Statue of Gibran at the Bcharre museum
While his writings have been very popular, do you think Gibran has received the recognition he deserves from the academic world?
What influence has Gibran had on Western thought and literature?
Maybe the best answer to this question is to quote No, I do not. Academia reacted under the false notion that anybody who is as popular as Gibran had become should be dismissed and not taken seriously. This false notion has, unfortunately, enormously influenced academicians whose purely materialistic approach to everything has diminished our values and our vision. It is, however, through the simplicity and sincerity of his message, that he was able to revive the eternal values that sustain us as human beings. ?I have not seen for years a book more beautiful in its thought, and when reading it I understand better than ever before what Socrates meant in the Banquet when he spoke of the beauty of thought, which exercises a deeper enchantment than the beauty of form. I could quote from every page, and from every page I could find some beautiful and liberating thought. How profound is AE (George Russel), the great Irish poet: