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The perennial philosophy (Latin: philosophia perennis), [ note 1 ] also referred to as perennialism and perennial wisdom, is a school of thought in philosophy and spirituality which posits that the recurrence of common themes across world religions illuminates universal truths about the nature of reality, humanity, ethics, and consciousness.
Jun 25, 2016 · To this the fully developed Perennial Philosophy has at all times and in all places given fundamentally the same answer. The divine Ground of all existence is a spiritual Absolute, ineffable in terms of discursive thought, but (in certain circumstances) susceptible of being directly experienced and realized by the human being."
Harper & Brothers, 1945. Publication place. United States, United Kingdom. Publisher's jacket blurb for the first United Kingdom edition. The Perennial Philosophy is a comparative study of mysticism by the British writer and novelist Aldous Huxley. Its title derives from the theological tradition of perennial philosophy.
- Aldous Huxley
- 1945
- Definition
- Origins
- Popularisation
- Academic Discussions
Renaissance
See also: Renaissance Philosophy The idea of a perennial philosophy originated with a number of Renaissance theologians who took inspiration from neo-Platonism and from the theory of Forms. Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) argued that there is an underlying unity to the world, the soul or love, which has a counterpart in the realm of ideas. According to Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494), a student of Ficino, truth could be found in many, rather than just two, traditions. According to Agost...
Traditionalist School
The contemporary, scholarly oriented Traditionalist School continues this metaphysical orientation. According to the Traditionalist School, the perennial philosophy is “absolute Truth and infinite Presence.” Absolute Truth is “the perennial wisdom (sophia perennis) that stands as the transcendent source of all the intrinsically orthodox religions of humankind.” Infinite Presence is “the perennial religion (religio perennis) that lives within the heart of all intrinsically orthodox religions.”...
Aldous Huxley and mystical universalism
One such universalist was Aldous Huxley, who propagated a universalist interpretation of the world religions, inspired by Vivekananda’s neo-Vedanta and his own use of psychedelic drugs. According to Aldous Huxley, who popularized the idea of a perennial philosophy with a larger audience, In Huxley’s 1944 essay in Vedanta and the West, he describes The Minimum Working Hypothesis; the basic outline of the perennial philosophy found in all the mystic branches of the religions of the world:
Main articles: Neo-Platonism and Agape The perennial philosophy originates from a blending of neo-Platonism and Christianity. Neo-Platonism itself has diverse origins in the syncretic culture of the Hellenistic period, and was an influential philosophy throughout the Middle Ages.
Transcendentalism and Unitarian Universalism
Main articles: Transcendentalism, Universalism, and Unitarian Universalism Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) was a pioneer of the idea of spirituality as a distinct field. He was one of the major figures in Transcendentalism, an early 19th-century liberal Protestant movement, which was rooted in English and German Romanticism, the Biblical criticism of Herder and Schleiermacher, and the skepticism of Hume. The Transcendentalists emphasised an intuitive, experiential approach of religion. Follow...
Theosophical Society
Main article: Theosophical Society By the end of the 19th century, the idea of a perennial philosophy was popularized by leaders of the Theosophical Society such as H. P. Blavatsky and Annie Besant, under the name of “Wisdom-Religion” or “Ancient Wisdom”. The Theosophical Society took an active interest in Asian religions, subsequently not only bringing those religions under the attention of a western audience but also influencing Hinduism and Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Japan.
Neo-Vedanta
Main articles: Advaita Vedanta, Neo-Vedanta, and Neo-Advaita Many perennialist thinkers (including Armstrong, Huston Smith and Joseph Campbell) are influenced by Hindu reformer Ram Mohan Roy and Hindu mystics Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, who themselves have taken over western notions of universalism. They regarded Hinduism to be a token of this perennial philosophy. This notion has influenced thinkers who have proposed versions of the perennial philosophy in the 20th century. The unity...
Mystical experience
Main article: Mystical experience See also: Religious Experience The idea of a perennial philosophy, sometimes called perennialism, is a key area of debate in the academic discussion of mystical experience. Huston Smith notes that the Traditionalist School’s vision of a perennial philosophy is not based on mystical experiences, but on metaphysical intuitions. The discussion of mystical experience has shifted the emphasis in the perennial philosophy from these metaphysical intuitions to religi...
Religious pluralism
Main article: Religious pluralism Religious pluralism holds that various world religions are limited by their distinctive historical and cultural contexts and thus there is no single, true religion. There are only many equally valid religions. Each religion is a direct result of humanity’s attempt to grasp and understand the incomprehensible divine reality. Therefore, each religion has an authentic but ultimately inadequate perception of divine reality, producing a partial understanding of th...
Feb 19, 2020 · A lthough Huxley wrote that the perennial philosophy is ‘immemorial and universal’, his book was a product of a particular time and place. In the first half of his life, Huxley was known as an irreverent mocker of religion, ‘the man who hates God’ as one newspaper put it.
1 day ago · Quick Reference. The key idea in perennial philosophy is that behind all the diversity of human thought a perennial truth is discernible and is preserved and transmitted in the various mystical-contemplative teachings ... From: Perennial Philosophy in The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature ». Subjects: Religion.
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the perennial philosophy, Wittine (1989) defines transpersonal psychotherapy as "an approach to healing/growth that aims to bridge the Western psychological tradition ... and the world's perennial philosophy" (p. 269). And one of the main goals of Grof's (1998) latest work is to show that "modem consciousness research has generated
