Actually amazing, but virtually all Traditionalistic books are anthologies of some sort. Books of specific authors are often collections of essays earlier published elsewhere and there are many books such as the present title in which texts of different authors are brought together. Judging the title, this book is intended to be an introduction to Traditionalism. The complete title goes The Underlying Religion: An Introduction to the Perennial Philosophy. The book is divided in a couple of subjects. The first group is titled “Tradition and modernity” and consists of three essays of Lord Northbourne. Then follows “Traditional cosmology and modern science” with texts of Martin Lings, Titus Burckhardt and Philip Sherrard. The next three essays are about “Metaphysics” are are from the hands of René Guénon, Martin Lings and Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Lings, Ghazi bin Muhammad and René Guénon form the trinity about “Symbolism”. Lings, Ananda Coomaraswamy and William Stoddart have texts in the part about “Mysticism”. Frithjof Schuon, Titus Burckhardt and Marco Pallis have texts headed with “Beauty”. The last three texts are about “Virtue and Prayer” and are of Tage Lindbom, Reza Shah-Kazemi (about Schuon) and Titus Burckhardt.
Indeed, a variety of texts and (up to a certain degree) a variety in authors, old and and more recent and well-known and lesser known. The book certainly contains a few classic texts which are also valuable to people who are well acquainted with Traditionalistic thinking. For people to whom all this is new, The Underlying might act as a good, but not too easy, introduction.
2007 World Wisdom, isbn 1933316438
The first three volumes suggested that Luvah would be a journal with issues, so year 1, issue 3, etc., but then online. The previous issues where published somewhat as a journal, for example in one PDF with a cover and all. Luvah Journal volume 4 is ‘just’ a page on the website with links to the articles in PDF and html (no longer Epub unfortunately). A bit like I also said about issue 1/3, Luvah does not seem very much Traditionalistic. There is academia, philosophy and poetry. Nonethess there are, like in the previous issues, interesting articles. The article about William Blake was less interesting than it seemed initially, but the article about feminism and “queer theories” in Judaism is something you do not hear a whole lot about. Keith Doubt wonders if ‘reading e’ is the same as reading a book. His article is too psychological for me and he seems to largely miss a big development in digital reading, but he does raise a few interesting questions. For the rest you can read poetry, prose, a book review and another few texts.
Click on the cover to go to the Luvah website.
Recently I reviewed Frithjof Schuon’s “Understanding Islam“. Actually I find that title more fitting for Nasr’s book, but of course Schuon was 26 years ahead. While after reading Schuon’s book I had the idea that I perhaps learned something about Islam, I did not understand it better. With Nasr’s book this is much different.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr (1933-) is a born Muslim (Persian) and raised in the Middle East. He studied in America where he now also teaches. He is a lifelong student of Schuon, well-respected in the scholarly West and in traditional Islamic circles and a Traditionalist (as was Schuon). Many leading Traditionalists were born as Muslims, or converted to Islam. This is not so strange, because Islam sees itself as a branch of the religio perennis. As the author writes: “Islam sees itself as at once the primordial religion, a return to the original religion of oneness, and the final religion”.
For each [people] We have appointed a Divine Law and a way. Had God willed, He could have made you one community. But that He may try you by that which He hath given you. So vie with one another in good works. Unto God ye will all return, and He will then inform you concerning that wherein ye differed. (Qur’an 5:48)
“The Heart Of Islam” is divided in seven parts. The first explains the quote above. In the second you will learn that there is not something as the Islam. Like there are many forms of Christianity, there are many forms of Islam. Nasr describes the big division between Sunnism and Shi’ism and currents and schools within these two. These currents and schools are roughly to be divided in Traditional, modernistic and “so-called Fundamentalistic”. Nasr is glad to conclude that the first group is still by far the biggest, but unfortunately the second is growing and the latter gets most attention in Western media. The other parts speak about more specific subjects. Divine and human laws; peace, love, beauty and compassion; the community; justice and human rights and responsibilities. Nasr discusses at length and at various places what the Shari’ah really is, but also how often the term is misused for non-religious reasons. Very interesting discussions follow about environmental issues, the decline of the world caused by the West, religion, politics, society, etc.
Now Nasr is, like I said, a Muslim by birth. He knows the ‘Islam from the desert’ and is well familiar with the Western world. When describing elements of Islam he often quickly passes over excesses of recent years. I am sure that these elements are much enlarged by our media and governments and it is not that the author is totally uncritical and tries to turn everything into something positive, but I would have liked to read a bit more about certain subjects and I totally miss the question of honour and the honour killings. It is probably true, but Nasr blames the West for all excesses as well. There were no problems before Napoleon went south and currents such as modernism and “fundamentalism” did not exist before the West came to impose the materialistic way of thinking and democracy. Basically Nasr’s book seems to be a plea to the West to leave the “abode of Islam” in peace to solve its own problems in its own way, together with, but not led by, the West and the East. I think this is a fair call.
Read “The Heart Of Islam” to learn about Islam, understand it better, think about what happens in the world since the last centuries and get acquainted with an interesting religion that is much alive and has a big role to play in the world.
When one thinks of Islam, one should go beyond the repetitive scenes on television of wars and battles, which unfortunately abound in today’s world, to behold the peace and harmony of Islamic art seen in the great mosques, traditional urban settings and gardens, and the rhythm and geometry of calligraphy and arabesque designs; read in the poems that sing of the love that permeates all of God’s creation and binds creatures to God; and heard in the strains of melodies that echo what we had experienced in that primordial morn preceding creation and our descent into this lowly world.
Titus Burckhardt (1908-1984) was a Swiss “perennialist” art historian, advisor to UNESCO and an active writer. Numerous works in a great variety of languages came from his desk. Also did he write on many different subjects. In “The Essential Titus Burckhardt” the editor William Stoddart tried to show the various sides of Burckhardt. The texts in this volume go from almost theological expositions to reports of Burckhardt’s many travels and much in between. The subjects varry from alchemy to ‘Amerindian’ sundances, evolution and Julius Evola’s Riding the Tiger. Indeed, the author had a broad interest and during his life made friends all over the world. The book is divided in seven parts each of which is divided in different chapters. The parts have titles such as “Traditional and Modern Science”, “Sacred Art and the Expression of Truth”, “Alchemy” and “Evocations of Traditional Maroccan Life”. An interesting and varried book of an interesting writer with a nicely personal writing style and critical but constructive ideas. 2003 world wisdom, isbn 0941532364
This is the first ebook that I bought. I bought an ereader to read all those PDFs that I have on my computer, but when I noticed that there are also ebooks that I want to read and the prices are better than I thought and I was looking for a Traditionalist title anyway, I got myself this famous book by Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998). The book was initially written in French (“Comprendre l’Islam” 1976), has been published in English before, but in 2011 became available in a new English translation and was expanded with letters and other short writings of Schuon. I must say that I am relatively happy ‘reading e’. When there is a note, I can read it in a popup without having to page to the notes and even when a note is too long for the popup, the jumping to the note and back to where I was reading goes with one click. The ereader keeps track of where I am in which book as well, so I can read several books without having to finish each of them first and the dictionary function is great. I was afraid that reviewing an ebook would be a pain, because when reviewing a book, I am constantly flipping through it which is not ‘doable’ on the ereader, but the software that I need to put books on the device, also acts like a reader and on the computer navigation goes well enough. I guess that the choice between buying a physical book and a digital one will be the question if I want to put it in my library for referential purposes.
In any case, in his preface Schuon says that he did not want to write another book about what Muslims believe, but why. Perhaps this is why I am not really sure if I understand Islam better after reading this book. The book reads more like a Traditionalistic work (of course Schuon was a Traditionalist and Muslim) and a deeply religious one, making cross-references to other religions and speaking about Muslim concepts, but it is not like he sets out to explain these concepts. It is more like a long text in which those different concepts are touched upon in the light of the larger story. “Understanding Islam” certainly is a great book if you want to read a religious work of a Traditionalist, but perhaps there are better books to answer your questions about the religion of Islam. The remark: “A masterpiece of comparative religion” (Islamic Quarterly about the book) descries what I mean. Of course, since the book is about Islam afterall, you will learn about it, but just different from what I expected I guess.
2011 World Wisdom, isbn 0941532240
I read volumes 1/1 and 1/3 so short after eachother that I decided to make a combined review. I am glad that I (accidentally) first read volume 1/2. Volume 1/1 seems more Platonic and 1/3 more focussed on poetry than on Traditionalism. Volume 1/2 certainly is the more interesting of the three that are now available. Not that the other two do not contain interesting articles though. Farasha Euker’s opening article is a nice ‘against the modern world’ piece of writing and 1/3 contains an interesting text on Iamblichus (and, less interestingly, Ostad Elahi) also by Euker. I am not much for philosophy, especially not on the academic level, but Euker makes Iamblichus worth looking at. Both volumes futher mostly have texts about elements of writers and poets which sometimes leads to nice ideas, but which are mostly not much of my interest. Also again the last part is filled with poetry and prose.
“Luvah” remains a laudable initiative, but now that I read three volumes, I guess I would have preferred more focus on Traditionalism, religion, mythology, that sort of things. But of course something different never hurts and since the journal is free, there is no harm done when only a part of the volumes are interesting.
“Luvah” is a new Traditionalistic journal, but there is a big difference between Luvah and its sisters Sophia and Sacred Web: Luvah is not hard and expensive to get, but free to read online or to download. There are authors that have also published in the other journals that I mentioned, so Luvah is very likely supposed to be a more low-threshold publication from the same corner. There does seem to be another difference though. I have the idea that Luvah is less “hardline” (as I jokingly call it) Traditionalistic as the other publications. It was just chance that I read issue 2 first by the way. When I heard of Luvah issue 2 was already available. I downloaded both issues, put them on my tablet and when I wanted to start to read it, I could only find issue 2. Now that I finished that, I noticed that issue 3 is also available, so it is going to be something to keep up with Luvah. It being an online publication does not make it an easier read or an effortless and thin journal. What you get are 170 pages filled with six essays and 70 pages of poetry and prose (the amount of the latter also makes Luvah different from the other publications). I am mostly interested in the articles myself. They are about ecology, “Śri Ramakrishna and Muhyi al-Din ibn ‘Arabi” (a nice article of Zachary Markwith whom we have run into before), “The Dervish, Death, and Qur’anic Hermeneutics” (of the editor Farasha Euker), “Buddhist Mind, Western Literature”, “A More Poetical Character Than Satan” and … Arthur C. Clarke? Yes indeed, even this sci-fi writer is seriously treated in a Traditionalistic publication and the man actually had something to say too. The last part is filled with poems and texts about poems and poetry. Luvah makes a nice addition to the available Traditionalistic publications and being more easily available, I hope it will attract a larger audience. Click on the cover to download your own copy. Now that it seems that I will be reading more digital material, I replaced my tablet by an ereader, but reading on that device would be more easier if Luvah was also made available as ebook since scaling a PDF and paging though it is not all that easy on my ereader…
The second Sophia that I read is also a nice one. This volume is dedicated to Huston Smith (1919-), the well-known scholar in religions that later in his life got acquainted with the Traditionalist way of thinking and found the answers that he had been looking for. This volume opens with a text by Smith and is followed by an interview with the man. Later in the volume no-one less than Harry Oldmeadow writes a lengthy biography of Smith and after this Zachary Markwith speaks about “Huston Smith’s encounter with the Islamic Tradition” and when you ready my review of Sophia 13/2 you will understand where the stress of Markwith’s article lays. Other articles are Seyyed Hossein Nasr’s thoughts on humanity in relation to nature, Islamic “mysticism” and “Christianity amidst the world religions”. Another long text is a review of two book about Frithjof Schuon followed by the review of a book about Nasr. At the end there is a review of a book about the poem “The Mystery Of Hasanaginica”. Indeed, the Sophia Journal is by and about the leading Traditionalists of today and covers a nice spectrum of subjects. Link: Sophia Journalm isbn 9780979842979
Only a year and a half ago I reviewed “Northern Traditions“. The series of journals edited by Gwendolyn Toynton/Taunton has since seen two other volumes. For the second issue dedicated to the Traditions of Northern Europe, Taunton came up with a better-fitting name. “Mímir” is 230 pages thick and comes as the well-printed A5 booklet that we grew used to. The essays are nicely varried. The editor contributes a nice introduction and two articles, one about “the Nornir and the concept of Fate” and one about “the berserker and the Vratya”. Two articles of myself are also included (I had to come up with a penname quickly and it became “Roy Orlogstru”). The first is an 18 page version of “Traditionalistic Asatru“, a text of a few years back. The other I named “The Primal Law” and I write about Örlogr, Heilagr, fate and a few other concepts and I put this in a Traditionalistic framework. Then I need to mention Maria Kvildhaug’s “Ritual And Initiation In The Poetic Edda” because this text completes an interesting set of articles that complement eachother (I did not know this beforehand, this is either good editing or luck of the editor). All three authors refer to Germanic initiations, Männerbünde, there are references to fate, Örlogr and all the things interesting in Northern mythology. I feel to be closer in content to Taunton than to Kvildhaug, but we all three break a lance for Northern mysteries. Other articles include an investigation of Viking presence in Northern Europe, a new translation of the sage of Gunnlaug the Worm-Tongue, an interesting investigation of the texts of Saxo Grammaticus and its sources and another article about Grammaticus by the same author. There are two articles about runes. A short text saying what runes are not, but more interesting is Juleigh Howard-Hobson’s defence of the Uthark theory. The journal closes with a lengthy review of the first five Heidnische Jahrbücher by myself.
Indeed, “Mímir” became a very nice collection of contemporary heathenry including different views in comparison to what you see more often. It sure makes a welcome addition to similar efforts such as the earlier mentioned Heidnisches Jahrbuch, the Journal For Contemporary Heathen Thought and Tyr, particularly because I found someone who likes what I write and is willing to publish it!
2012 Numen Books, isbn 978098158147
Sophia, I have known about the journal for ages, but I probably never really looked at it. Perhaps only when the new issue was mentioned on a Traditionalistic forum did I realise that this is a Traditionalistic journal. More actually, all contemporary Traditionalists seem to contribute to it. My story is quite similar to that about Sacred Web! Because Sophia, contrary to Sacred Web, is available from Amazon (but they are not easy to find) sometimes for a price way below the price of the publisher, I got myself two issues. Not the most recent though, I picked two based on the tables of content. Sophia 13/2 opens with a text of his royal highness, prince of Wales (or Prince Charles) who contributes to Traditionalistic journals more often and who appears to be a productive writer on a great variety of topics. The text presented is a talk that HRH gave when he received an environmental award from the hands of Al Gore. The text is not really Traditionalistic, but HRH highness does stress the point that the earth is not for us to use and that we should start using technology to make our way of living no longer a burden to nature. Another environmental text comes from the hands of the main editor Seyyed Hossein Nasr who makes an appeal to Muslims to not slavely follow the West with destructive technology just to keep up, but to use Islam to come to a better way of living and an ‘Islamic technology’. Next up is an interview with Huston Smith (born 1919 and still going), the first and perhaps most famous scholar in comparitive religious studies. After this come the two articles that made me order this particular issue, both are about Kabbalah. The first text is about the Christian Kabbalah. Wolfgang Smith argues that the Christian version of the Kabbalah is valid (however the two initially seem incompatible) and that it even adds something to Christianity. Then Tom Black shows us that Kabbalah is more Sufi in nature than Jewish in his very nice article. Much more Islam follows with Zachary Markwith’s lengthy “Muslim Intellectuals and the Perennial Philosophy” in which Markwith shows us that Traditionalism sprang forth from Islam and is conserved within it as well and that this is due to the Quran, the Sunnah and the very Prophet Himself. The author not only presents a very nice insight into Islam, but also presents a very good introduction to Traditionalism and several of the names from the ‘school’. The last article is about Ananda Coomaraswamy and his views on art. To close the journal there are book and film reviews. Sophia certainly is worth the money, especially because, at least from Amazon, some issues are very friendly priced and easy to get. If you are interested in Traditionalism and Traditionalism in action, Sophia is the title that you should certainly try. 2007 The Foundation For Traditional Studies, isbn 0979842913
Actually amazing, but virtually all Traditionalistic books are anthologies of some sort. Books of specific authors are often collections of essays earlier published elsewhere and there are many books such as the present title in which texts of different authors are brought together. Judging the title, this book is intended to be an introduction to Traditionalism. The complete title goes The Underlying Religion: An Introduction to the Perennial Philosophy. The book is divided in a couple of subjects. The first group is titled “Tradition and modernity” and consists of three essays of Lord Northbourne. Then follows “Traditional cosmology and modern science” with texts of Martin Lings, Titus Burckhardt and Philip Sherrard. The next three essays are about “Metaphysics” are are from the hands of René Guénon, Martin Lings and Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Lings, Ghazi bin Muhammad and René Guénon form the trinity about “Symbolism”. Lings, Ananda Coomaraswamy and William Stoddart have texts in the part about “Mysticism”. Frithjof Schuon, Titus Burckhardt and Marco Pallis have texts headed with “Beauty”. The last three texts are about “Virtue and Prayer” and are of Tage Lindbom, Reza Shah-Kazemi (about Schuon) and Titus Burckhardt.
