Traditionalist School
Encyclopedia
The term Traditionalist School is used by Mark Sedgwick
and other authors to denote a school of thought, also known as Integral Traditionalism (in the sense of Integral spirituality) or Perennialism (in the sense of perennial philosophy
, or philosophia perennis) to denote an esoteric movement developed by authors such as French metaphysician René Guénon
, German-Swiss philosopher Frithjof Schuon
, the Ceylonese
-British scholar Ananda Coomaraswamy
, Titus Burckhardt
, Martin Lings
, Jean-Louis Michon
, Marco Pallis
, Huston Smith
, Seyyed Hossein Nasr
and, with some controversy, Julius Evola
.
A similar objection, coming from Guénon, is reported in an article by Renaud Fabbri:
Coomaraswamy
touches on these terms as he discusses Vedanta
and an important Perennialist concept, that of metaphysics:
Further down in the same essay he does not shun the use of "traditionalist": "…ultimate Truth is not, for the Vedantist, or for any traditionalist, a something that remains to be discovered, but a something that remains to be understood…" Similarly, in his "Introduction" to the Sacred Web Conference on “Tradition in the Modern World” Prince Charles of Wales uses repeatedly the term traditionalist.
Nowadays some traditional/perennialist authors appear to be more comfortable with the simpler designation of "traditional" and the use of the word "tradition", as evinced by the names of several organizations and publications related to these authors, viz. "The Foundation for Traditional Studies", Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition & Modernity, Eye of the Heart: A Journal of Traditional Wisdom.
The word "Tradition" has a special meaning for the Traditionalist school, removed from the current meaning of folklore
, but pointing instead to a profound understanding of the term. "Integral Tradition" does not have a human origin, and consists of eternal principles of divine origin, calling man back to what Schuon called a "transcendent unity". Against the "modern error," Traditionalists propose a "Primordial Tradition", transmitted from the very origin of humanity and partially restored by each genuine founder of a new religion.
. It is widely associated with Leibniz who in turn owes it to the 16th century theologian Augustinus Steuchius
.
The exoteric is the outward dimension of religion, which consists of religious rites, moral and dogmatic theology. The exoteric point of view is characterized by its "sentimental", rather than purely intellectual, nature, and it remains fairly limited. Based on the doctrine of creation and the subsequent duality between God and creation, exoterism does not offer means to transcend the limitations of the human state.
In the Traditionalist view esoterism is more than the "complement" of exoterism (the spirit as opposed to the letter, the kernel as opposed to the shell). Esoterism has, at least de jure, a total autonomy with respect to religion, for its innermost substance is the "Primordial Tradition" itself. Based on pure metaphysics
its goal is the realization of the superior states of being and finally the union between the individual self and the "Principle".
, he gave up early on this idea of a spiritual resurrection of the West on a purely Christian basis. Having denounced the lure of Theosophy
and neo-occultism in the form of Spiritism
, two influential movements that were flourishing in his lifetime, Guénon was initiated in 1912 in the Shadhili
order and moved to Cairo in 1930 where he spent the rest of his life as a Sufi Muslim
. To his many correspondents he clearly designated Sufism as a more accessible form of traditional initiation for Westerners eager to find what does not exist any more in the West: an initiatory path of knowledge (Jnana
or Gnosis
), comparable to Advaita.
One of the distinguishing features of traditionalist authors is their insistence on the necessity for affiliation to one of the "normal traditions" or great ancient religions of the world. Most traditionalists, like Guénon
himself, found a way in Sufism
, and accordingly they embraced Islam, but others, like Marco Pallis
, found a way in Buddhism, and still others, like James Cutsinger
belong to the Greek Orthodox Church. The most influential representatives of this school in Northern Europe
, viz. Kurt Almqvist
, and Tage Lindbom
, also embraced Sunni Islam
. What is primarily crucial for the seeker is, as pointed out early by Guénon
, the regular affiliation to an exoterism, i.e. the ordinary life of a believer: this would eventually open, for those qualified, the doors of initiation
, i.e. access to the esoterism of that given religious form. Naturally, through the work and influence of important traditionalist authors like, again, Guénon
himself, who married and had children in Egypt, Ananda Coomaraswamy
, Martin Lings
, Gai Eaton and Seyyed Hossein Nasr, all closely related to native Hindu, Buddhist or Muslim believers, this perspective has been gaining ground in Asia and the Islamic world at large.
It could be argued that Traditionalism has a strong, although discreet, impact in the field of comparative religion
and particularly on the young Mircea Eliade
, although he was not himself a member of this school. Contemporary scholars such as Huston Smith
, William Chittick
, Harry Oldmeadow
, James Cutsinger
and Seyyed Hossein Nasr
have advocated Perennialism as an alternative to secularist approach to religious phenomena.
, and claim it to be an anti-democratic, anti-modern, anti-liberal
ideology critical of modernity and the bourgeois constitutional state.
During the 1980s, scholars writing in English focused mostly on Julius Evola
because of the use of his theories made by Italian far-right groups during 1970s turmoils. It was not until the 1990s that scholars writing in English began to publish on the wider phenomenon of Traditionalism.
Controversy followed publication of Mark Sedgwick
's Against the Modern World in 2004. Certain critics with traditionalist sympathies have published reviews which questioned the content and methodology of the book and the motives of its author, charging him with various personal motives, including being "a Euro-Atlantic spy" and having himself "not been allowed to enter an initiatory order with 'Traditionalist' connections."
In his book Guénon ou le renversement des clartés, the French scholar Xavier Accart seriously calls into question the connection sometimes made between the Traditionalist school and the far right movements. He shows, for instance, that René Guenon was highly critical of Evola's political involvements and was worried about the possible confusion between his own ideas and Evola's. Guénon also clearly denounced the ideology of the fascist regimes in Europe before and during the Second World War. Xavier Accart finally claims that the assimilation of René Guénon with Julius Evola – and the confusion between Traditionalism and the New Right – can be traced back to Louis Pauwels
and Bergier's Le matin des magiciens (The Morning of the Magicians) (1960).
Mark Sedgwick
Mark Sedgwick is a British/Irish historian specializing in traditionalism, Islam, Sufi mysticism, and terrorism. He is secretary of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism.-Education:...
and other authors to denote a school of thought, also known as Integral Traditionalism (in the sense of Integral spirituality) or Perennialism (in the sense of perennial philosophy
Perennial philosophy
Perennial philosophy is the notion of the universal recurrence of philosophical insight independent of epoch or culture, including universal truths on the nature of reality, humanity or consciousness .-History:The idea of a perennial philosophy has great...
, or philosophia perennis) to denote an esoteric movement developed by authors such as French metaphysician René Guénon
René Guénon
René Guénon , also known as Shaykh `Abd al-Wahid Yahya was a French author and intellectual who remains an influential figure in the domain of metaphysics, having written on topics ranging from metaphysics, sacred science and traditional studies to symbolism and initiation.In his writings, he...
, German-Swiss philosopher Frithjof Schuon
Frithjof Schuon
Frithjof Schuon, was a native of Switzerland born to German parents in Basel, Switzerland. He is known as a philosopher, metaphysician and author of numerous books on religion and spirituality....
, the Ceylonese
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
-British scholar Ananda Coomaraswamy
Ananda Coomaraswamy
Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy was a Ceylonese philosopher and metaphysician, as well as a pioneering historian and philosopher of Indian art, particularly art history and symbolism, and an early interpreter of Indian culture to the West...
, Titus Burckhardt
Titus Burckhardt
Titus Burckhardt , a German Swiss, was born in Florence, Italy in 1908 and died in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1984. He devoted all his life to the study and exposition of the different aspects of Wisdom and Tradition.He was an eminent member of the "traditionalist school" of twentieth-century authors...
, Martin Lings
Martin Lings
Martin Lings was an English Muslim writer and scholar, a student and follower of Frithjof Schuon, and Shakespearean scholar...
, Jean-Louis Michon
Jean-Louis Michon
Jean-Louis Michon is a French traditionalist scholar and translator who specializes in Islamic art and Sufism. He has worked extensively with the United Nations to preserve the cultural heritage of Morocco.-Biography:...
, Marco Pallis
Marco Pallis
Marco Alexander Pallis was a Greek -British-born author and mountaineer with close affiliations to the Traditionalist School. He wrote works on the religion and culture of Tibet....
, Huston Smith
Huston Smith
Huston Cummings Smith is a religious studies scholar in the United States. His book The World's Religions remains a popular introduction to comparative religion.-Education:...
, Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Seyyed Hossein Nasr is an Iranian University Professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University, and a prominent Islamic philosopher...
and, with some controversy, Julius Evola
Julius Evola
Barone Giulio Cesare Andrea Evola also known as Julius Evola, was an Italian philosopher and esotericist...
.
Terminology
Traditionalist authors themselves have always had reserves about the use of the term "traditionalist":
… “traditionalism”; like “esoterism,” (…) has nothing pejorative about it in itself and one might even say that it is less open to argument and a far broader term, in any case, than the latter; in fact, however, (…) it has been associated with an idea which inevitably devalues its meaning, namely the idea of “nostalgia for the past” (…) If to recognize what is true and just is “nostalgia for the past,” it is quite clearly a crime or a disgrace not to feel this nostalgia.
A similar objection, coming from Guénon, is reported in an article by Renaud Fabbri:
It could be argued that Traditionalism and Perennialism are synonymous, “traditionalism”
being used mostly in France and Europe. However, Guénon himself dismissed the term of
traditionalist because it implies in his view a kind of sentimental attachment to a tradition which,
most of the time, has lost its metaphysical foundation.
Coomaraswamy
Ananda Coomaraswamy
Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy was a Ceylonese philosopher and metaphysician, as well as a pioneering historian and philosopher of Indian art, particularly art history and symbolism, and an early interpreter of Indian culture to the West...
touches on these terms as he discusses Vedanta
Vedanta
Vedānta was originally a word used in Hindu philosophy as a synonym for that part of the Veda texts known also as the Upanishads. The name is a morphophonological form of Veda-anta = "Veda-end" = "the appendix to the Vedic hymns." It is also speculated that "Vedānta" means "the purpose or goal...
and an important Perennialist concept, that of metaphysics:
The metaphysical "philosophy" is called "perennial" because of its eternity, universality, and immutability; it is Augustine's "Wisdom uncreate, the same now as it ever was and ever will be"; the religion which, as he also says, only came to be called "Christianity" after the coming of Christ (…) and so long as the tradition is transmitted without deviation (…)
Further down in the same essay he does not shun the use of "traditionalist": "…ultimate Truth is not, for the Vedantist, or for any traditionalist, a something that remains to be discovered, but a something that remains to be understood…" Similarly, in his "Introduction" to the Sacred Web Conference on “Tradition in the Modern World” Prince Charles of Wales uses repeatedly the term traditionalist.
Nowadays some traditional/perennialist authors appear to be more comfortable with the simpler designation of "traditional" and the use of the word "tradition", as evinced by the names of several organizations and publications related to these authors, viz. "The Foundation for Traditional Studies", Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition & Modernity, Eye of the Heart: A Journal of Traditional Wisdom.
The word "Tradition" has a special meaning for the Traditionalist school, removed from the current meaning of folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
, but pointing instead to a profound understanding of the term. "Integral Tradition" does not have a human origin, and consists of eternal principles of divine origin, calling man back to what Schuon called a "transcendent unity". Against the "modern error," Traditionalists propose a "Primordial Tradition", transmitted from the very origin of humanity and partially restored by each genuine founder of a new religion.
Philosophia Perennis
Followers of the Traditional school claim that a variety of authentic spiritual traditions present in the world today, share the same origin and are based on the same metaphysical principles, sometimes called philosophia perennis. The term philosophia perennis first appears in the RenaissanceRenaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
. It is widely associated with Leibniz who in turn owes it to the 16th century theologian Augustinus Steuchius
Agostino Steuco
Agostino Steuco , Italian humanist, Old Testament scholar, Counter Reformation polemicist and antiquarian, was born at Gubbio in Umbria....
.
The exoteric is the outward dimension of religion, which consists of religious rites, moral and dogmatic theology. The exoteric point of view is characterized by its "sentimental", rather than purely intellectual, nature, and it remains fairly limited. Based on the doctrine of creation and the subsequent duality between God and creation, exoterism does not offer means to transcend the limitations of the human state.
In the Traditionalist view esoterism is more than the "complement" of exoterism (the spirit as opposed to the letter, the kernel as opposed to the shell). Esoterism has, at least de jure, a total autonomy with respect to religion, for its innermost substance is the "Primordial Tradition" itself. Based on pure metaphysics
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
its goal is the realization of the superior states of being and finally the union between the individual self and the "Principle".
Traditionalism and Religion
Although René Guenon envisaged in his first books and essays a restoration of traditional “intellectualité” in the West on the basis of Roman Catholicism and FreemasonryFreemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
, he gave up early on this idea of a spiritual resurrection of the West on a purely Christian basis. Having denounced the lure of Theosophy
Theosophy
Theosophy, in its modern presentation, is a spiritual philosophy developed since the late 19th century. Its major themes were originally described mainly by Helena Blavatsky , co-founder of the Theosophical Society...
and neo-occultism in the form of Spiritism
Spiritism
Spiritism is a loose corpus of religious faiths having in common the general belief in the survival of a spirit after death. In a stricter sense, it is the religion, beliefs and practices of the people affiliated to the International Spiritist Union, based on the works of Allan Kardec and others...
, two influential movements that were flourishing in his lifetime, Guénon was initiated in 1912 in the Shadhili
Shadhili
The Shadhili Tariqa is a Sufi order of Sunni Islam founded by Abul Hasan Ali ash-Shadhili. Followers of the Shadhiliya are known as Shadhilis....
order and moved to Cairo in 1930 where he spent the rest of his life as a Sufi Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
. To his many correspondents he clearly designated Sufism as a more accessible form of traditional initiation for Westerners eager to find what does not exist any more in the West: an initiatory path of knowledge (Jnana
Jnana
Jñāna or gñāna is a Sanskrit and Pali word that means knowledge. It has various nuances of meaning depending on the context. The idea of jnana centers around a cognitive event which is recognized when experienced...
or Gnosis
Gnosis
Gnosis is the common Greek noun for knowledge . In the context of the English language gnosis generally refers to the word's meaning within the spheres of Christian mysticism, Mystery religions and Gnosticism where it signifies 'spiritual knowledge' in the sense of mystical enlightenment.-Related...
), comparable to Advaita.
One of the distinguishing features of traditionalist authors is their insistence on the necessity for affiliation to one of the "normal traditions" or great ancient religions of the world. Most traditionalists, like Guénon
René Guénon
René Guénon , also known as Shaykh `Abd al-Wahid Yahya was a French author and intellectual who remains an influential figure in the domain of metaphysics, having written on topics ranging from metaphysics, sacred science and traditional studies to symbolism and initiation.In his writings, he...
himself, found a way in Sufism
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
, and accordingly they embraced Islam, but others, like Marco Pallis
Marco Pallis
Marco Alexander Pallis was a Greek -British-born author and mountaineer with close affiliations to the Traditionalist School. He wrote works on the religion and culture of Tibet....
, found a way in Buddhism, and still others, like James Cutsinger
James Cutsinger
James Sherman Cutsinger is a professor, author, and editor, whose works focus primarily on the subjects of traditionalism and Eastern Orthodoxy.-Traditionalism:...
belong to the Greek Orthodox Church. The most influential representatives of this school in Northern Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, viz. Kurt Almqvist
Kurt Almqvist
Kurt Almqvist , PhD in Romance Languages, Swedish poet, intellectual and spiritual figure, representative of the Traditionalist School and the Perennial philosophy. Almqvist was a life-long disciple of the Swiss metaphysician and spiritual guide Frithjof Schuon. He came into close contact with the...
, and Tage Lindbom
Tage Lindbom
Tage Leonard Lindbom, who later in his life took the name Sidi Zayd, , PhD in Political science, who was early in his life the party theoretician and director of the archives of the Swedish Social Democratic Party 1938-1965, but later in his life he converted to Islam...
, also embraced Sunni Islam
Sunni Islam
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam. Sunni Muslims are referred to in Arabic as ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah wa āl-Ǧamāʿah or ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah for short; in English, they are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis or Sunnites....
. What is primarily crucial for the seeker is, as pointed out early by Guénon
René Guénon
René Guénon , also known as Shaykh `Abd al-Wahid Yahya was a French author and intellectual who remains an influential figure in the domain of metaphysics, having written on topics ranging from metaphysics, sacred science and traditional studies to symbolism and initiation.In his writings, he...
, the regular affiliation to an exoterism, i.e. the ordinary life of a believer: this would eventually open, for those qualified, the doors of initiation
Initiation
Initiation is a rite of passage ceremony marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components...
, i.e. access to the esoterism of that given religious form. Naturally, through the work and influence of important traditionalist authors like, again, Guénon
René Guénon
René Guénon , also known as Shaykh `Abd al-Wahid Yahya was a French author and intellectual who remains an influential figure in the domain of metaphysics, having written on topics ranging from metaphysics, sacred science and traditional studies to symbolism and initiation.In his writings, he...
himself, who married and had children in Egypt, Ananda Coomaraswamy
Ananda Coomaraswamy
Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy was a Ceylonese philosopher and metaphysician, as well as a pioneering historian and philosopher of Indian art, particularly art history and symbolism, and an early interpreter of Indian culture to the West...
, Martin Lings
Martin Lings
Martin Lings was an English Muslim writer and scholar, a student and follower of Frithjof Schuon, and Shakespearean scholar...
, Gai Eaton and Seyyed Hossein Nasr, all closely related to native Hindu, Buddhist or Muslim believers, this perspective has been gaining ground in Asia and the Islamic world at large.
It could be argued that Traditionalism has a strong, although discreet, impact in the field of comparative religion
Comparative religion
Comparative religion is a field of religious studies that analyzes the similarities and differences of themes, myths, rituals and concepts among the world's religions...
and particularly on the young Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day...
, although he was not himself a member of this school. Contemporary scholars such as Huston Smith
Huston Smith
Huston Cummings Smith is a religious studies scholar in the United States. His book The World's Religions remains a popular introduction to comparative religion.-Education:...
, William Chittick
William Chittick
William C. Chittick is a leading translator and interpreter of classical Islamic philosophical and mystical texts. He is best known for his groundbreaking work on Rumi and Ibn 'Arabi, and has written extensively on the school of Ibn 'Arabi, Islamic philosophy, Shi'ism, and Islamic...
, Harry Oldmeadow
Harry Oldmeadow
Kenneth "Harry" Oldmeadow is an Australian author, editor and educator whose works focus on Eastern religion and philosophy.-Biography:Qualifications: BA Hons , Dip Ed , MA Hons , PhD...
, James Cutsinger
James Cutsinger
James Sherman Cutsinger is a professor, author, and editor, whose works focus primarily on the subjects of traditionalism and Eastern Orthodoxy.-Traditionalism:...
and Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Seyyed Hossein Nasr is an Iranian University Professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University, and a prominent Islamic philosopher...
have advocated Perennialism as an alternative to secularist approach to religious phenomena.
Criticism
Critics of Traditionalism cite its popularity among the European Nouvelle DroiteNouvelle Droite
Nouvelle Droite is a school of political thought founded largely on the works of Alain de Benoist and GRECE .-Etymology and history:...
, and claim it to be an anti-democratic, anti-modern, anti-liberal
Anti-liberal
Anti-liberal philosophies:*Authoritarianism*Communism*Fascism*Revolutionary Socialism*Conservatism*Traditionalist School...
ideology critical of modernity and the bourgeois constitutional state.
During the 1980s, scholars writing in English focused mostly on Julius Evola
Julius Evola
Barone Giulio Cesare Andrea Evola also known as Julius Evola, was an Italian philosopher and esotericist...
because of the use of his theories made by Italian far-right groups during 1970s turmoils. It was not until the 1990s that scholars writing in English began to publish on the wider phenomenon of Traditionalism.
Controversy followed publication of Mark Sedgwick
Mark Sedgwick
Mark Sedgwick is a British/Irish historian specializing in traditionalism, Islam, Sufi mysticism, and terrorism. He is secretary of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism.-Education:...
's Against the Modern World in 2004. Certain critics with traditionalist sympathies have published reviews which questioned the content and methodology of the book and the motives of its author, charging him with various personal motives, including being "a Euro-Atlantic spy" and having himself "not been allowed to enter an initiatory order with 'Traditionalist' connections."
In his book Guénon ou le renversement des clartés, the French scholar Xavier Accart seriously calls into question the connection sometimes made between the Traditionalist school and the far right movements. He shows, for instance, that René Guenon was highly critical of Evola's political involvements and was worried about the possible confusion between his own ideas and Evola's. Guénon also clearly denounced the ideology of the fascist regimes in Europe before and during the Second World War. Xavier Accart finally claims that the assimilation of René Guénon with Julius Evola – and the confusion between Traditionalism and the New Right – can be traced back to Louis Pauwels
Louis Pauwels
Louis Pauwels was a French journalist and writer.- Biography :Louis Pauwels was a teacher at Athis-Mons from 1939 to 1945 , Louis Pauwels wrote in many monthly literary French magazines as early as 1946 until the...
and Bergier's Le matin des magiciens (The Morning of the Magicians) (1960).
See also
|
Tyr (journal) Tyr: Myth—Culture—Tradition is the name of an American Radical Traditionalist journal, edited by Joshua Buckley, Michael Moynihan, and Collin Cleary.... Integral humanism Integral humanism is the political philosophy practised by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the former Bharatiya Jana Sangh of India. It was first propounded by Deendayal Upadhyayain a brief volume entitled Integral Humanism in 1965, attempting to find a "third path" rejecting both communism and... Integralism Integralism, or Integral nationalism, is an ideology according to which a nation is an organic unity. Integralism defends social differentiation and hierarchy with co-operation between social classes, transcending conflict between social and economic groups... René Guénon René Guénon , also known as Shaykh `Abd al-Wahid Yahya was a French author and intellectual who remains an influential figure in the domain of metaphysics, having written on topics ranging from metaphysics, sacred science and traditional studies to symbolism and initiation.In his writings, he... Ananda Coomaraswamy Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy was a Ceylonese philosopher and metaphysician, as well as a pioneering historian and philosopher of Indian art, particularly art history and symbolism, and an early interpreter of Indian culture to the West... Frithjof Schuon Frithjof Schuon, was a native of Switzerland born to German parents in Basel, Switzerland. He is known as a philosopher, metaphysician and author of numerous books on religion and spirituality.... |
Martin Lings Martin Lings was an English Muslim writer and scholar, a student and follower of Frithjof Schuon, and Shakespearean scholar... Jean-Louis Michon Jean-Louis Michon is a French traditionalist scholar and translator who specializes in Islamic art and Sufism. He has worked extensively with the United Nations to preserve the cultural heritage of Morocco.-Biography:... Leo Schaya Leo Schaya was an author and scholar whose works focused on the Sufi tradition, the Kabbalah, and the Traditionalist School.-Biography:Born in Switzerland, Schaya lived much of his adult life in Nancy, France... Philip Sherrard Philip Sherrard was a British author, translator, and philosopher. His work includes important translations of Modern Greek poets, and books on Modern Greek literature and culture, metaphysics, theology, art and aesthetics... Huston Smith Huston Cummings Smith is a religious studies scholar in the United States. His book The World's Religions remains a popular introduction to comparative religion.-Education:... Seyyed Hossein Nasr Seyyed Hossein Nasr is an Iranian University Professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University, and a prominent Islamic philosopher... Titus Burckhardt Titus Burckhardt , a German Swiss, was born in Florence, Italy in 1908 and died in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1984. He devoted all his life to the study and exposition of the different aspects of Wisdom and Tradition.He was an eminent member of the "traditionalist school" of twentieth-century authors... |
Ivan Aguéli Ivan Aguéli also named Sheikh 'Abd al-Hādī 'Aqīlī upon his acceptance of Islam, was a Swedish wandering Sufi, painter and author. As a devotee of Ibn Arabi, his metaphysics applied to the study of Islamic esoterism and its similarities with other esoteric traditions of the world... Michel Valsan Michel Valsan was a Muslim scholar and master of the Shadhuliyya tariqah in Paris under the name of Shaykh Mustafa 'Abd al-'Aziz... Julius Evola Barone Giulio Cesare Andrea Evola also known as Julius Evola, was an Italian philosopher and esotericist... Kurt Almqvist Kurt Almqvist , PhD in Romance Languages, Swedish poet, intellectual and spiritual figure, representative of the Traditionalist School and the Perennial philosophy. Almqvist was a life-long disciple of the Swiss metaphysician and spiritual guide Frithjof Schuon. He came into close contact with the... Tage Lindbom Tage Leonard Lindbom, who later in his life took the name Sidi Zayd, , PhD in Political science, who was early in his life the party theoretician and director of the archives of the Swedish Social Democratic Party 1938-1965, but later in his life he converted to Islam... William Stoddart William Stoddart is a Scottish physician, author and "spiritual traveller", who has written several books on the philosophy of religions. He has been called a “master of synthesis” and is one of the important writers on the Perennial Philosophy in the present day. For many years he was assistant... Koenraad Logghe Koenraad Logghe used to be a Flemish proponent of the European New Right and former "high priest" of folkish Asatru , founder of the Werkgroep Traditie neopagan organization . which he left in the summer of 2008... |
Further reading
- The Unanimous Tradition, Essays on the essential unity of all religions, by Joseph Epes Brown, Titus Burckhardt, Rama P. Coomaraswamy, Gai Eaton, Isaline B. Horner, Toshihiko Izutsu, Martin Lings, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Lord Northbourne, Marco Pallis, Whitall N. Perry, Leo Schaya, Frithjof Schuon, Philip Sherrard, William Stoddart, Elémire Zolla, edited by Ranjit Fernando, Sri Lanka Institute of Traditional Studies, 1991 ISBN 955-9028-01-4
External links
- Traditionalists.org: A website for the study of Traditionalism and the Traditionalists Mark Sedgwick's website
- A web site on the Perennialist/Traditionalist School
- Interview of Huston Smith on the primordial tradition
- Integral Tradition
- Review of "Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century"
- World Wisdom Books
- Fons Vitae Books
- Revista de Estudios Tradicionales
- Slideshow on the Perennial Philosophy
- Textos Tradicionales (Spanish)
- The Matheson Trust for the study of comparative religion.
- An article on Muslim Perennialism.
- A review of some Traditionalist books by Carl W. Ernst “Traditionalism, the Perennial Philosophy, and Islamic Studies,” Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, vol. 28, no. 2 (December 1994), pp. 176-81.