THE HUMAN EPIC
by Roger GARAUDY
 |
| Iran - 1980 |
Why "THE HUMAN
EPIC"?
Because it is the first 'décentralised'
universal history of civilisation - in other words a history in which the West
is no longer the centre and origin of all thought and all art. On the contrary
....
It rings the death-knell of
Western dominance.
It is the epic of the great
moments of humanity, the great lost opportunities, the great flowerings of
civilisation, its tragedies and its re-births.
It is also a search for
unity, for the possibility of dialogue between civilisations - a whole
programme for the future : to restore to culture its true purpose : that of
changing men's lives and giving them meaning.
The HUMAN EPIC : a
controversial book
It will come as a severe
shock, in the West, to learn that :
. Athenian democracy meant
40,000 free citizens and one hundred and ten thousand slaves !
. Western culture means the
culture of Europe, the only part of the world that has never given birth to a
great religion !
. The Roman Empire added
nothing fundamentally new to culture, philosophy, literature or the arts !
. The Renaissance was above
all the simultaneous birth of capitalism and colonialism.. of the cult of
growth and the cult of power... of the most ghastly attack on humanity in which
a hundred million blacks were wiped out by the slave trade !
. The Cathari of Occitania
represented the permanent prophetic fire of the Gospel against a bellicose and
mercantile Church !
And so we could go on ...
The HUMAN EPIC : a book full
of love
Garaudy quotes from
humanity's finest poems - from the Upanishads and from Buddha in India, from
Zoroaster the Persian, from Isaiah the Hebrew, from Heracleitus the Greek and
from Lao-tzu and Confucius in China... to name but a few.
A book full of hope
Evoking world problems,
Roger Garaudy suggests world-wide solutions. He rises above our contemporary
dilemmas. He transcends them. He carries the reader with him to a realm in
which man not merely survives but lives. This book contains Garaudy’s whole new
aesthetic and political
programme ; it contains his whole essence…it is the book he has most enjoyed
writing.
A richly illustrated book
It is the first of Roger
Garaudy's books to be richly and abundantly illustrated. It has more than 350
pictures – chosen from among thousands - which speak for themselves, eloquently
and convincingly.
Why so many pictures in
relation to the text ? Because a picture, a reproduction of a work of art, is
both more and better than a long speech. Beauty has to be looked at, it cannot
be expressed only in words.
To what readership is the
book directed ?
To the widest possible
public :
Especially :
. To people in the West,
young people particularly , who are looking for new paths which go beyond the
West.
. To all Garaudy's existing
readers - both those who expect new ideas from him, and those who disagree with
him.
. To àll lovers of art in
the widest sense.
. Those who, already
possessing a certain culture, have been limited by "classical prejudice"
to a Western view; they will find wider horizons here.
. But also to those whose
cultural background is sketchy : they will find here an admirable basic text
that will stimulate and enrich their whole cultural outlook.
. Above all, to all those
who, from India to America, from Black Africa to the Arab World, would like a universal
view of civilisations and are ready to fight for living dialogue between them.
 |
| Extract from "Comment l'homme devint humain", Ed J.A., 1979 April 1968,Martin Luther King is assassinated. |
Contents
OVERTURE : THE BIRTH OF MAN
I. - THE CRADLES AND EARLY
NETWORKS OF CIVILISATION
a) Mesopotamia.
b) The Nile Valley.
G) The Indus Valley,
d) China.
The attack from the steppes.
II. - THE GOLDEN CENTURY OF
THE HUMAN SPIRIT (the 6th century B.C.)
a) The India of the
Upanishads and the Buddha.
b) The Persia of Zoroaster.
c) The China of Lao-tzu and
Confucius.
d) The prophets of Israel: Ezekiel
and Isaiah.
e) The Greece of Pythagorus
and Heracleitus.
f) America: the Olmec and
Chavin civilisations.
g) Afirica : the Nok civilisation.
III. -THE FIRST SECESSION OF
THE WEST
a) The Birth of Greek
culture.
b) The city - state,
individualism and reason.
c) From the Empire of
Alexander to the Roman Empire.
d) The birth of Christianity
(from the l st to the 4th century).
IV.THE INDIA OF THE GUPTAS
(the 3re to the 8th century)
a) Gupta art.
b) Gupta poetry.
c) The Indian mystique.
V. THE CHINA OF THE SUNG
(960-1279)
a) Ch'an Buddhism.
b) Chinese science and
technology.
c) Sung poetry.
d) Sung painting.
e) Sung architecture.
VI.- THE SPREAD OF ISLAM
(the 7th to the 12th century)
a) The prophet Muhammed and
the stages of Arab expansion.
b) The Iranian heritage.
c) The byzantine heritage.
d) The arts of Islam: the
mosque, the miniature.
e) Muslim science.
VII.-FROM 'CHRISTIANITY' TO
THE WESTERN 'RENAISSANCE' OF THE 16TH CENTURY
a) From Constantine to the
Çrusades : the second secession of the West.
b) The struggle àgainst the
Constantinian System:
. Joachim of Flore
. Saint Francis of Assisi
. Meister Eckhardt.
c) Romanesque and Gothic art.
VIII.- THE LAST LOST OPPORTUNITIES
a) America before the Indian
genocide:
• Mayas
. Aztecs
. Incas.
b) Africa before the slave
trade.
c) Japan before Commodore
Perry.
IX.- THE 'RENAISSANCE' AND
WESTERN HEGEMONY (the I6th to the 20th century)
a) The "Faustian model and its assumptions.
b) Western man as revealed i
n western art.
c) The révolutions of the
West.
d) Western science and
technology: the stages :
. mechanics and the steam
engine .(Dëscartes and
the 17th and I8th centuries)
. oil and electricity (the
19th century)
. the atom and cybernetics
(the 20th century).
e) The impasses to Western hegemony.
CONCLUSION : Through a
dialogue between civilisations mankind can survive and live.
>> A SUIVRE ICI/ TO BE CONTINUED HERE(IN FRENCH)>>
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