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Axial Civilizations and World History

Article  in  Mission Studies · November 2007

DOI: 10.1163/157338307X234996

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Joseph Tse-Hei LEE

Pace University
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 Book Reviews /Mission Studies 24 (2007) 333-364 349

Axial Civilizations and World History. Edited by Johann P. Arnason, S. N.

Eisenstadt, and Björn Wittrock. Leiden & Boston, Brill 2005. Pp. vii + 573.
$136.00.

Axial Civilizations and World History addresses the significance of the Axial
Age, a period of several centuries around the middle of the last millennium
BCE during which the civilizations of Greece, Israel, Persia, India, and China
were transformed. The introduction by the editors emphasizes that the Axial
Age saw widespread attempts in times of chaos to create new models of order
and governance.
The first section, "Theoretical Approaches," discusses the concept of the
Axial Age in European intellectual history. Arnason describes a set of dramatic
changes to socio-cultural structures in specific civilizations during the period.
Taking a global perspective, Wittrock defines the Axial Age as a multidimen-
sional process involving the transformation of institutions, the reorientation
of values, the expansion of empires, and the intensification of cross-cultural
contacts. Peter Wagner cautions us to be aware of the history of multiple
transformations around the world, while Arpad Szakolczai describes the
insights of a Hungarian thinker, Bela Hamvas, who considered the Christian
idea of love as "the measure of being" the main element of the Axial Age
achievement.
The second section, "Ancient Near East and its Axial Peripheries," studies
the differences between the Near Eastern civilizations and their counterparts
in Israel and Greece. Assmann stresses that the rise of biblical monotheism
placed politics under the will of an absolute deity and ended the state s monop-
oly of religion. By comparison, Piotr Michalowski explains that the diverse
mythological traditions in Mesopotamia prevented the rise of a transcendental
deity as in Israel. Shaul Shaked points out that Zoroastrianism combined
monotheistic and dualistic ideas with the notions of creation and eschatology
that were essential for the development of Judaism, Christianity, and Hindu-
ism. Israel Knohl studies the Pharisees, groups ofJewish reformers who defined
morality as religious duty and promoted social justice during the period of the
Second Temple in Israel. According to S. N. Eisenstadt, Judaism evolved as a
"diasporic civilization" which enabled the Jews to re-invent themselves in all
temporal and spatial settings. Kurt A. Raaflaub reminds us that the develop-
ment of Greek political thought reflected concerns with governance of the
polis, but Greek speculations about the nature of the cosmos had less of an
impact on their politics than cosmological views had politically on Israel.
The third section, "Late Antiquity and Beyond," consists of essays on
Christianity, Manichaeism, and Islam. Guy Stroumsa analyzes the legacy of a
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2007 DOI: 10.1163/157338307X234996
350 Book Reviews /Mission Studies 24 (2007) 333-364

pre-Constantinian figure, Clement of Alexandria, who transformed Christi-

anity from a counterculture within the Roman Empire into a universal revela-
tion transcending all existing ethnic, cultural, and political boundaries. It was
this transformation that made Christianity an irresistible force of unification
in the eyes of the Roman ruling class. David Levy focuses on Manichaeism, a
religion committed to universal enlightenment and claiming to represent the
inner truth of earlier prophets like Zoroaster, Buddha, and Jesus. This ecu-
menical element differentiated Manichaeism from other religions at the time.
Jan Retsö interprets Islamic expansion as a challenge to the established powers
of the ancient Near East and as an attempt to implement an axial vision of
redemption through totalistic political action.
India and China differed from Near Eastern and Mediterranean civiliza-
tions, and their cultural breakthroughs are addressed in the last section.
According to David Shulman and Sheldon Pollock, religious traditions in
South Asia were independent of the states control and no imperial vision was
canonized as orthodoxy in Indias history. Consequently the Brahmins enjoyed
a high level of intellectual autonomy as opposed to their counterparts in the
Judeo-Christian and Islamic worlds. Studies by Hsu Cho-yun, Christoph
Harbsmeier, and Frederic Wakeman Jr. emphasize that a strong tendency to
integrate transcendental values into political institutions existed in China.
Concerns with orthodoxy, empire-building, and integration were the driving
forces of political and cultural unity in Chinese history.
In the concluding essay, Eisenstadt pulls all the themes together and draws
attention to the diverse patterns of axial breakthroughs in world civilizations.
This work is full of insights and should be of interest to everyone.

Joseph Tse-Hei Lee

Pace University, New York, US
 ^ s
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