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The West has long romanticized the “mysterious” East, but it has also judged its traditions as “uncivilized.” Our notions about Eastern spirituality have been formed by a succession of travelers, scientists, artists, intellectuals, poets, philosophers, and missionaries, as well as by Eastern travelers who have spent time in the West. This book helps us to recognize the influence of Eastern ideas upon modern Western thought by tracing the history of engagements between East and West up until the present day. It concludes with a section that helps us to perceive the timeless value of the many Eastern contributions to the West’s current intellectual and spiritual state.
About the Author(s)
Harry Oldmeadow
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:
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Huston Smith
Huston Smith is one of the most prominent voices in the contemporary study of religion and spirituality. His book, The World's Religions, is used in countless classes, and Prof. Smith's other books are widely respected in the field. Much of his work over the years deals with the tenets of the Perennial Philosophy. Huston Smith's contributions to World Wisdom's books and DVDs include:
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Reviews
- This is the most comprehensive, engaging, and responsible treatment of the advent of Asian thought to the West that has ever been written—Journeys East will be indispensable for students of comparative religion.
Huston Smith, author of the well-known text The World’s Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions
- A highly accurate and encyclopedic compendium of the history of western encounters with eastern religious traditions. One finds herein not just the names of innumerable significant individuals, but a review of their views and their significance. It will long remain a standard reference work.
Rama Coomaraswamy, author of The Destruction of the Christian Tradition
- A wide ranging, thoughtful, informed, and provocative work, significantly advancing the contemporary discussion of the history, substance, and meaning of 20th century Western encounters with ‘the East.’
Reginald A. Ray, author of Indestructible Truth and Secret of the Vajra World
- This voluminous work is distinguished by both careful scholarship and intellectual penetration. No other available study can compare in either depth or breadth with Oldmeadow’s treatment of the very important encounter of the West with the spiritual traditions of the East during the past two centuries. Journeys East is a major achievement in the field of religious studies, indispensable for anyone interested in the encounter of the West with Eastern religions and cultures yesterday and today.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, George Washington University, and author of The Heart of Islam : Enduring Values for Humanity and many others
- Journeys East is one of the very few intellectual histories of our age, if we take the intellect to be more than the mind or reason. Journeys East is an account of the actual philosophers of the recent past rather than of the poseurs and pretenders to that title who in the same breath call themselves empiricists or post-modern.
Roger Sworder, La Trobe University, Bendigo
- Journeys East: 20th Century Western Encounters with Eastern Religious Traditions is a book I have been waiting for: it is the most complete and the most sympathetic account of the meeting and mingling of Western and Eastern traditions, that has characterized the history of religion in the 20th century. Rich in detail but not superficial, well structured and thought provoking, it offers much more than a collection of data and shows insight and mature judgment. I consider it one of the most important works in Religious Studies that has appeared in the last decade. It is a great resource and will be read with interest by everyone concerned with the present and the future of religion worldwide.
Klaus K. Klostermaier, FRSC, University of Manitoba, and author of A Survey of Hinduism
- Journeys East is a work of remarkable breadth. Oldmeadow has given us the most comprehensive history of East-West religious (and philosophical) encounters so far. A fascinating read.
Graham Parkes, Dept. of Philosophy, University of Hawaii
- [This] new book of Oldmeadow is remarkable because it offers an exceptionally detailed panorama of the journeys and works of all the
Jean-Baptiste Aymard, writing in Connaissances des Religions
- who have turned to the Orient since the end of the 19th century, without overlooking the Orientals who came during the same time to the Occident.…It is undeniable that [this is] a major and epoch-making study that one hopes will soon be translated into French.
Wolfgang Smith, in a review for Sophia
- It is safe to surmise that most of us have
- in the sense of Professor Oldmeadow’s title; and this in itself explains why his book has power to interest and touch us so deeply. For centuries, as we know, Western seekers have turned to the East in search of enlightenment, and it is this historical encounter that the author has set himself to chronicle and comment upon in Journeys East. The resultant treatise is woven around a pageant of extraordinary men and women, who have approached the East, not with the typical arrogance and blindness of the modernized Westerner or religious sectarian, but with humility and a certain reverence, in response, one may presume, to some initial glimpse, at least, of its spiritual grandeur.…
