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This collection of essays by noted Perennialist authors surveys the spiritual, philosophical and artistic patrimony of the Christian tradition. It explores these intellectually challenging dimensions of Christianity, and considers their future possibilities. Behind the book lies the belief that one of the main factors responsible for the contemporary decadence, lack of vigor, and indeed the tragic crisis, of traditional religion is the indifference that is shown towards its sapiential or “knowledge” dimension. The essays here envisage religion primarily as knowledge of a sacred character — not as “social service” nor as a merely ethical system. Some of the most important authors of the Perennial Philosophy here support the vision that the intellective dimension is central to the human being, because knowledge, profoundly understood, is the very heart of man. The decisive characteristic of this anthology is therefore that it deals primarily with the sapiential aspect of religion. The reader will not find in it anything that smacks of “religious nationalism,” formalism without spirit, or expedients intended to appeal to anything less than the central intellectual faculty of man.
About the Author(s)
Mateus Soares de Azevedo
Mateus Soares de Azevedo is an author, translator, editor, and journalist from Minas Gerais, central Brazil. He is the author of a number of books and dozens of articles and essays dealing with the importance of traditional religion and spirituality in the contemporary world, some of them translated into English and Spanish. He has also translated a number of books by Guénon, Schuon, Lings, and other Perennialist figures into Portugese. His contributions to World Wisdom's books include:
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William Stoddart
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:
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Reviews
- The Perennial Philosophy referred to here is generally the philosophy espoused by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages. To the extent that other religious traditions approximate to this point of view, they are considered to be part of the Divine Truth. This leads to some highly refined interpretations and rather selective readings of other faiths as the search is made to find the thread of Perennial Philosophy supposedly running through all worthwhile thought.
Catholic Library World, Volume 78, Number 2
- Mateus de Azevedo’s precious and judiciously composed anthology is informed by the evangelical teaching ‘the Spirit bloweth where it listeth.’ It is furthermore buttressed by a complementary awareness of the fact that the Spirit does not blow just anywhere, nor just in any way. These collected essays point to the esoteric and gnostic heart of Christian teachings, while emphasizing the traditional, scriptural and liturgical forms through which this heart has animated the Church and its faithful. This volume is therefore a much needed antidote to both fundamentalist myopia and modernist tepidness: it breaks through exterior and conventional concepts of Christianity while upholding the spiritual depth and sacred integrity of Christ’s gift to the world.
Patrick Laude, Professor of French at Georgetown University
- St. Augustine said: ‘That which we today call the Christian religion also existed among the Ancients, and has not been absent amongst humankind from the time of its origin up to the time that Christ became flesh. True religion, which had already existed, began then to be called Christian.’ It is a merit of this remarkable anthology that, drawing from the best sources, it reminds us that Christianity and the Philosophia Perennis (Perennial Philosophy) speak in a common voice, the voice of the Eternal.
Jean-Baptiste Aymard, co-author of Frithjof Schuon: Life and Teachings
- I know of no comparable anthology dealing specifically with the Christian tradition. The choice of individual contributors to the volume is first rate.
Alberto Martín, author of Porel Camino de Santiago: reflexiones sobre fi losofía, arte y espiritualidad
- A brilliant selection of seminal and at times provocative texts bearing upon ‘Christianity and the Perennial Philosophy’, this is an anthology no serious student can afford to miss.
Wolfgang Smith, author of Cosmos and Transcendence : Breaking Through the Barrier of Scientistic Belief and The Wisdom of Ancient Cosmology
- The editor of this anthology has undertaken to bring together texts dealing with various aspects of the ‘sapiential’ dimension of Christianity, the eclipse of which he holds to be largely responsible for that religion’s decline in the West. The concept of a divine Intellect, opening consciousness to the possibility of participation in a transcendent order, has been replaced by reliance on a purely contingent rationality, now assumed to be the highest capacity of the mind.
Temenos Review
