Robert Charles Zaehner
Encyclopedia
Robert Charles Zaehner was a British academic who specialised in Eastern religions. He was also an intelligence officer.
, the son of Swiss
immigrants to England, Zaehner was educated nearby at Tonbridge School
. Admitted to Christ Church, Oxford
, he studied Greek
and Latin, and also ancient Persian including Avestan
, gaining first class honours in Oriental Languages. During 1936-37 he studied Pahlavi, another ancient Iranian language, with Sir Harold Bailey at Cambridge
. He then began work on his Zurvan, a Zoroastrian Dilemma, a study of the pre-Islamic religion of Iran.
Zaehner enjoyed "a prodigious gift for languages" and later acquired reading knowledge of Sanskrit
(for Hindu scriptures), Pali
(for Buddhist), and Arabic (for Islamic). In 1939 he acted as research lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford
. About this time, apparently after reading the French poet Arthur Rimbaud
, Rumi the sufi poet of Iran, and the Hindu Upanishads, Zaehner had adopted a "nature mysticism". Nonetheless, he soon converted to Christianity, becoming a Roman Catholic while stationed in Iran.
During World War II
starting in 1943, he served as a British intelligence officer at their Embassy in Tehran
. Often he would be stationed in the field among the hill tribes of northern Iran. After the war he performed a more diplomatic role at Tehran until 1947. Decades later another British intelligence officer, Peter Wright
, described his activities:
Back in Britain, Zaehner took up again his academic research on Zoroastrianism, while also continuing his work as an MI6 officer. During 1949 he was relocated to Malta
where he trained anti-Communist Albanians
. In 1950 he secured appointment as Lecturer in Persian
at Oxford University. He returned briefly to Iran during 1951 to perform government service.
When in Tehran that year he held the rank of Counsellor. In fact, he continued as an MI6 officer. During the Abadan Crisis
he was assigned to prolong the Shah's royal hold on the Throne
from the republic
an challenge led by Mohammed Mossadegh, then the Prime Minister of Iran
. Thus Zaehner became engaged in the failed 1951 British effort to topple the government of Iran and return oil production to an entity controlled by the British government, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, which had been in effect nationalized
by Mossadegh. "[T]he plot to overthrow Mossadegh and give the oilfields back to the AIOC was in the hands of a British diplomat called Robin Zaehner, later professor of Eastern religions at Oxford."
In the 1960s, MI5
counter-intelligence
officer Peter Wright
questioned Zaehner about floating allegations that he had doubled as a spy for the Soviet Union
, harming British intelligence operations in Iran
and Albania during the period following World War II. Zaehner is described as "a small, wiry-looking man, clothed in the distracted charm of erudition." Wright wrote in his 1987 book Spycatcher
that Zaehner's humble demeanor and candid denial convinced him that the Oxford don had remained loyal to Britain. Wright notes that "I felt like a heel" for confronting Zaehner.
Back again to his prior home at Oxford University, in 1952 Zaehner was elected Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics to succeed the celebrated professor and India
n statesman Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
. His inaugural lecture was unconventional in content, Zaehner delivering a strong yet witty criticism of "universalism" in religion. He served Oxford in this academic chair, while also a fellow at All Souls College, until his death in 1974, and never married. Invited to deliver in Scotland the Gifford Lectures
, he did so at the University of St. Andrews during the years 1967-1969, which lectures were later published.
"Zaehner was a scholar who turned into something different, something more important than a scholar," according to Prof. Dummett. With insight and learning (and his war-time experience) Zaehner shed light on key issues in contemporary spiritual life, writing abundantly. "His talent lay in seeing what to ask, rather than in how to answer... ." He died on 24 November 1974. "[A]t the age of sixty-one he fell down dead in the street on his way to Sunday evening Mass."
, notably his book, Zurvan
, a Zoroastrian dilemma (1955), an original scholarly discussion of the theological
deviation from the stark Zoroastrian dualism
promoted by the newly ascendant Sasanian dynasty. Perhaps somewhat analogous to original Zoroastrian doctrine, Zurvanism in its various forms starting in the third century C.E.
became very influential throughout the Persian world. Zurvan could be described as divinized time
, from which would spring into being both the ethical creator godhead Ahura Mazda
, who is worshipped, and his satanic antagonist Angra Mainyu
, whom believers fight against. Zaehner also wrote from a wider perspective in his The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism (1961), where he explores the era of the founding of the religion by its prophet Zarathushtra (for whom Zaehner gives traditional sixth century BCE dates), and later its decline, when there arose doctrines concerning Zurvan i Akanarak [Infinite Time], and of the savior Saoshyans. Facets of his interpretation of Zoroastrian religious history are novel.
Zaehner wrote extensively on comparative religion
, as well as on mysticism
. Prominent among his contributions, Zaehner criticized on several occasions the simplistic idea of the mystical unity of all religions; he based his contrary ideas and proposals on the historic texts written by well-known mystics of various traditions, which contain descriptions of their experiences, often with their interpretive theology as well. In his innovative book comparing the mystical literature and practice of Hinduism
and Islam
, he includes this theme of the diversity of mystical phenomena. He introduces here a description and discussion of five different types of mysticism to be found in Indian tradition: "the sacrificial
, the Upanishadic, the Yogic
, the Buddhistic
, and that of bhakti
." Zaehner relies on Hindu mystics because of their relative freedom from creed or dogma. He leaves aside the first (of historic interest), and the fourth (due to the definitions of nirvana
), so that as exemplars of mystical experience he presents: (a) the Upanishadic "I am this All" which can be subdivided into (i) a theistic
interpretaion or (ii) a monistic
; (b) the Yogic "unity" outside space and time, either (i) of the eternal monad of the mystic's own individual soul per the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
or (ii) of Brahman
, the ground of the universe, per the advaita Vedanta
of Sankara
; and, (c) the bhakti mysticism of love, per the commentary on the Bhagavad Gita
by Ramanuja
. On these experiential foundations, Zaehner explores the spiritual treasures left to us by the mystics of the Santana Dharma and of Islam
.
During the 1940s which he spent in Iran
he had returned to the Christian faith, converting to Catholicism
. Accordingly, he also published several comparative works expressly from that perspective.
Zaehner gave the Gifford Lectures
during the years 1967-1969. In these sessions he presented a grand historical overview of how the different religions have provided a mutuality of nourishment, and also have interpenetrated each other's beliefs. The historically obfuscated result is that neighboring religions might develop the other's theological insights as their own, as well as employ the other's distinctions to accent and explain their own doctrines to themselves. Zaehner also provided a suggestive commentary regarding, e.g., the conjunction of unique and differing faiths. These Lectures were later published as Concordant Discord. The Interdependence of Faiths.
he had taken mescalin, but Zaehner came to a different conclusion. In his 1957 book Mysticism. Sacred and Profane. An Inquiry into some Varieties of Praeternatural Experience, he aims to uphold a distinction between an amoral monism on the one hand and theistic mysticism on the other. In part he relies on a personal experience recorded by Martin Buber
. Here and elsewhere, he thus sets himself against Huxley's adoption of the Perennial Philosophy
.
A contrary interpretation of his book Mysticism would present Zaehner as having had a "bad trip" on mescaline. He also was limited by his pre-existing ideas. Zaehner thus discusses his mescaline experience in terms of a narrow view on religious mysticism. In short: Zaehner argues that only theistic mysticism is sacred and that all other mystical states must be profane or amoral. Accordingly, Zaehner ends his book with an ecstatic defense of the Christian trinity.
In his later book Our Savage God, especially in his essay "Rot in the Clockwork Orange", Zaehner argued against aspects of an ancient monism which he saw as leading logically to excess, not only of the kind propagated by Timothy Leary
, or even earlier by Aleister Crowley
, but perhaps eventually, ultimately to the criminal depravity of Charles Manson
. Here Zaehner provides a warning how the misuse of theology can result in horror.
AS TRANSLATOR/EDITOR:
Life
Born on 8 April 1913 in Sevenoaks, KentKent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, the son of Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
immigrants to England, Zaehner was educated nearby at Tonbridge School
Tonbridge School
Tonbridge School is a British boys' independent school for both boarding and day pupils in Tonbridge, Kent, founded in 1553 by Sir Andrew Judd . It is a member of the Eton Group, and has close links with the Worshipful Company of Skinners, one of the oldest London livery companies...
. Admitted to Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
, he studied Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
and Latin, and also ancient Persian including Avestan
Avestan language
Avestan is an East Iranian language known only from its use as the language of Zoroastrian scripture, i.e. the Avesta, from which it derives its name...
, gaining first class honours in Oriental Languages. During 1936-37 he studied Pahlavi, another ancient Iranian language, with Sir Harold Bailey at Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
. He then began work on his Zurvan, a Zoroastrian Dilemma, a study of the pre-Islamic religion of Iran.
Zaehner enjoyed "a prodigious gift for languages" and later acquired reading knowledge of Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
(for Hindu scriptures), Pali
Páli
- External links :* *...
(for Buddhist), and Arabic (for Islamic). In 1939 he acted as research lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
. About this time, apparently after reading the French poet Arthur Rimbaud
Arthur Rimbaud
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...
, Rumi the sufi poet of Iran, and the Hindu Upanishads, Zaehner had adopted a "nature mysticism". Nonetheless, he soon converted to Christianity, becoming a Roman Catholic while stationed in Iran.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
starting in 1943, he served as a British intelligence officer at their Embassy in Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
. Often he would be stationed in the field among the hill tribes of northern Iran. After the war he performed a more diplomatic role at Tehran until 1947. Decades later another British intelligence officer, Peter Wright
Peter Wright
Peter Maurice Wright was an English scientist and former MI5 counterintelligence officer, noted for writing the controversial book Spycatcher, which became an international bestseller with sales of over two million copies...
, described his activities:
"I studied Zaehner's Personal File. He was responsible for MI6 counterintelligence in Persia during the war. It was difficult and dangerous work. The railway lines into Russia, carrying vital military supplies, were key targets for German sabotage. Zaehner was perfectly equipped for the job, speaking the local dialects fluently, and much of his time was spent undercover, operating in the murky and cutthroat world of countersabotage. By the end of the war his task was even more fraught. The Russians themselves were trying to gain control of the railway, and Zaehner had to work behind Russian lines, continuously at risk of betrayal and murder by pro-German or pro-Russian... ."
Back in Britain, Zaehner took up again his academic research on Zoroastrianism, while also continuing his work as an MI6 officer. During 1949 he was relocated to Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
where he trained anti-Communist Albanians
Albanian Subversion
The Albanian Subversion is one of the earliest and most notable failures of the Western covert paramilitary operations behind the Iron Curtain. Based on wrong assessments about Albania, and thinking that the country was ready to shake off its Stalinist regime, the British SIS and the American CIA...
. In 1950 he secured appointment as Lecturer in Persian
Persian literature
Persian literature spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources have been within historical Persia including present-day Iran as well as regions of Central Asia where the Persian language has historically been the national language...
at Oxford University. He returned briefly to Iran during 1951 to perform government service.
When in Tehran that year he held the rank of Counsellor. In fact, he continued as an MI6 officer. During the Abadan Crisis
Abadan Crisis
The Abadan Crisis occurred from 1951 to 1954, after Iran nationalised the Iranian assets of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and expelled Western companies from oil refineries in the city of Abadan .-Prelude:...
he was assigned to prolong the Shah's royal hold on the Throne
Peacock Throne
The Peacock Throne, called Takht-e Tâvus in Persian, is the name originally given to a Mughal throne of India, which was later adopted and used to describe the thrones of the Persian emperors from Nader Shah Afshari and erroneously to Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi whose throne was a reconstruction of...
from the republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
an challenge led by Mohammed Mossadegh, then the Prime Minister of Iran
Prime Minister of Iran
Prime Minister of Iran was a political post in Iran that had existed during several different periods of time starting with the Qajar era until its most recent revival from 1979 to 1989 following the Iranian Revolution.-Prime Ministers of Qajar era:In the Qajar era, prime ministers were known by...
. Thus Zaehner became engaged in the failed 1951 British effort to topple the government of Iran and return oil production to an entity controlled by the British government, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, which had been in effect nationalized
Nationalization
Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...
by Mossadegh. "[T]he plot to overthrow Mossadegh and give the oilfields back to the AIOC was in the hands of a British diplomat called Robin Zaehner, later professor of Eastern religions at Oxford."
In the 1960s, MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
counter-intelligence
Counter-intelligence
Counterintelligence or counter-intelligence refers to efforts made by intelligence organizations to prevent hostile or enemy intelligence organizations from successfully gathering and collecting intelligence against them. National intelligence programs, and, by extension, the overall defenses of...
officer Peter Wright
Peter Wright
Peter Maurice Wright was an English scientist and former MI5 counterintelligence officer, noted for writing the controversial book Spycatcher, which became an international bestseller with sales of over two million copies...
questioned Zaehner about floating allegations that he had doubled as a spy for the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, harming British intelligence operations in Iran
Operation Ajax
The 1953 Iranian coup d'état was the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh on 19 August 1953, orchestrated by the intelligence agencies of the United Kingdom and the United States under the name TPAJAX Project...
and Albania during the period following World War II. Zaehner is described as "a small, wiry-looking man, clothed in the distracted charm of erudition." Wright wrote in his 1987 book Spycatcher
Spycatcher
Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer , is a book written by Peter Wright, former MI5 officer and Assistant Director, and co-author Paul Greengrass. It was published first in Australia...
that Zaehner's humble demeanor and candid denial convinced him that the Oxford don had remained loyal to Britain. Wright notes that "I felt like a heel" for confronting Zaehner.
Back again to his prior home at Oxford University, in 1952 Zaehner was elected Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics to succeed the celebrated professor and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n statesman Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan , OM, FBA was an Indian philosopher and statesman. He was the first Vice President of India and subsequently the second President of India ....
. His inaugural lecture was unconventional in content, Zaehner delivering a strong yet witty criticism of "universalism" in religion. He served Oxford in this academic chair, while also a fellow at All Souls College, until his death in 1974, and never married. Invited to deliver in Scotland the Gifford Lectures
Gifford Lectures
The Gifford Lectures were established by the will of Adam Lord Gifford . They were established to "promote and diffuse the study of Natural Theology in the widest sense of the term — in other words, the knowledge of God." The term natural theology as used by Gifford means theology supported...
, he did so at the University of St. Andrews during the years 1967-1969, which lectures were later published.
"Zaehner was a scholar who turned into something different, something more important than a scholar," according to Prof. Dummett. With insight and learning (and his war-time experience) Zaehner shed light on key issues in contemporary spiritual life, writing abundantly. "His talent lay in seeing what to ask, rather than in how to answer... ." He died on 24 November 1974. "[A]t the age of sixty-one he fell down dead in the street on his way to Sunday evening Mass."
Academic works
Initially his reputation rested for the most part on his studies of ZoroastrianismZoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster and was formerly among the world's largest religions. It was probably founded some time before the 6th century BCE in Greater Iran.In Zoroastrianism, the Creator Ahura Mazda is all good, and no evil...
, notably his book, Zurvan
Zurvanism
Zurvanism is a now-extinct branch of Zoroastrianism that had the divinity Zurvan as its First Principle . Zurvanism is also known as Zurvanite Zoroastrianism....
, a Zoroastrian dilemma (1955), an original scholarly discussion of the theological
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
deviation from the stark Zoroastrian dualism
Dualism
Dualism denotes a state of two parts. The term 'dualism' was originally coined to denote co-eternal binary opposition, a meaning that is preserved in metaphysical and philosophical duality discourse but has been diluted in general or common usages. Dualism can refer to moral dualism, Dualism (from...
promoted by the newly ascendant Sasanian dynasty. Perhaps somewhat analogous to original Zoroastrian doctrine, Zurvanism in its various forms starting in the third century C.E.
Common Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
became very influential throughout the Persian world. Zurvan could be described as divinized time
Time
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....
, from which would spring into being both the ethical creator godhead Ahura Mazda
Ahura Mazda
Ahura Mazdā is the Avestan name for a divinity of the Old Iranian religion who was proclaimed the uncreated God by Zoroaster, the founder of Zoroastrianism...
, who is worshipped, and his satanic antagonist Angra Mainyu
Angra Mainyu
Angra Mainyu is the Avestan-language name of Zoroastrianism's hypostasis of the "destructive spirit". The Middle Persian equivalent is Ahriman.-In Zoroaster's revelation:...
, whom believers fight against. Zaehner also wrote from a wider perspective in his The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism (1961), where he explores the era of the founding of the religion by its prophet Zarathushtra (for whom Zaehner gives traditional sixth century BCE dates), and later its decline, when there arose doctrines concerning Zurvan i Akanarak [Infinite Time], and of the savior Saoshyans. Facets of his interpretation of Zoroastrian religious history are novel.
Zaehner wrote extensively on comparative religion
Comparative religion
Comparative religion is a field of religious studies that analyzes the similarities and differences of themes, myths, rituals and concepts among the world's religions...
, as well as on mysticism
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
. Prominent among his contributions, Zaehner criticized on several occasions the simplistic idea of the mystical unity of all religions; he based his contrary ideas and proposals on the historic texts written by well-known mystics of various traditions, which contain descriptions of their experiences, often with their interpretive theology as well. In his innovative book comparing the mystical literature and practice of Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
and Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, he includes this theme of the diversity of mystical phenomena. He introduces here a description and discussion of five different types of mysticism to be found in Indian tradition: "the sacrificial
Yajna
In Hinduism, yajna is a ritual of sacrifice derived from the practice of Vedic times. It is performed to please the gods or to attain certain wishes...
, the Upanishadic, the Yogic
Yoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...
, the Buddhistic
Four stages of enlightenment
The four stages of enlightenment in Buddhism are the four progressive stages culminating in full enlightenment as an Arahat, which an average, instructed person can attain in this life...
, and that of bhakti
Bhakti
In Hinduism Bhakti is religious devotion in the form of active involvement of a devotee in worship of the divine.Within monotheistic Hinduism, it is the love felt by the worshipper towards the personal God, a concept expressed in Hindu theology as Svayam Bhagavan.Bhakti can be used of either...
." Zaehner relies on Hindu mystics because of their relative freedom from creed or dogma. He leaves aside the first (of historic interest), and the fourth (due to the definitions of nirvana
Nirvana
Nirvāṇa ; ) is a central concept in Indian religions. In sramanic thought, it is the state of being free from suffering. In Hindu philosophy, it is the union with the Supreme being through moksha...
), so that as exemplars of mystical experience he presents: (a) the Upanishadic "I am this All" which can be subdivided into (i) a theistic
Theism
Theism, in the broadest sense, is the belief that at least one deity exists.In a more specific sense, theism refers to a doctrine concerning the nature of a monotheistic God and God's relationship to the universe....
interpretaion or (ii) a monistic
Monism
Monism is any philosophical view which holds that there is unity in a given field of inquiry. Accordingly, some philosophers may hold that the universe is one rather than dualistic or pluralistic...
; (b) the Yogic "unity" outside space and time, either (i) of the eternal monad of the mystic's own individual soul per the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Patañjali
Patañjali is the compiler of the Yoga Sūtras, an important collection of aphorisms on Yoga practice. According to tradition, the same Patañjali was also the author of the Mahābhāṣya, a commentary on Kātyāyana's vārttikas on Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī as well as an unspecified work of medicine .In...
or (ii) of Brahman
Brahman
In Hinduism, Brahman is the one supreme, universal Spirit that is the origin and support of the phenomenal universe. Brahman is sometimes referred to as the Absolute or Godhead which is the Divine Ground of all being...
, the ground of the universe, per the advaita Vedanta
Vedanta
Vedānta was originally a word used in Hindu philosophy as a synonym for that part of the Veda texts known also as the Upanishads. The name is a morphophonological form of Veda-anta = "Veda-end" = "the appendix to the Vedic hymns." It is also speculated that "Vedānta" means "the purpose or goal...
of Sankara
Adi Shankara
Adi Shankara Adi Shankara Adi Shankara (IAST: pronounced , (Sanskrit: , ) (788 CE - 820 CE), also known as ' and ' was an Indian philosopher from Kalady of present day Kerala who consolidated the doctrine of advaita vedānta...
; and, (c) the bhakti mysticism of love, per the commentary on the Bhagavad Gita
Bhagavad Gita
The ' , also more simply known as Gita, is a 700-verse Hindu scripture that is part of the ancient Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, but is frequently treated as a freestanding text, and in particular, as an Upanishad in its own right, one of the several books that constitute general Vedic tradition...
by Ramanuja
Ramanuja
Ramanuja ; traditionally 1017–1137, also known as Ramanujacharya, Ethirajar , Emperumannar, Lakshmana Muni, was a theologian, philosopher, and scriptural exegete...
. On these experiential foundations, Zaehner explores the spiritual treasures left to us by the mystics of the Santana Dharma and of Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
.
During the 1940s which he spent in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
he had returned to the Christian faith, converting to Catholicism
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. Accordingly, he also published several comparative works expressly from that perspective.
Zaehner gave the Gifford Lectures
Gifford Lectures
The Gifford Lectures were established by the will of Adam Lord Gifford . They were established to "promote and diffuse the study of Natural Theology in the widest sense of the term — in other words, the knowledge of God." The term natural theology as used by Gifford means theology supported...
during the years 1967-1969. In these sessions he presented a grand historical overview of how the different religions have provided a mutuality of nourishment, and also have interpenetrated each other's beliefs. The historically obfuscated result is that neighboring religions might develop the other's theological insights as their own, as well as employ the other's distinctions to accent and explain their own doctrines to themselves. Zaehner also provided a suggestive commentary regarding, e.g., the conjunction of unique and differing faiths. These Lectures were later published as Concordant Discord. The Interdependence of Faiths.
Popular works
Like Aldous HuxleyAldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
he had taken mescalin, but Zaehner came to a different conclusion. In his 1957 book Mysticism. Sacred and Profane. An Inquiry into some Varieties of Praeternatural Experience, he aims to uphold a distinction between an amoral monism on the one hand and theistic mysticism on the other. In part he relies on a personal experience recorded by Martin Buber
Martin Buber
Martin Buber was an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of religious existentialism centered on the distinction between the I-Thou relationship and the I-It relationship....
. Here and elsewhere, he thus sets himself against Huxley's adoption of the Perennial Philosophy
Perennial philosophy
Perennial philosophy is the notion of the universal recurrence of philosophical insight independent of epoch or culture, including universal truths on the nature of reality, humanity or consciousness .-History:The idea of a perennial philosophy has great...
.
A contrary interpretation of his book Mysticism would present Zaehner as having had a "bad trip" on mescaline. He also was limited by his pre-existing ideas. Zaehner thus discusses his mescaline experience in terms of a narrow view on religious mysticism. In short: Zaehner argues that only theistic mysticism is sacred and that all other mystical states must be profane or amoral. Accordingly, Zaehner ends his book with an ecstatic defense of the Christian trinity.
In his later book Our Savage God, especially in his essay "Rot in the Clockwork Orange", Zaehner argued against aspects of an ancient monism which he saw as leading logically to excess, not only of the kind propagated by Timothy Leary
Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs. During a time when drugs like LSD and psilocybin were legal, Leary conducted experiments at Harvard University under the Harvard Psilocybin Project, resulting in the Concord Prison...
, or even earlier by Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both Frater Perdurabo and The Great Beast, was an influential English occultist, astrologer, mystic and ceremonial magician, responsible for founding the religious philosophy of Thelema. He was also successful in various other...
, but perhaps eventually, ultimately to the criminal depravity of Charles Manson
Charles Manson
Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...
. Here Zaehner provides a warning how the misuse of theology can result in horror.
Quotations
- There is indeed a sharp division between those religions whose characteristic form of religious experience is prayer and adoration of PascalBlaise PascalBlaise Pascal , was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen...
’s God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob on the one hand, and religions in which sitting postures designed to find the God within you are thought to be the most appropriate way of approaching the Deity.
- AristotleAristotleAristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
claimed to have known God 'for a short time' only, but that was enough. He was never so immodest as to claim that he had known the Truth, for he knew that this is reserved for God alone.
- One quite arresting resemblance between Zoroastrianism and Christianity remains to be noticed. This is the HaomaHaomaHaoma is the Avestan language name of a plant and its divinity, both of which play a role in Zoroastrian doctrine and in later Persian culture and mythology. The Middle Persian form of the name is hōm, which continues to be the name in Modern Persian and other living Iranian languages.Sacred haoma...
sacrifice and sacrament which seems to foreshadow the Catholic Mass in so strange a way.
- The whole ascetic tradition, whether it be Buddhist, Platonist, Manichaean, Christian or Islamic, springs from that most polluted of all sources, the Satanic sin of pride, the desire to be 'like gods'.
- Jung has done in the twentieth century A.D. what the Hindus did in perhaps the eighth century B.C.; he has discovered empirically the existence of an immortal soul in man, dwelling outside time and space, which can actually be experienced. This soul Jung, like the Hindus, calls the "self"... [which is] extremely difficult to describe in words. Hence his "self" is as hard to grasp as the Indian atmanĀtman (Hinduism)Ātman is a Sanskrit word that means 'self'. In Hindu philosophy, especially in the Vedanta school of Hinduism it refers to one's true self beyond identification with phenomena...
.
- True, the human phylum did not split up into separate subspecies as has been the case with other animal species, but it did split up into different religions and cultures, each having its own particular flavor, and each separated from the rest. With the outpouring of the Holy Spirit... the scattering of man which is symbolized by the Tower of BabelTower of BabelThe Tower of Babel , according to the Book of Genesis, was an enormous tower built in the plain of Shinar .According to the biblical account, a united humanity of the generations following the Great Flood, speaking a single language and migrating from the east, came to the land of Shinar, where...
comes to an end: the Church of Christ is born and the symbol of unity and union is found.
Zaehner bibliography
- Foolishness to the Greeks. Clarendon Press, Oxford University, 1953. Pamphlet. Reprint: Desclée de Brouwer, Paris, 1974.
- Zurvan. A Zoroastrian Dilemma. Clarendon Press, Oxford University, 1955. Reprint: Biblio and Tannen, New York, 1972.
- The Teachings of the Magi. A compendium of Zoroastrian beliefs. George Allen & Unwin, London, 1956. Reprints: Sheldon Press, London, 1972; Oxford University Press, London, 1976.
- Mysticism: Sacred and Profane. Clarendon Press, Oxford University, 1957. Reprint: Oxford University Press, London, 1961.
- At Sundry Times. An essay in the comparison of religions. Faber & Faber, London, 1958.
- The Comparison of Religions. Beacon Press, Boston, 1962.
- Inde, Israël, Islam: religions mystiques et révelations prophétiques. Desclée de Brouwer, Paris, 1965; translated by Eva Meyerovitch.
- Hindu and Muslim Mysticism. Athlone Press, University of London, 1960. Reprints: Schocken, New York, 1969; Oneworld, Oxford, 1994.
- The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1961.
- Hinduism. Oxford University Press, London, 1962.
- L'hindouisme. Desclée de Brouwer, Paris, 1974; translated by Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch.
- The Convergent Spirit. Towards a dialectics of Religion. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1963.
- Matter and Spirit. Their convergence in Eastern Religions, Marx, and Teilhard de Chardin. Harper & Row, New York, 1963.
- The Catholic Church and World Religions. Burns & Oates, London, 1964.
- Christianity and other Religions. Hawthorn Books, New York, 1964.
- Concordant Discord. The Interdependence of Faiths. Clarendon Press, Oxford University, 1970.
- Dialectical Christianity and Christian Materialism. The Riddell Memorial Lectures. Oxford University Press, London, 1971.
- Evolution in Religion. A study of Sri Aurobindo and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Clarendon Press, Oxford University, 1971.
- Drugs, Mysticism and Make-believe. William Collins, London, 1972.
- Zen, Drugs, and Mysticism. Pantheon Books, New York, 1972.
- Our Savage God. The Perverse use of Eastern Thought. Sheed & Ward, New York, 1974.
- The City within the Heart. Crossroad Publishing, New York, 1981. Introduction by Michael DummettMichael DummettSir Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett FBA D.Litt is a British philosopher. He was, until 1992, Wykeham Professor of Logic at the University of Oxford...
.
AS TRANSLATOR/EDITOR:
- Hindu Scriptures. Translated and edited by R. C. Zaehner. J. M. Dent, London, 1966.
- The Bhagavad Gita. With commentary based on the ancient sources. Translated by R. C. Zaehner. Oxford Univ., London, 1969.
- The Concise Encyclopedia of Living Faiths. Edited by R. C. Zaehner. Hawthorn Books, New York, 1959. Four editions.
- The Concise Encyclopedia of Living Faiths. Beacon Press, Boston, 1967.
- The Hutchinson Encyclopedia of Living Faiths. Century Hutchinson, London, 1988.
- Encyclopedia of the World's Religions. Barnes and Noble, New York, 1997.
Criticism, reviews
- Jeffrey John Kripal, Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom. University of Chicago, 2001. Chapter III (156-198) on Zaehner.
- Ann K. S. LambtonAnn LambtonAnn Katharine Swynford Lambton, usually known as A.K.S. Lambton , PhD, FBA, OBE , was a British historian and leading figure on medieval and early modern Persian history, Persian language, Islamic political theory, and Persian social organisation...
, "Obituary: Robert Charles Zaehner" in B.S.O.A.S. 38/3: 623-624 (London 1975). - Lloyd Newell, Struggle and Submission: R. C. Zaehner on Mysticisms. University Press of America, Washington DC, 1981.
- Geoffrey ParrinderGeoffrey ParrinderGeoffrey Parrinder , was a professor of comparative religion at King's College London, Methodist minister, and author of over thirty books...
, "Robert Charles Zaehner (1913-1974)" in History of Religions 16/1: 66-74 (Univ.of Chicago 1976).
Other material
- Mary BoyceMary BoyceNora Elisabeth Mary Boyce was a British scholar of Iranian languages, and an authority on Zoroastrianism...
, Zoroastrians. Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1979. - Peter WrightPeter WrightPeter Maurice Wright was an English scientist and former MI5 counterintelligence officer, noted for writing the controversial book Spycatcher, which became an international bestseller with sales of over two million copies...
with Paul Greengrass, Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer. Stoddart, Toronto, 1987.
External links
See also
- Comparative ReligionComparative religionComparative religion is a field of religious studies that analyzes the similarities and differences of themes, myths, rituals and concepts among the world's religions...
- History of ReligionsHistory of religionsThe history of religion refers to the written record of human religious experiences and ideas. This period of religious history begins with the invention of writing about 5,000 years ago in the Near East. The prehistory of religion relates to a study of religious beliefs that existed prior to the...
- Religious studiesReligious studiesReligious studies is the academic field of multi-disciplinary, secular study of religious beliefs, behaviors, and institutions. It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasizing systematic, historically based, and cross-cultural perspectives.While theology attempts to...
- ZoroastrianismZoroastrianismZoroastrianism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster and was formerly among the world's largest religions. It was probably founded some time before the 6th century BCE in Greater Iran.In Zoroastrianism, the Creator Ahura Mazda is all good, and no evil...
- Interfaith dialogue