The Essential Titus Burckhardt: Reflections on Sacred Art, Faiths, and Civilizations (Perennial Philosophy) [Paperback]

Titus Burckhardt (Author), William Stoddart (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Perennial Philosophy | Publication Date: September 6, 2003

An introduction to the thought of one of the greatest perennialist authors of the twentieth century.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Burckhardt has always been a[n] inspiration...His... modesty and natural reticence hid his great stature as...[a] man of wisdom." -- Keith Critchlow, author of Islamic Patterns: An Analytical and Cosmological Approach

"Burckhardt looks at Islam and Christianity with the eyes of a scholar who combines...spiritual insight with...love of...Truth." -- Annemarie Schimmel, Harvard University, author of Mystical Dimensions of Islam

"The Essential Titus Burckhardt is a veritable theophany. Wherever you open the pages...[it] breathes all that is sacred." -- Sir John Tavener, composer, and author of The Music of Silence: A Composer's Testament

"This book is a spiritual and intellectual journey that...brings together the wisdom of the major religious traditions." -- Rama P. Coomaraswamy, M.D., F.A.C.S., author of The Destruction of the Christian Tradition

"This distillation of [Titus Burckhardt's] life's work is a precious memento." -- Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions and Why Religion Matters

About the Author

William Stoddart was born at Carstairs in Scotland in 1925. He studied modern languages, and later medicine, at the universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Dublin. For many years he was assistant editor of the influential British journal Studies in Comparative Religion. He spent most of his working life in London, England, and retired to Windsor, Ontario in 1982.

Dr. Stoddart has made a life-long study of the great religious traditions of the world, and in this connection has traveled widely in Europe, North Africa, Turkey, India, and Ceylon. He has contributed many articles to international journals, and has translated books and articles from German and French into English. As an author he is probably best known for his short surveys of Sufism, Buddhism, and Hinduism aimed at Western readers.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: World Wisdom (September 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0941532364
• ISBN-13: 978-0941532365
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,107,197 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

TITUS BURCKHARDT, a German Swiss, was born in Florence in 1908 and died in Lausanne in 1984. An eminent member of the perennialist school, he is perhaps best known to the general public as an art historian. He won much acclaim for producing and publishing the first successful full-scale facsimiles of the Book of Kells, a copy of which he presented to Pope Pius XII at his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo. He later acted as a specialist advisor to UNESCO, with particular reference to the preservation of the unique architectural heritage of Fez. Besides his studies in Islamic art, mysticism, and culture, such as Introduction to Sufi Doctrine, Fez: City of Islam, and Moorish Culture in Spain, his best known works are: Sacred Art in East and West, Siena: City of the Virgin, Chartres and the Birth of the Cathedral, and Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul. Two notable compendiums of his work have also been published: Mirror of the Intellect: Essays on Traditional Science and Sacred Art and The Essential Titus Burckhardt: Reflections on Sacred Art, Faiths, and Civilizations, both translated and edited by William Stoddart.

Customer Reviews

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The true human, the true artistic, vocation is to transcend oneself., May 23, 2006

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OAKSHAMAN "oakshaman" (Algoma, WI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Essential Titus Burckhardt: Reflections on Sacred Art, Faiths, and Civilizations (Perennial Philosophy) (Paperback)

_Titus Burckhardt was one of the great expositors of the perennial philosophy, along with the Traditionalists Rene Guenon, Ananda Coomaraswamy, and Frithjof Schuon. It is obvious to me that he truly experienced what he wrote upon. To him Intellection was not an abstract metaphysical principle. This is the miracle of true contemplative thought in the modern age.

_His emphasis tended more to the nature of what constitutes sacred art. That is why this volume is so well illustrated with both color plates, as well as, black and white images. His central message is that Tradition possesses a secret power that is communicated to an entire civilization; even in those arts and crafts whose objects include nothing particularly sacred. In a theocratic society, the humblest activity participates in heavenly benediction. In contrast, "sacred art" in the West since the Renaissance is essentially profane art with only a superficial religious theme.

_There are some thick, but important, volumes that you find yourself despairing that you will ever get to the end of. However, this thick volume of the essential Burckhardt (like its sister volume on the essential Schuon) is such a joy to read that you never want it to come to an end. Unlike drier works, every page restores your soul instead of draining it.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Anthology of Burckhartd's Thought, October 30, 2003

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michael fitzgerald (Indiana University, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Essential Titus Burckhardt: Reflections on Sacred Art, Faiths, and Civilizations (Perennial Philosophy) (Paperback)

"Burckhardt's thought (as expressed in The Essential Titus Burckhardt) is clear and soberingly articulated, his argumentation intuitive and profound"

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Nice Overview Of A Perennial Traditionalist, January 3, 2007

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Kevin Fuller "Kev" (Evansville, IN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Essential Titus Burckhardt: Reflections on Sacred Art, Faiths, and Civilizations (Perennial Philosophy) (Paperback)

Titus Burckhardt, whether fixing his attention on the proper philosophy, or the proper architecture, or the proper occultism, brings a liberal yet formiddable intelligence to whichever of these works he sets his hand to.
Burckhardt, when laying out a sacred temple, would have it oriented north-south with one door leading in and one door leading out, ensuring it's earthly and squarely relationship to it's heavenly and circular origin. The language and ideas both sound archaic due to a radical loss of traditional forms and even degenerate customs to the point that what is old now sounds new. Burckhardt, I'm sure, would delight in such a circular manifestation of tradition. In a society where number has lost it's gender, where sacred art has lost it's object, and philosophy it's inner meaning, Burckhardt's plaintive sentences recall all of this and brings the perennial philosophy to bear in many of it's traditional manifestations. This philosophy, this perennialism is shown by virtue of man's loss of meaning when he attempts to abandon it, quite simply will not go away. Or will it?