Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms-- new book about religions doomed to extinction

[carolinayellowdog]

Last edited Thu Mar 19, 2015, 04:58 PM - Edit history (1)

For reasons I don't pretend to understand, for most of my adult life I've been far more interested in religious groups that are extinct, or threatened with extinction, than in any that are thriving. Which is why I find hatemongers clamoring for all religions to be extinct to be even more horrifying vandals than those that cheer on Islam and Christianity in their often-successful efforts at exterminating the more vulnerable rival faiths.

Have just downloaded Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms on my Kindle and will comment more fully after reading it. My own favorite extinct or near-extinction groups are American, since US religious history is my focus of interest. Shakers are almost there, and one wonders about the survivability of Theosophy and Christian Science. But the likelihood of extinction of various Middle East faiths, as discussed by Gerard Russell, is not a matter of gradual attrition so much as violent disruption. Historically, Christianity inflicted massive damage on some of these faiths, and Islam is now finishing them off. And yet where is any sympathy to be found for any of these beleagured groups? Christians and Muslims may say "good riddance to anyone who is not `of the book'" while atheists may say "good riddance to all religions, including these victims of Christian and Muslim violence."

But am hoping that here at least there might be the possibility of a compassionate response to the subject matter of Russell's book. From the New York Times review of the book:

In his lively new book, “Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms,” Gerard Russell chronicles the emergence and survival of religious minorities like the Yazidis that have been overshadowed by Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the dominant Abrahamic religions of the Middle East. Alternating between personal travelogue and carefully researched history, Russell introduces his readers to the Yazidis, Mandeans, Zoroastrians, Druze, Samaritans, Copts and Kalasha — groups that have been threatened by civil wars, growing intolerance, the rise of Islamic militancy, autocratic governments and the pull of emigration. Paradoxically, he argues that their survival is a testament to a long, and often overlooked, history of religious coexistence fostered by Islam. “They connect the present to the past, bringing us within touching distance of long-dead cultures,” he adds. “They link the Middle East with European culture by showing how the two emerged from shared roots.”

[okasha]

1. Native American religions were almost extinguished, too.

But the faith was kept and practiced in secret, and has emerged again as a strong unifying element in the Native human rights movement.

The same thing may well happen with these ancient Western Asiatic religions.

[carolinayellowdog]

2. survival can take many forms

Hermeticism was a "loser" in power struggles, and the fate of the Alexandrian Library seems symbolic of its extinction. But while you can destroy scrolls, it is not so easy to destroy ideas, and Hermetic ideas survived via Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as "memes" that infected these hosts.

In the case of Native American tradition, I have some northeast NC family heritage that led me to attend a pow-wow of the Haliwa-Saponi and the museum at UNC Pembroke which is in the Lumbee/Tuscarora territory. In both cases, Christianity is the predominant religion-- and yet aspects of Native spirituality survive within it.

I've only finished the first chapter, on Mandaeans, but think I can see where the author is headed-- these groups will survive in diaspora, mainly in the US, after being destroyed in their homelands.