Book Review: Out of the East (Eothen) by Alexander Kinglake

Book Review - Eothen - by Alexander Kinglake

Eothen (Out of the East), by Alexander Kinglake, recounts his travels through the Near East in approximately 1834, when he was about 25. It would be a dramatic understatement to say that the culture of that era and location are unlike our own. In his encounters with various regions and peoples of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey, Palestine, Egypt, Syria), what stands out most starkly is the clash between British cultural chauvinism (in Kinglake’s commentary) and the local cultures and traditions of impoverished peoples living on the ruins of ancient civilizations. 

A passage near the end of the book serves to illustrate both the richness of language, and the author’s view of the contrast between the Near East and Western Europe. He recorded this when he saw the Mediterranean while transiting a pass in Lebanon on his transit from Syria to the sea, where he would take a ship on the journey home.

I had grown well used of late to the people and the scenes of forlorn Asia—well used to tombs and ruins, to silent cities and deserted lains, to tranquil men, and women sadly veiled; and now that I saw the even plain of the sea, I leapt with an easy leap to its yonder shores, and saw all the kingdoms of the West in that fair path that could lead me from out of this silent land straight on into shrill Marseilles, or round by the pillars of Hercules, to the crash and roar of London. My place upon this dividing barrier was as a man’s puzzling station in eternity, between the birthless Past, and the Future that has no end. Behind me I left an old and decrepit World—Religions dead and dying—calm tyrannies expiring in silence—women hushed, and swathed, and turned into waxen dolls —Love flown, and in its stead mere Royal, and ‘Paradise’, pleasures.—Before me there waited glad bustle and strife—Love itself, an emulous game—Religion a Cause and a Controversy, well smitten and well defended—men governed by reasons and suasion of speech—wheels going—steam buzzing—a mortal race, and a slashing pace, and the Devil taking the hindmost—taking me, by Jove (for that was my inner care), if I lingered too long, upon the difficult Pass that leads from Thought to Action. I descended, and went towards the West.

The clash of religions seems muted in Kinglake’s accounts of how his Western Christianity dealt with, and was treated by various Islamic (Musselman in this context) practitioners. In our day and in Western civilization, the comparative merits or truth of competing faiths is implicitly scored by cultural and individual freedom, prosperity, etc., i.e., the world’s standards, just as Kinglake does. We should not expect a 19th century aristocrat to judge with 21st century values or perspective, but Jesus did say “ What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?“ (Matthew 16:26) well before Alexander Kinglake toured the mideast.

A 21st century travelogue through the third world would likely encounter similar clashes, but hopefully with different context. Despite grinding poverty, or perhaps largely because of it, faith in the third world is strong, although those who live there seek material improvement. But the clash of religions is also much sharper than two centuries ago. Militant Islam seeks to overturn the verdict of history. The Holy Spirit is being poured out in unprecedented measure on Christians around the world. Let us pray that we do not look down on those whose history and current circumstances are so different from our own — in short, that we not judge by the world’s standards.