Exoteric | Esoteric

[Thomas]

"Exotericism consists in identifying transcendent realities with the dogmatic forms, and if need be, with the historical facts of a given Revelation, whereas esotericism refers in a more or less direct manner to these same realities."
(Frithjof Schuon, Logic and Transcendence, New York, 1975, p. 144)

"If we can grasp the transcendent nature of the human being, we thereby grasp the nature of revelation, of religion, of tradition; we understand their possibility, their necessity, their truth. And in understanding religion, not only in a particular form or according to some verbal specification, but also in its formless essence, we understand the religions... the meaning of their plurality and diversity; this is the plane of gnosis, of the religio perennis, whereon the extrinsic antinomies of dogmas are explained and resolved."
(ibid. p. 142)

 

[TheLightWithin]

"Exotericism consists in identifying transcendent realities with the dogmatic forms, and if need be, with the historical facts of a given Revelation, whereas esotericism refers in a more or less direct manner to these same realities."
(Frithjof Schuon, Logic and Transcendence, New York, 1975, p. 144)

"If we can grasp the transcendent nature of the human being, we thereby grasp the nature of revelation, of religion, of tradition; we understand their possibility, their necessity, their truth. And in understanding religion, not only in a particular form or according to some verbal specification, but also in its formless essence, we understand the religions... the meaning of their plurality and diversity; this is the plane of gnosis, of the religio perennis, whereon the extrinsic antinomies of dogmas are explained and resolved."
(ibid. p. 142)

Reviving this thread - no questions on it at the time - sometimes I don't feel prepared enough to ask questions on this topic.
The idea of perennialism when I first came across it seemed in alignment with what I believed - if I understand correctly it holds that all religions come from the same underlying source, or ideas to that effect.

But as i've learned a little more, it seems perennialism holds ideas in contrast to my ideas too - for example somewhere I got the idea that perennialism holds that every religion in its orthodox form is complete and correct, or something like that.

I'm not quite sure what that means or what the implications are...

My thoughts are quite different. I agree that all religions come from the same source. But I also think that religions are theories about the source, not perfect expressions of it... I'm not really sure how to develop the idea further. I arrived at that idea when I was a little girl, hearing different beliefs from many different people. I was never confused, I just thought religions were theories about what little bit of information people could get from Beyond, given that G-d and whatever else was Beyond was almost always out of reach of the senses.

 

[Thomas]

The idea of perennialism when I first came across it seemed in alignment with what I believed - if I understand correctly it holds that all religions come from the same underlying source, or ideas to that effect.

Yes.

But as i've learned a little more, it seems perennialism holds ideas in contrast to my ideas too - for example somewhere I got the idea that perennialism holds that every religion in its orthodox form is complete and correct, or something like that.

It's 'complete and correct' in that it lacks nothing necessary for the believer to attain the goal of which the religion speaks.

But I also think that religions are theories about the source, not perfect expressions of it... I'm not really sure how to develop the idea further.

Well all religions are 'forms' and no religion is 'perfect' because humanity is not perfect and God is not a 'form'.

It depends what we mean about 'theories' – to some, it is a reality, and to others it's just a construct altogether.

Take any 'ideal' – the beatific vision, enlightenment, transcendence, etc., and the modern world has found a psychology to undermine it, and answer for everything that takes away faith in anything other than the empirical.

At ground level religion can be faith in the source, sans theories – our clever selves look down on that, whereas our wise selves know better.

In that sense, as we're discussing such esoterica, then the Archons of this world are doing quite a good job of undermining our faith in both God and ourselves.