Why Religion and Spirituality Still Matter in a Secular Age: The Perennial Philosophy of Frithjof Schuon

Frithjof Schuon was a Swiss comparative religion philosopher, regarded as one of the greatest thinkers of comparative religious studies. He was part of a movement called traditionalism, famously known as perennial philosophy, alongside other important figures like René Guénon and Aldous Huxley. This movement aims to counteract the rising crisis of modernity by reviving traditional wisdom and striving to reach truth across different cultural, religious, and spiritual backgrounds. This article attempts to uncover timeless wisdom, revealing how modernity sees religion as inherently outdated, restricting, and dogmatic, and then gives a broader point of view of different dimensions of spirituality rooted in tradition.

The Secular Age and The Question of Relevance

The secular age and the paradigm of modernity suggest that every question of life’s coherence could be solved purely by rational and empirical thinking, that humans are indeed capable of solving big questions, be it the universe, consciousness, or even meaning. People are inherently in thirst of understanding and reaching the ultimate and absolute truth. In a post-truth world, where people deliberately inquire about hard problems and engage in many topics at hand, debating theoretical and empirical perspectives on their own set of schools of thought and their respective truths.

The problem with this paradigm of constant questioning and theoretical battlefield is that many thinkers in the past have warned of the very limits of human capacity in reasoning; with that in mind, empirical understanding could also only get us so far to tackle hard problems like consciousness, morality, or reality itself. Many perspectives have arisen to offer solutions, but with the many propagated facets of truths, the dangers of this are to succumb to nihilism and existential despair, where meanings become hollow and truth becomes less and less a coherent narrative in the intellectual world.

One must think outside of reason to make sense of forms beyond what is reachable, and that is why metaphysics is an important topic to inquire about life's hard problems. Frithjof Schuon says that a purely intellectual knowledge is by definition beyond the reach of the individual, being in its essence supraindividual, universal, or divine. That is to say, according to Schuon, a pure intellect is not of human agency alone but of something beyond that which directly takes part in the conscious mind.

Schuon and The Perennial Philosophy

Perennial traditionalism leans towards an underlying objective and universal truth across traditions and cultures in religion. Schuon suggests that there is such a thing as sophia perennis intrinsically meaning, that at the heart of major religions lies the unity of transcendence, a non-dual reality, and ultimately the primordial essence of truth. Schuon argues that beneath the dogmatic structures of the exoteric aspect of religions, there is an esoteric aspect of it that is multidimensional yet universal.

In his work The Transcendent Unity of Religions, he implies that reason alone cannot suffice for the understanding of reality. Furthermore, the important distinction of the intellectual and the intelligible knowledge, namely, knowledge that arrives from divinity, apropos God’s knowledge through the intellect, is entirely not of human reason alone. He further distinguishes the different realities of the esoteric and exoteric dimensions of religion.

Knowledge of esoterism is derived from an ontologically one and ultimate divine source, while exoterism is an attempt to translate the very esoteric reality of objective truth. He narrowly explains further that the exoteric dimension in different religious doctrines attempts to rationalize revelation and thus is ultimately limited. The biggest difference between theological understanding and metaphysical understanding can be applied to this duality. 

The Problem of Form Without Spirit and Spirit Without Form

Because dogmas are attempts to make revelations intelligible, orthodoxy in every religious teaching is then used as a way to rationalize the generalities of universal truth. Though in turn, reason alone cannot formulate these generalities. Dogmas in religions suggest that these very limited aspects of the exoteric dimensions are objective truth itself, making a coherent unity seem like an impossible narrative. As Schuon wrote in The Transcendent Unity of Religions, dogmatism implies the exclusion of all other religions as valid truths, in every respective tradition.

On the other hand, many modern and new age spiritual practices deviate from tradition. This practice of neo mysticism is a salvation for those hungry for meaning, offering quick spiritual solutions often with the sole purpose of enlightenment. In many ways, the essence of spirituality is then reduced to simplistic forms of symbolic meaning-making, reducing its complexity and metaphysical inquiry. Frithjof Schuon offered a solution of transcendence beyond religions, that there is timeless wisdom and universal truth underneath it, not despite it.

Relevance of Religion and Spirituality

Religion and spirituality were never mere tradition; they have, it has in essence a subtle yet profound wisdom that is timeless and ancient. The notion of metaphysical reality that is beyond the human limits of reason is not just an idea to intrigue philosophically, but a sincere inquiry of life’s ultimate meaning. It is worth considering that theoretical and empirical discoveries are not separate entities from the idea of the ultimate intellect and the unity behind multiplicity.

The wisdom of tradition is not to be dismissed but to be studied as an important aspect in our ontological quest for clarity in modernity, where a crisis of meaning is imminent. Rather than to set aside religion as a dogmatic tool. We should actively engage in religious science as discourse, understanding the hidden union par excellence across multiple beliefs.