The Mystery of Individuality: Grandeur and Delusion of the Human Condition

The Mystery of Individuality: Grandeur and Delusion of the Human Condition is an in-depth philosophical and spiritual exploration of the two-sided phenomenon of human individuality — the condition of having an existence separate from other beings but which also is mysteriously connected with them and, at the root of all, with God. Author Mark Perry is a professional editor and the translator of several works by eminent philosopher Frithjof Schuon into English. He is the son of American Perennialist author Whitall Perry. Mark Perry has previously published numerous articles, as well as the book On Awakening and Remembering.

This book explores the nature of human individuality through twelve chapters, whose main focal points are spirituality, psychology, sociology, and love, as well as the meaning of sacred art. The issues of leadership and justice, as well as of politics, and even crime, are also examined in depth, along with the roles of sexuality and marriage. Finally, man and woman are defined in the context of both cosmology and society, with a special emphasis on the divine nature of a human being and what this entails morally and socially. Perry bases his assessments on the guiding image of archetypal man; that is, of a being created in the image of God. However, the book also clearly traces what occurs when this archetype is no longer embodied, as God and nature originally decreed, in human beings and their societies.

The basic thesis of the book is that in creating man, God lent man something of His own immortal personhood, which explains why we find the most profoundly lovable thing about another person to be his or her personality. But finally the question for each of us comes down to remembering our divine essence without forgetting our human nothingness.