Christianity: Lineaments of a Sacred Tradition

by Philip Sherrard

"Lineaments - an outline, feature, or contour of a body or figure, especially of a face. In this culmination of his life's work, the popular Orthodox lay theologian and translator of the Philokalia draws from the depths of tradition the "face" of Christianity as a world religion. Through a critique of the modern scientific and rationalist paradigm, Sherrard seeks to restore the foundations of Christian cosmology and ecology, and to reaffirm the prime importance of xacred symbolism and art. The book includes a creative engagement with non-Christian traditions, with the "metaphysical logic" of René Guenon, and with distinctively modern thinkers such as Nietzsche and Jung.
Readers will, as always, find Sherrard's argument and insights fresh, provoking and challenging. The volume begins with a major biographical essay and commentary on Sherrard's oeuvre by Kallistos Ware."

Genres: Theology, Philosophy, Christianity

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Philip Sherrard was educated at Cambridge and London and taught at the universities of both Oxford and London, but he made Greece his permanent home. A pioneer of modern Greek studies and translator, with Edmund Keeley, of Greece's major modern poets, he wrote many books on Greek, philosophical and literary themes. He was also the translator and editor (with G.E.H. Palmer and Bishop Kallistos Ware) of the Philokalia, a collection of texts in five volumes by the spiritual masters of the Orthodox Christian tradition.

A profound, commited and imaginative thinker, his theological and metaphysical writings embrace a wide range of subjects, from the study of the spiritualizing potential of sexual love to the restoration of a sacred cosmology which he saw as the only way to escape from the spiritual and ecological dereliction of the modern world.

Reviews

[maia · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the most disappointing books. Sherrard contradicts himself a lot. this sounds more like new age crap than an actual rational presentation on Orthodox Christianity. A product of it's time. Perennialism, although claiming to be above the corruption of modernity, is a symptom of its sickness. Most arguments can be easily refuted.
The book is honestly badly written too.

[Petrus · Rating 1 out of 5]

Perennialism is further continuation of western philosophical currents and trends. Guenon thought he is above all of it yet paradoxically Schuon and the rest kept vomiting out that same logically biased trite. God isn't limited by any of the ideas we give about Him, Sherrard was right on that yes, but it doesn't approve abusing that very same idea thru beliefs that eradicate the chance for all the possible dangers and the falseness for multiple metaphysical traditions that people do believe in. I know this sounds silly but if perennialism and its other umbrella groups are right about existence, then why did God limit it the way He did in the first place? Why are there even morally evil people pretending to be good? Even the Orthodox Church has had within it pedophiles and all the rest. All Sherrard dares to focus on is his abstract favorings over pondering what reality displays in it. There are false prophets, there are pretenders, there are things that appear as miracles YET what gives Sherrard the authenticity to say that Islam being from Satan himself is not even theoretically possible? I don't necessarily think such theory is the truth, but I prefer to consider it possibly being so. Satan can allow good and virtuous Muslims in exchange of misleading the world. The beginning in Book of Genesis shows the risks of falling for it. Why do such religious yet philosophically rigorous believers like Sherrard ignore it? Ideological bias? I think even some Muslims would consider from their perspective that Christianity can be (or is) from the Devil. I would rather consider their stance than this nonsense anymore than I have (I know, I'm sort of a skeptic). Also, Satan is not against all good and virtuous things. Satan is against God who is the source of all goodness. That is a big difference and Muslims probably agree on the idea. Who is Sherrard? Does he believe Satan is all psychology, like the Baha'i folk and Jung do? That would explain even further his 'eastern' brand of rationalism (or is it actually western? I'll leave that question up to you.)

[Ben de Groot]

Back when I was a member of the Greek Orthodox Church, I had a huge respect for Philip Sherrard. This book came as quite a bombshell for many traditionalists, but it was of great help to me to open my eyes. This book gave me the courage to search for truth outside of Christianity, and take other sacred traditions serious.

[Yoni T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

profound insights on the orthodox christian metaphysics of logic contra guénonian metaphysics.