The Essential Writings of Frithjof Schuon [Paperback]

Frithjof Schuon (Author), Seyyed Hossein Nasr (Author, Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French, German

Product Details

• Paperback: 552 pages
• Publisher: Element Books Ltd (November 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852302607
• ISBN-13: 978-1852302603
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,460,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps the Most Intriguing Religious Writer of the 20th C., March 11, 2000

By 

C. King Khidr (Damascus, Syria) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Essential Writings of Frithjof Schuon (Paperback)

The book is a good introduction to Schuon, providing a fairly detailed overview of the Swiss thinker's central ideas. Nasr, through his introduction, paves the way for the reader to better understand Schuon's extremely dense yet rich style. This is a great help on Nasr's part, since Schuon's unique style renders his writings difficult to break into. But once this apparent impenetrability is overcome, the reader will be dumbfounded by the depth and profundidty of Schuon's brilliant insights. Like any great thinker, this man has his deficencies, and sometimes they are blaring. But who said profundidity must be accompanied by infalibility?

5.0 out of 5 stars Universal Wisdom- the Religion of the Sages, April 3, 2006

By 

OAKSHAMAN "oakshaman" (Algoma, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Essential Writings (Hardcover)

_It is my belief that all serious students of the esoteric will eventually be drawn to the Philosophia Perennis. How could they not? It is the golden thread that runs through every path of real worth- and Frithjof Schuon was its greatest expositor in the modern age.

_I mean it when I say that if I could have but one book on a desert island or solitary cell it would be this one. After all, Schuon himself approved this volume as truly representing the core of his essential thought. My next choice would be his entire collected works, but they run to over twenty volumes. He is more easily understood than Guenon, but without sacrificing any of the profound content.

_What is the Philosophia Perennis? It is the metaphysical truth which has no beginning, and which remains the same in all expressions of wisdom. It is the esoteric core of all true religious traditions- recognized or not. It hinges on the truths innate in the human spirit and accessible in the pure Intellect. It is the way of the Gnostic, the pneumatic, and the theosopher- it is the way of Pythagoras and Plato. It is jnana. You see, Man's intelligence was made to know the Absolute and it is only the Absolute that man can know absolutely. Metaphysics is this knowledge. It is why we and our intellect exist. We are here to see things as they are- not as they appear (essence over form.) An intellect capable of this, but wasted on materialistic trivia is a cosmic tragedy.

_The book itself is divided into nine sections: 1) Religion and Revelation, 2) The Study of Religions, 3) The Nature of Reality, 4) Art and the Spiritual Significance of Beauty, 5) Man, 6) The Spiritual Life, 8) Eschatogy and the Afterlife, 8) Criticism of the Modern World, 9) Spiritual Impressions.

Note: This collection is unchanged in the 2005 edition. Schuon was consulted on the addition of further writings, but decided to let this collection stand as being truly representative of his essential thought.