Middle Eastern "Holy Men" Share Thoughts on "State of Human Soul in Age of Technology"

February 18, 2004

Source: The Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0218/p15s01-lire.html

On February 18, 2004 The Christian Science Monitor reported, "The holy men of the Middle East - the men in black dresses, as Yvonne Seng refers to them - more often than not present a forbidding, austere, and humorless front to the world. Steeped in tradition, they can appear anachronistic. Yet in a series of rare interviews with these 'wisdommakers,' Professor Seng found their sense of the world and the future to be surprisingly hip, humorous, inclusive - and unexpectedly open...Her desire to talk to these Muslim clerics, Coptic archbishops, and Sufi mystics was to ascertain 'the state of the human soul in this new age of technology,' she wrote in her book, 'Men in Black Dresses: A Quest for the Future Among Wisdom Makers of the Middle East' (2003). What she found, across faiths, was a pragmatism, a willingness to embrace the future, and an unexpected inclusiveness - including the idea that there are many paths to God."

See also: Islam, International