Even Before 9/11 I Was Gripped By

Alexander's Achievement Was Not The Conquest Of India, But The Feat Of Actually Getting There And His Two Years In India Were More Of A Geographical Expedition Than A Military Campaign. .... A Greek Army Had Reached What They Regarded As The End Of The Earth. They Had Pitted Themselves Against The Ultimate As Bravely As The Yogins Had Struggled To Break Through The Limits Of The Human Psyche. Where Mystics Had Conquered Interior Space, Alexander Explored The Farthest Reaches Of The Physical World. .... Like Many Of The Axial Sages, He Was Constantly 'straining After More'.

My Study Of Religion, Which I Regard In Many Ways As An Art Form, Is A Search For Meaning.

He [aristotle] Pointed Out That People Who Had Become Initiates In The Various Mystery Religions Were Not Required To Learn Any Facts 'but To Experience Certain Emotions And To Be Put In A Certain Disposition.' Hence His Famous Literary Theory That Tragedy Effected A Purification (katharsis) Of The Emotions Of Terror And Pity That Amounted To An Experience Of Rebirth.

Yes, All Fundamentalists Feel That In A Secular Society, God Has Been Relegated To The Margin, To The Periphery And They Are All In Different Ways Seeking To Drag Him Out Of That Peripheral Position, Back To Center Stage.

Islam Is A Religion Of Success. Unlike Christianity, Which Has As Its Main Image, In The West At Least, A Man Dying In A Devastating, Disgraceful, Helpless Death. The Cross, Crucified, And That Turned Into Victory. Mohammad Was Not An Apparent Failure. He Was A Dazzling Success, Politically As Well As Spiritually, And Islam Went From Strength To Strength To Strength.