Christianity/Islam: Essays on Esoteric Ecumenicism

by Frithjof Schuon

In this remarkable collection of articles, Schuon addresses many of the key concepts and enigmas of these two branches of Semitic monotheism. In the section on Christianity, the crucial question of the two natures of Christ is expounded in terms of the relationship between Absoluteness and relativity. The chapter on the nature of Protestant Evangelicalism is a seminal work upholding the role of intrinsic orthodoxy in reconciling the exigencies of spiritual idealism with those of the everyday human world. In a sense, what is at issue here is the same problem — but on a different plane — as the enigma of diverse subjectivities. The section on Islam includes fascinating explanations of the various confessional divergences within its orthodox framework and their necessity. Both religions are here viewed as providential and integral manifestations of "divine subjectivity," each including three spheres or the apostolic, the theological and the political. In setting forth and contrasting the key-notions of both faiths,the author illuminates the reasons for their differences as well as the underlying unity and universality of their metaphysical truths. While always pointing to the Divine Origin of authentic spirituality, Schuon’s explication of the elements of "intrinsic orthodoxy" — in contrast to its particular manifestations within a religion — restores a sense of degrees in the Divine Order as well as a sense of proportions on the human plane. It is a perspective that transcends the polemics of conflicting confessional viewpoints and affirms the liberating divine content of diverse religious forms.

Genres: Religion, Islam, Philosophy

270 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Frithjof Schuon was a native of Switzerland born to German parents in Basel, Switzerland. He is known as a philosopher, metaphysician and author of numerous books on religion and spirituality.

Schuon is recognized as an authority on philosophy, spirituality and religion, an exponent of the Religio Perennis, and one of the chief representatives of the Perennialist School. Though he was not officially affiliated with the academic world, his writings have been noticed in scholarly and philosophical journals, and by scholars of comparative religion and spirituality. Criticism of the relativism of the modern academic world is one of the main aspects of Schuon's teachings. In his teachings, Schuon expresses his faith in an absolute principle, God, who governs the universe and to whom our souls would return after death. For Schuon the great revelations are the link between this absolute principle—God—and mankind. He wrote the main bulk of his metaphysical teachings in French. In the later years of his life Schuon composed some volumes of poetry in his mother tongue, German. His articles in French were collected in about twenty titles in French which were later translated into English as well as many other languages.

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