Heritage USA drew attention to their artificial and unnatural assemblage in the park.» — lo que las exhibiciones de Heritage USA hacían con la verdad factual, según la lectura de Harding que ella recoge.
«There was an “exact replica” of the Upper Room in Jerusalem (where Jesus was believed to have eaten the Last Supper and instituted the Eucharist), but it was deliberately made to look like a reproduction.» — la réplica exacta del Cenáculo hecha adrede con aspecto de reproducción.
«Harding suggests that the Bakkers, who emphasized the endless love of God, were also evolving a folk theology of infinite forgiveness, which almost seemed to sanction sin, since it promised divine pardon beforehand.» — la teología popular de perdón infinito que Harding atribuye a los Bakker, casi sancionando el pecado por adelantado.
«We have seen that in the past, an antinomian rebellion has sometimes erupted during a time of transition.» — su regla histórica sobre la rebelión antinómica en tiempos de transición, con el modal sometimes.
«However, fundamentalism was not dead; it had, in fact, entered a new and more extreme phase» — su corrección al diagnóstico de muerte: el fundamentalismo había entrado en una fase nueva y más extrema.
«They described their “operations” as acts of “biblical disobedience.”» — el término con que Operation Rescue describía sus operaciones.
«His aim was fundamentalist: to create “a nation where once again the Judeo-Christian ethic is the foundation for our politics, our judicial system, and our public morality; a nation not floating in the uncertain sea of humanism, but a country whose unmoving bedrock is Higher Laws.”» — el fin declarado de Randall Terry, con la ética judeocristiana por cimiento y unas Leyes Superiores por lecho de roca. Es programa suyo.
«The Reconstruction movement, founded by the Texan economist Gary North and his father-in-law, Rousas John Rushdoony, is also engaged in a war against secular humanism, in a more extreme form than that waged by the Moral Majority.» — sitúa el movimiento de Reconstrucción de Gary North y Rousas John Rushdoony en una guerra contra el humanismo secular más extrema que la de Moral Majority.
«Like Muslim fundamentalists, North and Rushdoony are principally concerned about the sovereignty of God.» — el paralelo que traza con los fundamentalistas musulmanes en cuanto a la soberanía de Dios.
«A Christian civilization must be established that will defeat Satan and usher in the millennial Kingdom.» — la meta declarada de esa doctrina: una civilización cristiana que derrote a Satán e inaugure el Reino milenario.
«There will be no need, however, for Christians to take action to achieve this, since God himself will bring the modern state down in a terrible catastrophe.» — el reparto de tareas de esa escatología: los cristianos no tendrán que actuar, porque Dios derribará al Estado moderno en una catástrofe.
«When the Kingdom comes, there will be no more separation of church and state; the modern heresy of democracy will be abolished, and society reorganized on strictly biblical lines.» — lo que esa doctrina prevé para el Reino: sin separación de Iglesia y Estado, con la democracia abolida por herejía moderna.
«Indeed, as North explains, there is a “tight relationship between wickedness and poverty.”» — la relación entre maldad y pobreza que North explica. Es doctrina suya.
«While waiting for victory—which, North admits, may be some time off —Christians must prepare to rebuild society according to God’s blueprint and must support government policies which approximate to these strict biblical norms.» — lo que North pide a los cristianos mientras esperan, con su propia admisión de que la victoria puede tardar.
«The Dominion envisaged by North and Rushdoony is totalitarian. There is no room for any other view or policy, no democratic tolerance for rival parties,» — su calificación del Dominio de North y Rushdoony como totalitario, sin sitio para otra política ni tolerancia democrática.
«Fundamentalism is not going to disappear.» — su pronóstico, en cinco palabras.
«Christian Identity, a fascist group, has not been mentioned in this book because it has left fundamentalism far behind, and, indeed, disapproves of fundamentalism.» — su declaración de método sobre Christian Identity y por qué queda fuera del libro.
«But they have outdone the fundamentalists in their overtly fascist ideology, their pure hatred of the United States government, and the extremity of their withdrawal from modern life.» — en qué dice que Christian Identity superó a los fundamentalistas: ideología abiertamente fascista, odio al gobierno y retirada extrema de la vida moderna.
«No longer concerned with problems of doctrine and biblical inerrancy, the Identity groups want to carve out for themselves a separate Aryan state in America.» — el desplazamiento de intereses que consigna: ya no la doctrina ni la inerrancia bíblica, sino un Estado ario separado.
«Religion did not disappear after all, and in some circles it has become more militant than ever.» — su constatación de cierre sobre la religión que no desapareció.
«In all three of the monotheistic faiths, fundamentalists have reacted angrily to attempts to privatize or to suppress religion, and have, as they believe, rescued it from oblivion.» — lo que los fundamentalistas de las tres fes monoteístas creen haber hecho: rescatar la religión del olvido.
«It has been a hard struggle and in the course of it, the faith has often been distorted; this represents a defeat for religion.» — su balance sobre el costo de esa lucha, con la fe distorsionada y una derrota para la religión.
«But fundamentalism is now part of the modern world. It represents a widespread disappointment, alienation, anxiety, and rage that no government can safely ignore.» — su tesis final: el fundamentalismo forma parte del mundo moderno y expresa una decepción y una rabia que ningún gobierno puede ignorar.
«So far, efforts to deal with fundamentalism have not been very successful; what lessons can we learn from the past that will help us to deal more creatively in the future with the fears that fundamentalism enshrines?» — la pregunta con que cierra el capítulo, y que abre el epílogo.
«WE CANNOT BE RELIGIOUS in the same way as our ancestors in the premodern conservative world, when the myths and rituals of faith helped people to accept limitations that were essential to agrarian civilization.» — la imposibilidad con que abre el epílogo: no cabe ser religioso como los antepasados del mundo conservador premoderno.
«We are now oriented to the future, and those of us who have been shaped by the rationalism of the modern world cannot easily understand the old forms of spirituality.» — la razón que da: la orientación al futuro y la formación racionalista.
«We are not unlike Newton, one of the first people in the Western world to be wholly imbued by the scientific spirit, who found it impossible to understand mythology.» — el paralelo que se aplica a sí misma y a sus lectores con el Newton incapaz de entender la mitología.
«However hard we try to embrace conventional religion, we have a natural tendency to see truth as factual, historical, and empirical.» — la tendencia natural que reconoce en el lector moderno a ver la verdad como factual, histórica y empírica.
«Many have become convinced that if faith is to be taken seriously, its myths must be shown to be historical and capable of working practically with all the efficiency that modernity expects.» — la convicción que se sigue de esa tendencia sobre los mitos que deben mostrarse históricos y prácticos.
«As scientists would be the first to insist, rational logos cannot address questions of ultimate meaning that lie beyond the reach of empirical inquiry.» — el límite del logos racional, apoyado en lo que dice que los propios científicos serían los primeros en insistir.
«Confronted with the genocidal horrors of our century, reason has nothing to say.» — lo que la razón tiene que decir ante los horrores genocidas del siglo, según ella.
«Fundamentalism is just one of these modern religious experiments, and, as we have seen, it has enjoyed a certain success in putting religion squarely back on the international agenda, but it has often lost sight of some of the most sacred values of the confessional faiths.» — su balance sobre el fundamentalismo como uno de esos experimentos religiosos modernos, con su éxito y su pérdida de vista de valores sagrados.
«Fundamentalists have turned the mythos of their religion into logos, either by insisting that their dogmas are scientifically true, or by transforming their complex mythology into a streamlined ideology.» — la fórmula central de todo el libro sobre lo que los fundamentalistas hacen con el mythos de su religión.
«At the end of the twentieth century, the liberal myth that humanity is progressing to an ever more enlightened and tolerant state looks as fantastic as any of the other millennial myths we have considered in this book.» — su juicio sobre el mito liberal del progreso, puesto al lado de los demás mitos milenarios del libro.
«Modernity has been beneficial, benevolent, and humane, but it has often, especially in its early stages, felt the need to be cruel.» — su balance doble sobre la modernidad, benéfica y benevolente y con necesidad de crueldad sobre todo en sus etapas tempranas.
«Suppression and coercion are clearly not the answer. They invariably lead to a backlash and can make fundamentalists or potential fundamentalists more extreme.» — su conclusión práctica sobre la supresión y la coacción, con la reacción invariable que provocan.
«Protestant fundamentalists in the United States became more reactionary, intransigent, and literal-minded after their humiliation at the Scopes trial.» — el caso con que la sostiene: el protestantismo fundamentalista tras la humillación de Dayton.
«Khomeini’s theory of Velayat-e Faqih was a shocking and revolutionary overturning of centuries of Shii tradition.» — su calificación del Velayat-e Faqih como vuelco chocante y revolucionario de siglos de tradición chií.
«Even ultra-Orthodox Jews, who seemed resolutely to turn their backs upon modern society, found that their yeshivot were essentially modern, voluntarist institutions.» — lo que halló en las yeshivot de los judíos ultraortodoxos: instituciones esencialmente modernas y voluntaristas.
«They adopted a novel stringency in their observance of the Torah and learned to manipulate the political system in a way that brought them more power than any religious Jew had enjoyed for nearly two millennia.» — el rigor novedoso en la observancia y la manipulación del sistema político que consigna.
«Throughout we have seen that religion has often helped people to adjust to modernity.» — su tesis general sobre la religión como ayuda para ajustarse a la modernidad, con el modal often.
«Shabbateanism, Quakerism, Methodism, and Islamic mysticism helped Jews, Christians, and Muslims prepare for major change, and gave them a context in which they could approach the new ideas.» — los casos con que la sostiene: shabbateísmo, cuaquerismo, metodismo y mística islámica.
«Americans who had no time for the deism of the Founding Fathers of the republic were prepared for the revolutionary struggle by the Great Awakening.» — el caso estadounidense: el Gran Despertar preparando para la lucha revolucionaria a quienes no comulgaban con el deísmo de los fundadores.
«Muslims also developed an appreciation for such modern ideals as the separation of religion and politics by means of the dynamic of their own spirituality.» — lo que atribuye a los musulmanes: apreciar la separación de religión y política por dinámica de su propia espiritualidad.
«Hasan al-Banna, Shariati, and even Khomeini all sought to bring Muslims to modernity in an Islamic setting that was more familiar to them than the imported ideologies of the West.» — lo que atribuye por igual a Hasan al-Banna, a Shariati y a Khomeini: traer a los musulmanes a la modernidad en marco islámico.
«Khomeini and Shariati both insisted that it was impossible to exclude the sacred from politics; Qutb condemned the Godlessness of the secularist regime in Egypt, which he designated jahili.» — la insistencia común de Khomeini y de Shariati sobre lo sagrado en la política, y la condena de Qutb al régimen que llamó jahili.
«They did not see why that should make them less modern, though they tacitly recognized that this would mean a break with some of the old conservative aspects of premodern religion.» — lo que esos movimientos reconocían tácitamente: la ruptura con aspectos conservadores de la religión premoderna.
«Instead of reviling fundamentalists, the secularist establishment could sometimes have benefited from a long, hard look at some of their countercultures.» — su recomendación al establishment secularista sobre mirar despacio esas contraculturas en lugar de vilipendiarlas.
«Because it was so embattled, this campaign to re-sacralize society became aggressive and distorted.» — su explicación del desenlace: la campaña por resacralizar la sociedad se volvió agresiva y distorsionada por lo acorralada que estaba.
«But events would show that even the Jews of the Islamic world were growing restless, and dreaming of greater emancipation.» — su anticipo sobre los judíos del mundo islámico, también inquietos y soñando con mayor emancipación.
«When Shabbetai landed near Gallipoli, he was arrested, taken to Istanbul, brought before the sultan, and given the choice of death or conversion to Islam.» — la disyuntiva que se le puso a Shabbetai ante el sultán en Estambul.
«Shabbetai’s death on September 17, 1676, was a severe blow to Shabbateans, since it seemed to preclude all hope of redemption.» — el golpe que la muerte de Shabbetai en 1676 supuso para los shabbateanos.
«In the synagogues, Shabbetai tried to persuade Jews to convert to Islam; only then, he told them, would they return to the Holy Land.» — lo que Shabbetai intentaba en las sinagogas, con el retorno a Tierra Santa condicionado a la conversión.
«They saw no incompatibility, however, between their version of the faith and that of the majority.» — lo que esos esotéricos no veían: incompatibilidad entre su versión de la fe y la de la mayoría.
«He traveled extensively in North Africa and the Yemen, addressing the people in their own dialect, teaching them how to perform the ritual of communal prayer, and trying to shame them out of immoral practices.» — lo que hacía Ibn Idris en sus viajes: enseñar el rito de la plegaria comunal en el dialecto de cada pueblo.
«Shiis knew that it could be dangerous to mix religion and politics.» — lo que los chiíes sabían, en su lectura, sobre mezclar religión y política.
«Democracy had made the people sovereign, so they must become more godly if the new states were to escape the dangers inherent in popular rule.» — el argumento del clero sobre la soberanía popular y la piedad necesaria para escapar de los peligros del gobierno del pueblo.
«Eventually, in 1772, the Gaon excommunicated the Hasidim of Vilna and Brody; the shock of this expulsion is said to have killed Dov Ber.» — la excomunión de los jasidim de Vilna y Brody por el Gaón en 1772, y lo que se dice que el golpe causó en Dov Ber.
«Some of the students were permitted to spend a little time on modern philosophy or mathematics, but such secular subjects were secondary, regarded as stealing time from the Torah.» — el lugar secundario de los estudios seculares en Volozhin, tenidos por robo de tiempo a la Torá.
«He was convinced that madrasah students should study science in order to take a full part in modern society.» — la convicción de Abdu sobre el estudio de la ciencia por los alumnos de madrasa.
«Kook also argued that the Orthodox who opposed Zionism were equally destructive; by making themselves “an enemy of material change,” they had made the Jewish people weak.» — el cargo de Kook contra los ortodoxos antisionistas por hacerse enemigos del cambio material y debilitar al pueblo judío.
«He had not abated his hostility to Zionism one whit, but believed that in these Last Days, his mission must also reach the Jews in the defiled land of Israel.» — la misión que el Sexto Rebbe se dio en los Últimos Días, sin ceder un ápice en su hostilidad al sionismo.
«He had to divest himself of the “veils of darkness,” “attachment to the world,” and the lure of sensuality.» — aquello de lo que el faqih debía despojarse, según Khomeini: velos de tiniebla, apego al mundo y señuelo de la sensualidad.
«The government is empowered to unilaterally revoke any lawful agreement … if the agreement contravenes the interests of Islam and the country.» — la facultad de revocar unilateralmente cualquier acuerdo lícito contrario a los intereses del islam y del país.
«Terry is convinced that if Operation Rescue does not succeed, “America is not going to make it.”» — la convicción de Randall Terry sobre lo que ocurre si Operation Rescue no triunfa.
Sobre la obra
12 entradas — lo que el aparato y la investigación dicen de ella«Copyright © 2000 by Karen Armstrong» — Aparte: «Reader's Guide copyright © 2001» y «Preface copyright © 2001», los dos paratextos posteriores al cuerpo.
«This edition published by arrangement with Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.» — sello Ballantine Books / The Random House Publishing Group; eISBN 978-0-307-79860-2.
«NOTHING SHORT OF AMAZING …» — blurb del *San Diego Union-Tribune* en la primera página de reseñas; las EPUB pp. 2–3 son prensa (*Los Angeles Times*, *San Francisco Examiner*, *Washington Times*, el rabino Harold Kushner) y no voz de la autora.
La página de créditos acredita permisos de reimpresión a Hutchinson (por Amir Taheri) y a Scribner y A. P. Watt (por «The Second Coming» de W. B. Yeats).
Los agradecimientos acreditan a John Esposito, que la invitó al Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding de Georgetown, y a su traductor al danés Henrik Mossin, «for introducing me to the work of Johannes Sloek».
El aparato editorial nombrado en los agradecimientos: las editoras Jane Garrett, Michael Fishwick y Robbert Amerlaan; los agentes Felicity Bryan, Peter Ginsberg y «Andrew Nurnburg» (grafía de la fuente); Melvin Rosenthal, Anthea Lingeman, Claire Bradley Ong y Archie Ferguson en producción y diseño.
El corán que la obra usa en todo el libro es la versión de Muhammad Asad, *The Message of the Quran* (Gibraltar, 1980), declarada en nota.
Las notas del capítulo cabalístico descansan sobre Gershom Scholem —*Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism*, *Sabbatai Sevi, the Mystical Messiah*, *On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism*, *The Messianic Idea in Judaism*— y sobre los ensayos de Lawrence Fine, R. J. Werblowsky, Louis Jacobs y Jacob Katz en *Jewish Spirituality* de Arthur Green.
Ibn Arabi entra en este libro solo por bibliografía: sus dos únicas apariciones están dentro del título de Henri Corbin, *Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn Arabi*, en nota y en la bibliografía.
La entrevista de la Reader's Circle la conduce Jonathan Kirsch, columnista del *Los Angeles Times*: es paratexto editorial de 2001, no cuerpo de la obra.
Las catorce «Questions for Discussion» del club de lectura tienen forma de tesis y no lo son; se consignan como paratexto.
Traductores acreditados en las notas, a través de los cuales la obra cita: Rosemary Sheed (Eliade), Henrik Mossin (Sloek), W. Trask (Corbin), Janet Sondheimer (Heer), David Streight (Amir-Moezzi), George Eliot (Feuerbach), R. H. M. Elwes (Spinoza), A. J. Krailsheimer (Pascal).
Conceptos tratados
Ein Sof (el Infinito) — Divinidad infinita e inaccesible que se contrae sobre sí para hacer sitio al mundo, y que se revela en diez emanaciones sucesivas
Sefirot (las diez numeraciones) — Solo aparecen en la glosa de *Ein Sof*, nunca expuestas en el cuerpo
Tsimtsum — Bajo la grafía `Zimzum`: retirada voluntaria de la Divinidad, que inscribe el exilio en el fondo mismo del ser
Shevirat Ha Kelim — Solo como «breaking of the vessels»: los vasos se quiebran bajo la tensión de la luz y las chispas caen al abismo
Shekhinah — Presencia divina errante y exiliada, imaginada como mujer separada de Ein Sof
Tikkun — Restauración triple —Shekhinah al Divino, pueblo a la Tierra, mundo a su estado— por plegaria, rito y fidelidad a la Ley
Kawwanot — Reconfiguración meditativa de las letras que componen el Nombre de Dios, técnica de Safed
Devekut — Apego y conciencia perpetua de lo divino; su dominio define al *Zaddik* jasídico
Alam al Mithal — Mundo de las imágenes puras; visiones con realidad objetiva según Mir Dimad y Mulla Sadra
Batin — Dimensión oculta del texto y de la existencia, discernible solo por disciplina intuitiva
Mythos — Modo de conocimiento de lo intemporal, que solo se hace real encarnado en culto y rito
Logos — Pensamiento racional y pragmático, que debe corresponder exactamente a los hechos
Imaginación (phantasia) — El camino a Dios pasa por la imaginación creadora y mística; hay deber de crear las propias teofanías