The study features the five most important and most efficacious themes of Western spirituality in their ancient historical origins and in their unfolding up to early modernity: Divine names, Microkosmos-Makrokosmos, theories of creation, the idea of spiritual spaces, and the concepts of eschatological history.

The search for an eternal wisdom of divine origin, transmitted from the very dawn of humanity, but fragmented and partially lost, is a recurring theme in the history of Western esotericism. This theme was notably expressed at the beginnning of the 20th century by a form of thought called Traditionalism, above all from the moment that the French author René Guénon became it became its spokesman with his anti-modernist writings. The term Perennialism, however, refers more specifically to the form this though has taken in the United States, as represented primarily by Frithjof Schuon and his followers, namely, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Huston Smith, and a second generation of writers such as James Cutsinger. Frithjob Schuon is regarded as a thinker who gave perennialist philosophy its definitive synthesis, and as the first perennialist to assume an initiatory function. Founder and spiritual master of a neo-Sufi order in the United States, Schuon based his perspective on the intellect and on the nature of things, and he oriented his own teaching toward an esoterism per se, personified by the Virgin Mary. The idea of religio perennis or sophia perennis, a set of metaphysical principles revealed by heaven and partially restored by each genuine founder of a new religion, became, in Schuon's metaphysics, the "transcendent unity" present in the essential core of every religion. This metaphysical view and the spiritual method introduced by Schuon were adapted by two of his followers, the Iranian professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr, an authority in Islamic Studies, and the American scholar Huston Smith, who specialized more in transpersonal experiences. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy is an independent figure among American perennialists, but shares their perspectives. This new meaning of "esoterism," in contrast to "esotericism," applies to certain currents in Western culture that are historically related and show certain simularities, and that point toward a religionist approach to the study of religions - an approach that is often criticized in academic circles. -- from back cover.

An inspired gathering of religious writings that reveals the "divine reality" common to all faiths, collected by Aldous Huxley "The Perennial Philosophy," Aldous Huxley writes, "may be found among the traditional lore of peoples in every region of the world, and in its fully developed forms it has a place in every one of the higher religions." With great wit and stunning intellect—drawing on a diverse array of faiths, including Zen Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Christian mysticism, and Islam—Huxley examines the spiritual beliefs of various religious traditions and explains how they are united by a common human yearning to experience the divine. The Perennial Philosophy includes selections from Meister Eckhart, Rumi, and Lao Tzu, as well as the Bhagavad Gita, Tibetan Book of the Dead, Diamond Sutra, and Upanishads, among many others.

Examines the first principles of the perennial philosophy or ancient wisdom tradition as expressed in the writings of its great exponents, Rene Guenon and Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, and offers a critique of the West from the standpoint of traditional principles.

The meaning of a science rooted in the sacred, its contrast to modern science and its pertinence to us today.

This title seeks to develop a discouse on different cultures, philosophies and religions. The author approaches the study fo philosophy from a cross-cultural perspective allowing for fundamental similarities and illuminating differences between cultures.