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Book Reviews International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Volume 29 | Issue 1 Article 14 1-1-2010 Book Reviews Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/ijts-transpersonalstudies Recommended Citation (2010). Sotillos, S. B. (2010). [Review of the book Christian gnosis: From St. Paul to Meister Eckhart, by Wolfgang Smith]. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 29(1), 135–136. Sotillos, S. B. (2010). [Review of the book Hinduism and its spiritual masters, by William Stoddart]. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 29(1), 136–138. Sotillos, S. B. (2010). [Review of the book Frithjof Schuon and the perennial philosophy, by Harry Oldmeadow]. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 29(1), 138–142.. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 29 (1). Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/ijts- transpersonalstudies/vol29/iss1/14 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Book Reviews Christian Gnosis: From St. Paul to Meister Eckhart is something divine, something that belongs, not to a by Wolfgang Smith (Sophia Perennis, 2008). $19.95, man, but to God himself.” ISBN 978-1-59731-092-5 Readers can also note that nondualism is an essential theme presented throughout the entire work Reviewed by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos and can be found in every authentic sapiential tradition. Although nondualism is often associated with the esoteric “Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key or “inner” dimensions of religion, it is correspondingly of gnosis: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that inseparable from exoterism or its “outer” dimensions: “in were entering in ye hindered.” – Luke 11:52 fact, the first finds its consummation in the second.” In Dr. Smith’s illustration of the distinct facets of gnosis A distinctive mark of the contemporary era, he does so by allowing each tradition to remain integral it can be said, is the utter absence of doctrinal gnosis, and distinctively its own in divinis and not a Vedāntic which has its contingent expressions in all of the world’s rendition of these traditions. That many seekers in the spiritual traditions, yet is distinctively articulated, in contemporary era have found their way to the spiritual the Christian tradition. This recent publication by Dr. path via the Eastern doctrines is striking, yet how can Wolfgang Smith has been hailed as the magnum opus the West come to recognize the analogous wisdom of its of his life’s work—he remains true to the perennial own traditions? philosophy as he does not seek to create a “new” theory, The author points out that Meister Eckhart, but adheres rigorously to the traditional authoritative who Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (1887-1947) key sources on the subject at hand. Former professor of MIT perennialist author regarded as “the greatest European and UCLA, Dr. Smith brings a unique perspective as an ever born”, is not another great Master among other accomplished scientist and mathematician as well as a Masters, but a paragon of the Christian religion, a committed Christian. jivanmukta. “One must bear in mind that Eckhart stands Christian Gnosis contains seven chapters with at the end of ‘golden age’: on the brink of the very ‘fall’ compelling themes of uncommon wisdom not readily which gave rise, in rapid succession, the Renaissance, found in other present-day works: I. Gnosis and Nascent the Enlightenment, and the modern world.” When Christianity, II. Cosmology in the Face of Gnosis, III. Eckhart affirms the negatio negationis—“a negation of a Transcending the Creatio Ex Nihilo: The Kabbalisitic negation”—paradoxical as it may appear to the discursive Exegesis, IV. The Wisdom of Christian Kabbalah, mind—it is through the negatio negationis that the V. The Gnosis of Jacob Boehme, VI. Meister Eckhart supreme affirmation of the Divine or Absolute becomes on Creation, VII. Eckhart’s Trinitarian Nondualism, intelligible: “The One is a negation of negation.” The including a Postscript by the author. negatio negationis is not comparable with the popular This book covers the broad spectrum of doctrinal notions of “God beyond God” theology nor does this gnosis pertaining to the Christian tradition—“from signify that Eckhart was not orthodox in his exposition Saint Paul to Meister Eckhart”—including its analogous of the Christian tradition. currents found in the Kabbalah exemplifying the esoteric This recent publication Christian Gnosis: From tradition of Judaism. The term gnosis has been abused and St. Paul to Meister Eckhart provides a definitive work on deserves caution; especially with New Age proponents the subject of gnosis in the Christian West, adding an taking siege of it in order to substantiate their subjective implicit dimension to integral interfaith dialogue that is notions. In return the misuse of the term has caused many fundamental in a rapid and ever increasing globalizing to confuse gnosis as a deviation of orthodox religion, era. This work will provide for deeper reflection on the not to be confused with fundamentalism, but rather Christian tradition and at the same time contextualizes understood as “right thinking”. The author categorically this presentation within what has been termed the clears the air on the topic when responding to a point “transcendent unity of religions”. Dr. Smith concludes made by Clement of Alexandria: “Authentic gnosis, then, his opus with the following disclosure dedicating its Book Reviews International Journal of Transpersonal Studies 135 merits to the much needed restoration of the Christian upon, always utilizing as few words as possible, to present tradition: “there is need today for teachings of Eckhart, the essential keys needed to adequately comprehend the the Master who—better perhaps than any other—can subject at hand. This signature method ormodus operandi help to restore ‘the key of gnosis’ to its rightful place is fittingly contextualized alongside the numerous within the Church.” years studying the philosophia perennis or the perennial philosophy that illuminates the universal metaphysics at Hinduism and Its Spiritual Masters, by William the heart of each revealed and orthodox (doctrinal purity Stoddart (Fons Vitae, 2006). 136 pp., $15.95, or right understanding) spiritual tradition—“Sages call the One Reality by many names.” (Rig Veda, I, 164, 46.) Reviewed by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos It is thus relevant to illustrate that amid the oldest living esotericism, the Hindu tradition and the youngest living Lead me from the unreal to the Real; esotericism within Islam known as Sufism there is an Lead me from darkness to Light; identical underlying metaphysic: “The science of Sufism Lead me from death to Immortality. and the science of Vedânta are one.” declared Dârâ - Brihadâranyaka Upanishad, I, 3, 27. Shukûh, the son of the Mughal emperor Shâh Jahân. It is improbable and perhaps rightfully so that It is regrettable that, amidst the mammoth a book cannot de facto capture the breadth and depth of surplus of competing titles, such a vital work as this— an entire tradition, yet even while acknowledging the a veritable “hidden treasure”—has gone virtually apophatic quality of the ineffable nature of the Absolute, unnoticed. It is a characteristic of the contemporary this book regardless, does just that byway of elucidating milieu that it repeatedly favors quantity at the expense of what is indispensable to the Hindu tradition or sanâtana quality. Yet, this phenomenon becomes graspable when dharma. This book is a new and revised edition of the treated and viewed in relationship to a much larger formerly titled book: Outline of Hinduism (Oakton, VA: symptom that is interconnected with the systematic The Foundation for Traditional Studies, 1993) that has obscuration of spirituality or “intellectual regress” of been out of print for sometime. In this work readers will the historical cycle known in the Hindu tradition as be guided through the multifaceted anthropology of the the Kali-Yuga or “Dark Age”—underscoring the very Hindu dharma articulating its mythology, metaphysics, quintessence of the “signs of the times”. cosmology and spirituality. The author expounds upon matters that will challenge the very edifice of the modern In terms of etymology, religion is that which binds, and postmodern mind in order to clarify the lost sense specifically, that which binds man to God…. In of the transpersonal that was traditionally a norm: the first place, religion is a doctrine of unity…. In The Place of Hinduism Amongst the Religions of the the second place, religion is a method of union…. World, Hindu Pantheon, The Incarnations (Avatâras) of Whatever they may be called, these two components Vishnu, Masculine (Purusha) and Feminine (Prakriti) are always present…. Doctrine, or theory, concerns Principles, The Five Levels of Reality, The Four Castes the mind; method, or practice, concerns the will. (varna), The Three Spiritual Waysmârgas ( ), Yoga and Its Religion, to be itself, must always engage both mind Branches, The Hindu Scriptures, The Six Points of View and will. (darshanas), The Four Ages (yugas), The Four Stages The most important single point about religion in Life (âshramas), Transmigration or Reincarnation, is that it is not man-made. Religion is not invented Classical Sages and Saints, Modern Sages and Saints and by man, but revealed by God. Divine revelation is Holy Cities, Holy Rivers, Pilgrimage Points. a sine quâ non; without it, there is no religion, only Contrary to the Zeitgeist the import of the caste man-made ideology, in which no sacramental or system (varna dharma) is not an apparatus to impose salvational element is present. a collective tyranny or exploitation for the indulgence This present work by Dr. William Stoddart of the brahmins or elite nor is it an outdated mode of is imbued by what has become known as his signature government or temporal power. With this said, it needs method as—“a master of synthesis”—succeeding in to be remembered that traditionally the temporal power illuminating the rudiments of whatever topic he is drawing was always subject to the spiritual authority.
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