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The Universal Spirit of Islam: Keys for Interfaith Understanding
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Interview with Frithjof Schuon - on Primordiality
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  The Fullness of God: Frithjof Schuon on Christianity Back to the List of Slideshows
Abraham and the Three Angels,
illuminated page from the
Psalter of St. Louis, 13th c. (C.E.)
    
slide 9 of 17

Many Christians find it difficult to accept the ‘transcendent unity of religions’, especially in light of the Gospel message that “no one cometh unto the Father but by me” (John 14:6). Others find it impossible to perceive how a plurality of religions can be upheld without this weakening the value of their own faith. For Schuon, this is a false dilemma.
Strictly speaking, one can say that antinomies between religions are situated “beyond logic”—since the logic of each dogmatism is impeccable, though in practice inoperative outside its own framework—but this is pure convenience, for…these antinomies are but complementary opposites arising from an identical substance. (from “Evidence and Mystery”, p. 130)

…Although a religious perspective may be contested ab extra…in the light of another religious perspective deriving from a different aspect of the same truth, it remains incontestable ab intra inasmuch as its capacity to serve as a means of expressing the total truth makes it a key to that truth. (from “The Particular Nature and Universality of the Christian Tradition”, p. 10)
Further, this approach is itself attested to by some of the greatest Christian thinkers, such as Origen, St. Justin Martyr, and St. Augustine (quoted below), arguably the most influential thinker in the Western Christian tradition:
In the…words of St. Augustine: “That which today is called the Christian religion existed among the ancients and has never ceased to exist from the origin of the human race until the time when Christ himself came and men began to call Christianity the true religion which already existed beforehand”
 (Reconsiderations I.13.3). This passage has been commented upon as follows by the Abbé P.-J. Jallabert…“The Catholic religion is but a continuation of the primitive religion restored and generously enriched by Him who knew His work from the beginning. This explains why Saint Paul the Apostle did not claim to be superior to the Gentiles save in his knowledge of Jesus crucified. In fact, all the Gentiles needed to acquire was the knowledge of the Incarnation and the Redemption considered as an accomplished fact; for they had already received the deposit of all the remaining truths.…This “knowledge of the Incarnation and the Redemption” implies before all else a knowledge of the renewal effected by Christ of a means of grace that in itself is eternal.…This means of grace is essentially always the same and the only means that exists, although its modes may vary.… (from “The Particular Nature and Universality of the Christian Tradition”, pp 9-10)
And so the words of Christ: “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58).
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