Study of Traditionalism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Study of Traditionalism (or of the Traditionalist School) is a sub-field of intellectual history, religious studies, and political science. It focuses on the life and work of René Guénon and on the lives and work of those inspired by him, and on the various groups and institutions established by them.
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[edit] History
The Study of Traditionalism began in 1971 with the publication of an article by Jean-Pierre Laurant on "Le problème de René Guénon" in the Revue de l'histoire des religions. During the 1980s, scholars writing in English focused mostly on Julius Evola because of his prominence in Italian politics during the 1970s; during the same decade, scholarship in French on René Guénon himself became better established. It was not until the 1990s that scholars writing in English began to publish on the wider phenomenon of Traditionalism. Scholarly interest in Traditionalism again increased in the early 2000s as a result of the increased prominence of Alexander Dugin.
[edit] Controversy
Traditionalists are usually hostile to the work of academic scholars. Guénon himself had held academic scholars in low regard, seeing them as part of the problem of modernity, and his later followers generally held similar views.
Controversy followed publication of Mark Sedgwick's Against the Modern World in 2004. While scholars and others who were not Traditionalists often welcomed the book,[1] [2] (as did some Traditionalists), certain Traditionalists published extremely hostile reviews which attacked not only the book but its author, charging him with various discreditable personal motives, incuding being "a kind of Euro-Atlantic spy" and having himself "not been allowed to enter an initiatory order with 'Traditionalist' connections."[3]. Sedgwick denied these charges, and maintained that his motivations were the same as those of any other academic historian.
[edit] Select bibliography
Early scholarly work on Guénon in French
- Jean-Pierre Laurant, "Le problème de René Guénon", Revue de l'histoire des religions (1971).
- Marie-France James, Esoterisme et Christianisme: autour de René Guénon. (1981)
- Pierre-Marie Sigaud, ed, Rene Guenon [Dossiers H] (1984)
- Jean-Pierre Laurant and Paul Barbanegra, eds, Rene Guenon [Cahier de l'Herne] (1985)
- Antoine Faivre, ed, Dossier on “Perennialisme” in Aries 11 (1990)
Early scholarly work on Evola in English
- Roger Griffin, "Revolts Against the Modern World: The Blend of Literary and Historical Fantasy in the Italian New Right" in Literature and History (1985)
- Franco Ferraresi, "Julius Evola: Tradition, Reaction and the Radical Right" in Archives Européennes de Sociologie (1987)
Early scholarly work on Traditionalism in English
- Carl W Ernst, "Traditionalism, the Perennial Philosophy and Islamic Studies” in the MESA Bulletin (1994)
- Andrew Rawlinson, The Book of Enlightened Masters: Western Teachers in Eastern Traditions ISBN 0-8126-9310-8
Recent comprehensive scholarly works
- Mark Sedgwick, Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century ISBN 0-19-515297-2
- Jean-Pierre Laurant, René Guénon: Les enjeux d'une lecture (2006) ISBN 2-84454-423-1
