I agree there are different spiritual "styles"—though I'm not terribly keen on that word—ranging along a spectrum between the combative and the contented, if one might put it this way. But they are by no means exclusive; everyone needs to make use of both,...

You inquired about the Patristic idea that the "garments of skins" (Gen. 3:21) God made for Adam and Eve were not merely the furry hides of some animals, but in fact physical bodies, their supralapsarian forms having been of a spiritual, or at least more rarified,...

You ask about "independent sages". The only person I can think of whom the perennialist authorities would regard as a genuine master, but who seems to have been unaffiliated with any revealed tradition, is Plotinus. One recalls his response to Porphyry's suggestion...

No, I never supposed you were a perennialist, your curiosity and somewhat sympathetic ruminations notwithstanding, or not at least in the sense that the Schuonian uses the term. I agree, and have acknowledged the fact in my writings, that most Christians historically...

You ask about the had?th that "marriage is half the religion". As a Muslim, you obviously know much better than I how your tradition interprets this axiom. But since you've asked, I'll risk a suggestion or two. If religion consists in our return to God, and if this...

Creatio ex nihilo praeter deum is not a formulation that can be traced—or not at least one I have traced—to a specific traditional source. I use that phrase in my theology class as a way of expressing, elliptically no doubt, at least something of what C....

I'm gratified to hear that you've been able to extract from your academic studies some useful spiritual guidance. What's the point otherwise of a religion major? You should be thankful that there are professors at your university who, even if they do not encourage...

I would reassure you first that you're not alone. I receive messages with some frequency from Orthodox, both clergy and laity, who are deeply interested in the perennialist school but who feel they can't really talk about it with their priests or hierarchs. A few of...

What's the preferred form of the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me" or "… have mercy on us"? As you know, both forms are found in the tradition, and clearly both have their value. It depends in part on one's intention: in saying "us" we're...

To say the personal God is not fully real is not to say He is unreal. You seem to be thinking of a strict black-or-white dichotomy: either real or not, either completely true or completely false. The key here is to remember the idea of a "great chain of being", with...