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This long work is Schuon's most important philosophical opus in the sense of containing long chapters devoted to specifically philosophical questions such as relativism, the notion of concrete and abstract, and rationalism. But the book also contains some of his most succinct theological discussions concerning both Christian and Islamic theology. The last part of the book turns again to diverse questions of the spiritual life, including a discussion of the function of the spiritual master and concludes with a study of man and certitude.

"The man is a living wonder; intellectually a propos religion, equally in depth and breadth, the paragon of our time. I know of no living thinker who beginsto rival him."—Huston Smith

"This work is a veritable hymn to the Intellect and of the Intellect. It penetrates in unparalleled fashion into the labyrinth of modern philosophical thought to unveil solutions to problems which would seem to be otherwiseinsoluble. In fact most often Schuon provides solutions for currently debated philosophical problems by demonstrating them to be the results of ill posed questions. He removes the opaqueness and ambiguity of modern rationalism and irrationalism like the morning sun whose very appearance dispels the fog. This work is one of Schuon's metaphysical masterpieces, and one of the most important philosophical works of this century if philosophy be understood in its traditional sense as the love of wisdom."
—Seyyed Hossein Nasr