Perennial philosophy

Perennial philosophy holds that diverse religious and philosophical traditions express a shared, timeless truth about ultimate reality and human transformation.

Agostino Steuco: A Renaissance humanist who used the phrase philosophia perennis for a continuous tradition of wisdom. His 1540 work gave the modern concept its enduring name.
Ultimate reality: The deepest reality or principle that religious and metaphysical systems treat as the ground of existence. Perennial philosophy proposes that traditions point toward a common ultimate reality.
Constructivism (religious experience): The view that religious experiences are shaped or constituted by cultural, linguistic, and conceptual frameworks. It challenges the claim that mystical experiences disclose a common reality independent of tradition.
René Guénon: A French metaphysician who argued that authentic religions derive from a primordial tradition and criticized modernity. He developed a traditionalist form of perennial wisdom distinct from Huxley’s synthesis.
Comparative religion: The scholarly study of similarities and differences among religious traditions. Perennial philosophy offers one influential, contested framework for interpreting those comparisons.
Marsilio Ficino: A Renaissance philosopher who translated Plato and developed a Christian interpretation of Platonism. His prisca theologia helped shape the idea of ancient wisdom shared across religions.
Mysticism: A family of practices and teachings centered on direct experience of, or union with, sacred reality. Mystical experience is often treated as the shared core beneath doctrinal differences.
Exclusivism: The religious position that one tradition alone possesses decisive or saving truth. Its claims conflict with the perennialist premise that traditions share ultimate truth.
Frithjof Schuon: A Swiss metaphysician and writer who developed the traditionalist doctrine of the transcendent unity of religions. His work made perennialism a systematic account of religious forms and shared truth.
Interfaith dialogue: Structured engagement among people or institutions from different religious traditions. A shared-truth premise can encourage dialogue while also flattening real disagreements.

Linked from 10 pages