Perennial Philosophy Resources

Titus Burckhardt (1908-1984) was one of the leading perennialist writers of the twentieth century. His writings showed remarkable scope. Burckhardt wrote on pure metaphysics, on tradition and modern science, on sacred art, on history and political science, and on various other aspects of traditional civilizations. Burckhardt was also a translator (from Arabic into French), an editor and publisher, and a respected consultant on restoring traditional cities to their former beautiful states.In addition, numerous Titus Burckhardt essays have appeared in various World Wisdom anthologies. Our free online Library has many essays and excerpts from Burckhardt’s writings.

F. Clive-Ross was the founder, publisher and editor of the journal Studies in Comparative Religion and its predecessor Tomorrow. For nearly 20 years under Clive-Ross’ guidance, Studies was one of the predominant platforms for discussion of all issues to pertaining to comparative religious studies. Clive-Ross also founded the publishing house, Perennial Books Ltd, and was a trustee of the “World of Islam Festival”. He died in 1981.World Wisdom has proudly sponsored a new beginning for Studies. All of the original issues are being placed on the Studies in Comparative Religion website. Mr. Clive-Ross’s editorials appear in the compilations of Studies in Comparative Religion issues published by World Wisdom.

Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy was a multi-talented researcher, scientist, linguist, expert on culture and art, philosopher, museum curator, and author. He was the first well-known author of the modern era to expound the importance of traditional arts, culture, and thought as more than simply relics of a bygone past. Dr. Coomaraswamy is often credited with reintroducing the concept of the “Perennial Philosophy” to a West dazed by the endless multiplicity of the modern world.A. K. Coomaraswamy’s writings available through World Wisdom include: UL REMOVED

James S. Cutsinger (1953-2020) was an author, editor, and teacher whose writings focus primarily on Perennialism and the theology and spirituality of the Christian East. He was professor of Theology and Religious Thought at the University of South Carolina for almost 40 years. Prof. Cutsinger edited a series of new editions of books by Frithjof Schuon.

René Guénon (1886-1951) was a French metaphysician, writer, and editor who was largely responsible for laying the metaphysical groundwork for the Traditionalist or Perennialist school of thought in the early twentieth century. Guénon remains influential today for his writings on the intellectual and spiritual bankruptcy of the modern world, on symbolism, on spiritual esoterism and initiation, and on the universal truths that manifest themselves in various forms in the world’s religious traditions.

A selection of René Guénon’s most important and representative writings has been collected in the book The Essential René Guénon: Metaphysics, Tradition and the Crisis of Modernity, edited by author and editor John Herlihy.

Patrick Laude is a writer, editor, professor, and researcher in the fields of language, literature, symbolism, and mysticism. He is a professor at Georgetown University, currently at their School of Foreign Service in Qatar. Laude’s writings have been published in the US and Europe in numerous journals.

Martin Lings (1909-2005) was a leading member of the “Traditionalist” or “Perennialist” school and an acclaimed author, editor, translator, scholar, Arabist, and poet whose work centers on the relationship between God and man through religious doctrine, scripture, symbolism, literature, and art. He was an accomplished metaphysician and essayist who often turned to the world’s great spiritual traditions for examples, though he is probably best known for his writings on Islam and its esoteric tradition, Sufism.

Dr. Lings co-edited The Underlying Religion (2007) with Clinton Minnar. This book is a survey of central perennialist ideas and authors. Dr Lings contributed the following essays to various World Wisdom books:

Jean-Louis Michon was a traditionalist French scholar who specialized in Islam in North Africa, Islamic art, and Sufism. His works include Le Soufi marrocain Ahmad Ibn ‘Ajiba and L’Autobiographie (Fahrasa) du Soufi marrocain Ahmad Ibn ‘Ajiba (1747-1809). He wrote numerous articles appearing in several languages, and translated the Holy Koran into French.Dr. Michon’s contributions to World Wisdom books & DVDs include:

Seyyed Hossein Nasr (b. 1933) is University Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University. The author of over thirty books and three hundred articles, he is one of the world’s most respected writers and speakers on Islam, its arts and sciences, and its traditional mystical path, Sufism.

Lord Northbourne, the 4th Baron Northbourne, was an agriculturist, educator, translator, and writer on both agriculture and comparative religion. He was educated at Oxford and was for many years Provost of Wye College in England. His first published writings were on “organic” farming (he introduced the term), and he later began to write on Traditionalist/Perennialist themes. A number of Lord Northbourne’s essays appeared in the British journal, Studies in Comparative Religion, and were later included in his books Religion in the Modern World (1963) and Looking Back on Progress (1970).

Lord Northbourne’s essential writings are collected in Of the Land and the Spirit.

Harry Oldmeadow was coordinator of Philosophy and Religious Studies at La Trobe University in Australia and author of the acclaimed Traditionalism: Religion in the Light of the Perennial Philosophy (2000), an authoritative introduction to the perspective of Perennialism. Prof. Oldmeadow’s contributions to World Wisdom books & DVDs include:

Marco Pallis was a widely respected author on Tibetan Buddhism and the Perennial Philosophy, but he was also a gifted musician, composer, mountaineer, and translator.

Pallis’ book The Way and the Mountain came from his experiences traveling in the Eastern Himalaya region and with Tibetan Buddhism. Pallis also wrote many pieces for the important traditionalist journal Studies in Comparative Religion, some of which are included in his last publication, A Buddhist Spectrum . Marco Pallis’ essays are included in the following World Wisdom books:

Alberto Vasconcellos Queiroz is the editor-in-chief of the Brazilian publishing house Stella Maris, which publishes books on the Perennial Philosophy and on spirituality in general. He has translated many titles by Frithjof Schuon and William Stoddart into Portuguese. In addition, Queiroz co-edited Remembering in a World of Forgetting: Thoughts on Tradition and Postmodernism, a collection of writings by William Stoddart.

Leo Schaya was a writer in the Traditionalist/Perennialist school. He was particularly known for his writings on Jewish esoterism, with his book The Universal Meaning of the Kabbalah (1958) being one of the best known and often-quoted works in that field; however, he also was at home in the area of Sufi metaphysical interpretation. World Wisdom has published a collection of Schaya’s seminal work on his central theme, titled Universal Aspects of the Kabbalah and Judaism (2014), which includes some previously unpublished material. Leo Schaya’s essay “Creation, the Image of God” is one of the articles collected in the anthology Seeing God Everywhere: Essays on Nature and the Sacred . Another essay, “On the Name “Allah” is included in Sufism: Love and Wisdom . An online sample of his writing, the essay “The Eliatic Function” (about the esoteric function of the prophet Elijah), which appeared in the important traditionalist journal Studies in Comparative Religion, can be read if you click here.

Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998) is best known as the foremost spokesman of the “Traditionalist” or “Perennialist” school and as a philosopher in the metaphysical current of Shankara and Plato. He wrote more than two dozen books on metaphysical, spiritual, artistic, and ethnic themes and was a regular contributor to journals on comparative religion in both Europe and America. Schuon’s writings have been consistently featured and reviewed in a wide range of scholarly and philosophical publications around the world, respected by both scholars and spiritual authorities. Besides his prose writings, Schuon was also a prolific poet and a gifted painter of images that always portrayed the beauty and power of the divine, and the nobility and virtue of primordial humanity.

World Wisdom features a series titled “The Writings of Frithjof Schuon”, which includes many new editions of classic books by Schuon in new translations and with additional materials. Our online Library contains many articles and poems written by Frithjof Schuon, allowing readers to see a representative sample of his remarkable body of work.

William Stoddart (June 25, 1925 – November 9, 2023) was a Perennialist author, editor, and translator who was active in advancing the understanding of the writings of Frithjof Schuon, Titus Burckhardt, and others, for over 50 years. Dr. Stoddart’s most recent publications with World Wisdom are An Illustrated Outline of Buddhism: The Essentials of Buddhist Spirituality, What Does Islam Mean in Today’s World?, and Outline of Sufism: The Essentials of Islamic Spirituality. A compilation of his writings, Remembering in a World of Forgetting, was edited by M. Soares de Azevedo and A. Vasconcellos Queiroz. Stoddart also edited The Essential Titus Burckhardt, and was perhaps the greatest authority on the work of this great Swiss traditionalist. Dr. Stoddart’s other contributions in World Wisdom books include: