Ex oriente lux

views updated

Ex oriente lux (Lat., ‘out of the East, light’). The belief that greater wisdom and deeper spirituality can be found in E. religions than in the materialistic West. Given impetus by such people as Schopenhauer and Sir Edwin Arnold (his Light of Asia appeared in 1879), it led to an extensive and serious academic endeavour to study the religions of the East, and to publish texts and translations.