INDEX

Alexandrians 13 America(n) 16 n 6, 22, 97, 102 Anglo-Saxon 50, 61, 86, 93, 102 aristocracy 78 Aristotelian 74, 88 Aristotle 37, 44–45 Ashoka 11 n 3 Atlantis/Atlantean 25 atomism 82 n 1 atomists 40 Avatāra(s) 9 n 1, 11 n 3 Babylonian captivity 11 Bergson, Henri 87 Bergsonian 41, 58 Berkeley, George 81 Bernard, Claude 47 Bhagavad-Gītā 37 n 2 Brahmin(s) 35, 37 n 3, 40 n 6, 52 n 7 Buddha 11 n 4 Buddhism 11, 40 Cartesian(ism) 59, 82–84 Catholic church 64–65, 111–114 Catholic(ism) 27, 60, 62–65, 96, 111–112, 114 Catholics 65 Celtic 12, 26 Celtism 26 Celts 25 Charlemagne 15 China 10–11, 101 Chinese 16 n 6, 22 Christ 62–63 Christendom 15, 90 Christian 27, 62, 95–96 Christianity 15, 26–28, 62–63, 95–96, 101 Christian mystics 18 n 7 compulsary education 90 Comte, Auguste 57 Confucianism 11 Dante 77 n 6 democracy 73, 78–79 Descartes, René 41, 57, 59, 84, 86 Druid tradition 26 Eastern churches 64 n 4, 111 n 1 egalitarian(ism) 71, 76 n 5, 78–79, 90, 92, 94 Egypt 10–11 Eleusinian mysteries 18 n 7 Europe 12, 22, 102 European(s) 63, 97, 105 evolution(ism) 40, 58 evolutionists 94 French monarchy 73 Gauls 11 n 4 Greco-Latin 18, 105 Greco-Latin civilization 14–15 Greece/Greek(s) 12, 13–14, 17, 40, 44, 48, 52, 82 n 1 Hellenism 15 Heraclitus 40 Hermes 11 n 2 _Hīnayāna_ 11 n3 Hindu(s) 11 n3, 22, 106 Hindu cosmology 47 n3 Hindu doctrine 7, 10, 52 n7, 76 n5 Hindu tradition 9 n1, 63, 99 Holy Grail 26 humanism 17, 55 humanitarian(ism) 89, 100 Hyperborean 24–25 Hyperborean Apollo 12 India 11, 18, 22, 35, 37 n2, 40, 50 n5, 63, 101 Islam(ic) 22–23 James, William 61 Jews 12, 14 Judeo-Christian tradition 77 Kali-Yuga 7, 9–10, 17, 25, 39–40, 48 n4, 98 Kant, Emmanuel 58, 84 Kshatriya(s) 35, 37 n2 and 3, 40 n6, 52 n7 Lucifer 77 n6 _Mahāyāna_ 11 n4 _Manvantara_ 7, 10 Massis, Henri 100–105 Mazdaism 11 Middle Ages 15–16, 23, 26–27, 35, 41–42, 49, 60, 63 n2, 96, 112 Naturalism 57–58 Orphic tradition 12 Persians 11 Protestant(ism) 60–65 psychology 50, 75

Pythagoras 12 Pythagorean mathematics 50 Pythagorism 12 Reformation 15, 59 Renaissance 15–17, 55, 59 Rome 12 Saint Thomas Aquinas 76 n3 Satan 100 n1 Solomon 40 n5 _spiritism, spiritualism_ (defined) 83 n2 Stoic and Epicurean moralism 15 _tamas_ 76 n5, 100 n1 Taoism 10 Taoist doctrine 13 n6 Theosophists 24, 102 Thoth 11 n2 universal suffrage 90 _upaveda_ 50 n5 Vaishyas 35 n1 Veda 50 n5 Vishnu 9 n2 Vyāsa 11 n3 Zeno of Elea 40 Zoroaster 11 René Guénon (1886-1951) was one of the great luminaries of the twentieth century, whose critique of the modern world has stood fast against the shifting sands of intellectual fashion. His extensive writings, now finally available in English, are a providential treasure-trove for the modern seeker: while pointing ceaselessly to the perennial wisdom found in past cultures ranging from the Shamanistic to the Indian and Chinese, the Hellenic and Judaic, the Christian and Islamic, and including also Alchemy, Hermeticism, and other esoteric currents, they direct the reader also to the deepest level of religious praxis, emphasizing the need for affiliation with a revealed tradition even while acknowledging the final identity of all spiritual paths as they approach the summit of spiritual realization.

It is no longer news that the Western world is in a crisis, a crisis that has spread far beyond its point of origin and become global in nature. In 1927, René Guénon responded to this crisis with the closest thing he ever wrote to a manifesto and 'call-to-action'. The Crisis of the Modern World was his most direct and complete application of traditional metaphysical principles—particularly that of the 'age of darkness' preceding the end of the present world—to social criticism, surpassed only by The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times, his magnum opus. In the present work Guénon ruthlessly exposes the 'Western deviation': its loss of tradition, its exaltation of action over knowledge, its rampant individualism and general social chaos. His response to these conditions was not 'activist', however, but purely intellectual, envisioning the coming together of Western intellectual leaders capable under favorable circumstances of returning the West to its traditional roots, most likely via the Catholic Church, or, under less favorable ones, of at least preserving the 'seeds' of Tradition for the time to come.

The Collected Works of René Guénon brings together the writings of one of the greatest prophets of our time, whose voice is even more important today than when he was alive.

Huston Smith, The World's Religions

SP SOPHIA PERENNIS