Mark Perry

In this wise and insightful book, the author defines what a human being is according to his perennial archetype in divinis while, at the same time, situating him in the context of the spiritual wasteland of the contemporary world which he contrasts with what an integrally sacred tradition is meant to be. His writing exhibits an unusual succinctness and clarity, coupled with a profound compassion. The author’s viewpoint is based on the ideas of the “perennialist school”, of which the exponent par excellence was Frithjof Schuon.

The term “perennialist school” (also known as “the traditionalist” or “esoterist” school) calls for some explanation. It was first used by the American Academy of Religion in the 1980s. The founders of this current of intellectuality and spirituality were the French philosopher and orientalist René Guénon (1886-1951) and the German philosopher, poet and artist Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998). It was further expounded by Ananda Coomaraswamy (1877-1947) and Titus Burckhardt (1908-1984). The principal characteristics of this school include the fundamental and essential principles of metaphysics (with its cosmological and anthropological ramifications), intellectual intuition, orthodoxy, tradition, universality, the science of symbolism; spirituality in the broadest sense; intrinsic morals and esthetics; and the meaning and importance of sacred art. A very important characteristic is a deep-reaching critique of the modern world, on the basis of strictly traditional principles. “Universality” means what Schuon has called“the transcendent unity of the religions”, and these words became the title of his first book. Universality thus signifies the Supreme Truth that underlies each of the great religious revelations.

It is this supra-formal truth that constitutes the religio perennis. This term, which does not imply a rejection of the similar terms philosophia perennis and sophia perennis, nevertheless contains a hint of an additional dimension which is unfailingly present in Schuon’s writings, and which Perry eloquently restates, while expanding its application to a number of different domains: and this is that intellectual understanding entails a spiritual responsibility, that intelligence requires to be complemented by sincerity and faith, and that “seeing” (in height) implies “believing” (in depth). In other words, the greater our perception of essential and saving truth, the greater our obligation towards an effort of inward or spiritual “realization”. The religio perennis, by its very nature, is something “secret”; it is a “still small voice”, a hidden presence, sought out and found only by those with a hunger and thirst for it, and known only to those with eyes to see and ears to hear. Like Pythagoras and Plato, Guénon and Schuon derive their doctrinal expositions directly from intellectus purus — a process which lends to these expositions an unsurpassable lucidity, not to say infallibility.

It is from this intellectual and spiritual current that Perry derives his inspiration. Schuon’s intellectual teachings have already been the subject of many studies, but I know of no other author who expounds and reflects the specifically spiritual teachings of Frithjof Schuon as intimately and authentically as does Mark Perry, who, all his life, had the advantage of being a close associate of Schuon. The reader will enjoy Perry’s rich vocabulary and eloquent and evocative prose and, at the same time, will receive powerful spiritual encouragement.