The West is a strange nexus of Semitic religion, Greco-Roman art and philosophy, Gothic blood with a remnant of North European paganism. All of these elements seem at once foreign to ourselves and yet connected to us intimately. I think that is why Europeans, uniquely it seems, were so intent on understanding other cultures at a deep level, translating the Popol Vuh into Spanish (done by a Dominican Friar) and uncovering Troy, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the hieratic script of ancient Egypt. We look outward in order to look inward. Perhaps because our core identity is this tangle of conflicting and complementary visions of the past.
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The West is a strange nexus of Semitic religion, Greco-Roman art and philosophy, Gothic blood with a remnant of North European paganism. All of these elements seem at once foreign to ourselves and yet connected to us intimately. I think that is why Europeans, uniquely it seems, were so intent on understanding other cultures at a deep level, translating the Popol Vuh into Spanish (done by a Dominican Friar) and uncovering Troy, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the hieratic script of ancient Egypt. We look outward in order to look inward. Perhaps because our core identity is this tangle of conflicting and complementary visions of the past.
Which book of Nasr's is this one found in?
''The Heart of Islam"