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In his Foreword to the book, Bruce K. Hanson summarizes it in this way: “Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism serves as a near complete expression of Schuon’s thought. This book is distinctive in presenting, in one volume, what might be called the three hallmarks of Schuon’s writings. In clear and distinct order, he writes on cosmology and metaphysical principles, on the esoteric and exoteric expression of these principles in the various religious traditions, and on the trials and ultimate transformation of human nature.”
Those familiar with Schuon’s writings will know that this transformation involves not only certitude of thought and serenity of mind, but also certitude and serenity of heart. Whether the subject is intellectual, religious, moral or aesthetic, the aim is ultimately a quasi-existential assimilation of certitude that is reflected in man’s centrality, his total and integral nature.
About the Author(s)
Frithjof Schuon
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.
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Bruce K. Hanson
Bruce Hanson is a professor of philosophy and religion at Fullerton college. His major area of academic interest has been in the area of mystical experience and comparative religion. He has written several reviews for the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, the biographical entry for Huston Smith in the Dictionary of American Philosophy, and presented several papers on teaching religion. He wrote an enlightening foreword to Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism .
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Reviews
- Once again one reaches for superlatives. This book is not for everyone, for it is metaphysically demanding. But for those who thinkphilosophically it constitutes a kind of Principia Metaphysica, setting forth the principles of being with almost mathematical economy andprecision. The author reveals himself again as the most comprehensiveand architectonic metaphysician of our century.
Huston Smith,Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion, Emeritus, Syracuse University
- The highest praise that I can offer concerning the writings of Frithjof Schuon is that they are worthy of their subject matter—the teachings of the great spiritual traditions. Whether one’s views are supported or challenged by these writings, any serious person will feel grateful to be confronted by such a generously discerning intellect andto witness the emergence of authentic contemplative thought in this darkening time.
Jacob Needleman, Dept. of Philosophy, San Francisco State University
- The prolific pen of Frithjof Schuon has produced another stimulating work . . . From the history of religion, so often trivialized by the routine accumulation of data, Schuon proposes a spiritual epistemology capable of facing both Transcendence and Immanence. The author goes so far as to demand in the researcher truth and holiness. Few authors have stressed this theme so persuasively as has Frithjof Schuon in a genuinely spiritual opus.
P. Joseph Cahill, Chairman, Dept. of Religious Studies, University of Alberta
- This book is a veritable summa of traditional doctrines at the heart of which stands metaphysics. It is in a sense a synthesis of the works of theauthor written over the past half-century and casts a light of exceptional intensity upon complex metaphysical issues, various facets of man’s inner life and the spiritual significance of existence itself inrelation to the Supreme Principle.
S. H. Nasr, University Professor of Islamic Studies, George Washington University
- Schuon’s Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism is a wonderfully lucid and compact presentation of the core of Perennial Philosophy and Perennial Religion. Its undiluted metaphysics rings out a necessaryand inescapable challenge to contemporary understandings of humannature, rationality and spirituality. He speaks directly to our higherselves in a way that cuts through naive religious and scientistic fundamentalisms. Schuon should be required reading for all for whom philosophy and religion are vital concerns.
Sheldon R. Isenberg, Dept. of Religion, University of Florida
- A magnificent book, which exceeds what even this master’s most faithful readers have been led to expect. Schuon proves anew, by an even greater compression and irradiation of his Wisdom, how inexhaustibly beautiful is the Truth.
James S. Cutsinger, Dept. of Religious Studies, University of South Carolina
