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For Articles - Click on underlined term for definition from
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Printed Editions Available for Purchase
Newest Commemorative Annual Editions:
A special web site:
To visit a special web site, "Frithjof Schuon Archive," dedicated to featured Studies contributor Frithjof Schuon, click here.
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Schuon, Frithjof
Schuon discusses the limitations and issues that stem from restrictive theories in Moslem scholasticism with particular focus on Ash‘arite theology. Schuon follows Ash‘arite theology from founding principles through to conclusions, describing the logical flaws inherent in ‘totalitarian obedientialism.’
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Guénon, René
Guénon discusses the symbolism of ‘the language of the birds’, found throughout religious tradition. Citing passages from Christian, Hindu, and Islamic sources, Understanding ‘the language of the birds’ often refers, according to Guénon, to understanding the language of the angels “which is symbolized in the human world by rhythmic language.” Guénon goes on to discuss the meaning of poetry as was originally understood – to be a comprehension of the Divine.
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Lhalungpa, Lobsang Ph.
A short introductory note by the Editor describes this article as one whose interest is to “illustrates a normal characteristic of all traditional civilizations, namely the dependence of their arts (and sciences) on the religious principle.” “Sacred music was for the Tibetans an essential part of their spiritual endeavour,” the paper goes on to explain, giving a history of Tibetan spirituality and music and their intertwined nature.
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Burckhardt, Titus
Burckhardt examines the history and symbolism of the chess-board of its pieces. From its roots in India through its passages into Persia and into Europe the chess-board is both a military stratagem and a symbol of space and the universe, as well as a symbol of the nature of the soul and the relationship between will and fate.
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Bowen, Patrick
Patrick Bowen recounts his time traveling in “the wild Bushlands of the Northern Transvaal, Portuguese East Africa and Mashonaland” where he spent his time learning of the religious practices of the Isanusi (“a term, popularly but improperly interpreted as "Witch Doctor."”) Bowen describes the various holy men he encountered and the teachings they imparted.
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Walker, Benjamin
The two-volume encyclopedia of Hinduism by Benjamin Walker is, according to reviewer Whitall Perry, a “manageable survey of this phenomenon [Hinduism] in a manner at once accessible and convincing to any serious lay reader in need of an erudite reference manual that is something less than a library.” Perry notes several ‘inevitable’ areas that do not receive the detail one would hope for, and criticizes Walker for his dismissal of the caste system and discounting of the Bhagavadgitâ. He notes however, that to reject the book on this basis would be a waste; “it seems, alas, that it often takes one kind of person to document spirituality and another to understand it.”
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Conquest, Robert
Reviewer A.A. praises Robert Conquest’s book “Religion in the U.S.S.R.” for its detached prose which allows the stark statistics and details of the persecution of religion within communist Russia to stand out all the more clearly. While all religions have suffered under the communist regime, Buddhism in particular has suffered, as A.A. highlights in his review; “In Buryatia, there were 36 datsans and 16,000 lamas in 1916, while in 1960…there were no more than 2 datsans and a few dozen lamas!”
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Burckhardt, Titus
Titus Burckhardt responds to a letter written in defense of Teilhard De Chardin, condemning Teilhard’s thesis; calling it “a Trojan horse to introduce materialism and progressism into the very bosom of the religion.”
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Sherrard, Philip
Philip Sherrard responds to a letter written by Mr. Bolton regarding Sherrard’s article Man and the presence of evil in Christian and Platonic Doctrine. “It is so easy to appeal to "complete principles" of "true metaphysics" [Ed: as Bolton does in his letter rebutting Sherrard’s article] while forgetting that this appeal begs an endless number of questions… I cannot answer Mr. Bolton's letter without first going into the whole question of the nature and authority of the principles of the doctrine he asserts—obviously something that cannot be done in a letter.”
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