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The Essential Rene Guenon: Metaphysics, Tradition, and the Crisis of Modernity Paperback – October 15, 2009
| John Herlihy (Editor) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
- Print length312 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherWorld Wisdom
- Publication dateOctober 15, 2009
- Dimensions6.24 x 0.89 x 9.03 inches
- ISBN-109781933316574
- ISBN-13978-1933316574
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Product details
- ASIN : 1933316578
- Publisher : World Wisdom; Illustrated edition (October 15, 2009)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 312 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9781933316574
- ISBN-13 : 978-1933316574
- Item Weight : 0.035 ounces
- Dimensions : 6.24 x 0.89 x 9.03 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #468,734 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #688 in Religion & Philosophy (Books)
- #758 in Comparative Religion (Books)
- #866 in Modern Philosophy (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors

John Herlihy was born in 1945 into an Irish-American family in Boston, Massachusetts. Herlihy completed studies at a Paulist seminary, but has worked as a professor of academic writing and senior administrator at several Near and Far Eastern countries. He currently works in the UAE as the Director of the English Language Center at the University of Sharjah. In the early 1970s, Herlihy made the acquaintance of a Kashmiri Indian whom he now fondly remembers as "the laughing Sufi." In his book The Seeker and the Way, Herlihy explains that his conversion was a raw and unexpected awakening that pulled him back from the abyss and set a new direction in coming to terms with the purpose and meaning of his life. Twenty years after his conversion and with a life-long interest in writing, he began to explore through words the complex nature of his relationship with this and the "other" world. In addition to writing for such traditional journals as Sacred Web and Sophia, his publications include the recently published "Wisdom's Journey" which reflects upon the disparity between modernity and the Islamic tradition and the pursuit of spirituality in today's anti-spiritual world.

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First of all, the presentation is excellent -- a handsome size, sturdy binding, clear, well laid out typography, in line with the rest of World Wisdom's publications -- a pleasure to read. Some illustrations would have been nice, especially in the sections dealing with sacred symbolism, and one can always imagine a fancier format -- something along the lines of the Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions -- but these are minor points.
More importantly, the selections are well chosen; they are minimally edited but arranged to flow together almost as if they had appeared that way originally; usually two or three in a row from the same book, the books appearing somewhat chronologically but also within four "Worlds" : the Modern, the Metaphysical, the Hindu, and the Traditional. I suppose the Modern comes first, not the Metaphysical, to ease the modern reader into Guenon's metaphysical world; the Hindu is given its own due to the amount of attention Guenon devoted to it, while the Traditional has not only other traditions such as Islam but also topics that apply to traditions generally, such as rites, teachers, etc.
The selections, with few exceptions, are drawn from a handful of obvious major works; there's nothing here that's previously unpublished, or newly translated; no letters, diaries, etc. The Introduction, however, is drawn from a transcript of a lecture by Martin Lings that might be relatively inaccessible to the general reader.
This would obviously make a fine introduction to Guenon, but even someone who already has the original sources will find this a useful and pleasant supplement, something to pick up and read from time to time. I am reminded of Elmer O'Brien's comment about his similar anthology, The Essential Plotinus [not to be confused with World Wisdom's own The Heart of Plotinus]: these selections are essential in the sense that Coleridge spoke of essential poetry: the passages one returns to with the greatest pleasure.
Guenon states outright that only a very few readers in this dark age are going to possess the inherent capacity to understand his writings due to their education and upbringing. Nothing can be done about that. Somehow I seem to be able to understand what is being related. Indeed, I understood these principles long before I came on writers and teachers of the traditionalist school. Yet, those principles are related with a precision that goes far beyond my ability to express them- even in translation. Whether others resonate with them is something that I cannot predict. I would imagine that the odds are against it. Yet, you can still make the attempt. Intuitive intellection is a faculty that still exists in our world.
Another thing that struck me was an anecdote in the introduction where a Ph.D. candidate was denied permission to write his thesis on Guenon because the said writer had never done anything "original." Of course not. Rene Guenon intentionally stayed in the background as he related the teachings of the perennial philosophy to a new generation. You could just as well entitle this book "The Essential Sophia Perennis." You cannot add anything new to these teachings, you can merely pass them on with clarity to the current generation.





