1st edition: May 2010
This book is about essential issues in the history of civilization. The span of time and interest regarding European History is divided into the following: Ancient Greece, the period after the death of Alexander the Great, Byzantium and the feudal period in the Western Europe, the Renaissance and Modern times to the present day. The book also includes two chapters discussing specific aspects of Islam and India.
The main part of this book focuses on major thinkers and artistic creators that have given to various cultures their specific identity. Homer and the Greek tragedians, Plato and the poet Romanos Melodos, Dante, Chaucer, Boccaccio, El Greco and Van Gogh, Jelaledin al Rumi, creator of the Suffi movement, and Valmiki, author of Ramayana, all of them give us the means to penetrate their time and society, but also to realize, sometimes to our great surprise, that philosophy, arts and literature constitute privileged paths enabling us to interconnect human experiences of all times and countries.
The use of the word Civilization in the singular form implies the authors’ hope that despite the many differences and the frequent conflicts, there is something like a common heritage that is shared by humanity. Another essential concern of the authors is to discuss and unveil the element of ideology, implicit in definitions that have to do with time and space and present even or particularly when several thinkers claim the outmost objectivity. |
