In this scholarly paperback edited by Mateus Soares de Azevedo and Alberto Vasconcellos Queiroz, author William Stoddart, one of the leading spokesmen of the Perennial Philosophy, presents nine previously unpublished articles along with extracts from his private correspondence. He has made a lifelong study of the world's religions and has written overviews of Sufism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. In these essays he celebrates the truth of religion, orthodoxy, and mysticism.
Stoddart also chooses the values of tradition over and against the errors of contemporary ideologies, such as progress and evolution, secularism and fundamentalism, relativism and humanism. Some of the best pieces here convey Stoddard's appreciation of spirituality: a visit to monasteries on Mt. Athos and an audience with the venerable Jagadguru of Kanchipuram, India.
