How traditional is Traditionalism?

"Against the modern world" is a scholarly study of Traditionalism, a current of thought associated with René Guénon, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Frithjof Schuon and Julius Evola. Others mentioned in the book include Mircea Eliade, Huston Smith and the National Bolshevik Party of Russia. Indeed, one wonders what these disparate personages and movements really have in common, except the name and a certain admiration of Guénon, the "founder" of the Traditionalist school? "Against the modern world" also traces Traditionalist influences on people not generally considered Traditionalist, such as Thomas Merton and Seraphim Rose.

The author, Mark Sedgwick, believes that Traditionalism is characterized by three main ideas, which he calls perennialism, inversion and counterinitiation. Perennialism (also common outside the Traditionalist fold) is the idea that all religions and philosophies have a common, inner message. This message is primordial and secret, and often expressed in the form of symbols. Only a small elite can understand it. The outer forms of religions and philosophies might vary over the centuries, but the esoteric message does not. Inversion is connected to anti-modernism, the idea that the modern world is actually an example of regression rather than progress. Inversion more specifically denotes that what is base, vulgar or indifferent is turned into something positive. Counterinitiation is more difficult to grasp. It seems to be a sectarian concept, whereby the Traditionalists reject other alternative religious groups as representing a fake pseudo-tradition. René Guénon criticized the Theosophical Society on this basis.

If Traditionalism has a founder, it is surely the French writer René Guénon, whose most famous work is "The crisis of the modern world". Guénon was a maverick Catholic when he developed Traditionalism. Later, he moved to Egypt and converted to Islam, while nevertheless keeping his Traditionalist ideas as a kind of esoteric message. Guénon's writings have inspired a rather heterogenous set of people, from respected scholars of comparative religion to strange New Religious Movements. It has also influenced some Muslim groups. More disturbingly, an activist form of Traditionalism has been taken up by fascists such as Julius Evola or Alexander Dugin. Sedgwick's book rather scrupulously follow each line of development, which explains the attacks from some other reviewers, who believe that Evola, Schuon or Eliade aren't "real" Traditionalists. Sounds familiar? Sedgwick also distinguishes between "hard" and "soft" Traditionalism. The latter, for obvious reasons, isn't always easy to distinguish from New Age or some kind of ecumenism.

A question that comes to mind when reading this book, is how traditional Traditionalism really is? Guénon rejected the Theosophical Society, but his own message is a blend of Western occultism, Eastern religions, and even the legend of Atlantis and Hyperborea. In other words, something similar to the occultic-Theosophical streams Guénon claimed to have broken from. In contrast to the Theosophists, Guénon didn't create an eclectic new religion. Rather, he attempted to influence the Catholic Church from within, and failing that, converted to Sunni Islam. However, the esoteric message known only to the elect, is in effect an eclectic blend of very different elements! Frankly, I was surprised when I started reading some of Guénon's own works (which I did prior to reading this book). I expected Guénon to be "traditionalist" in the usual sense of that word, say, a traditional Catholic or a conservative Muslim. Instead, he talks about Atlantis, Hyperborea, pre-columbian contacts with America, numerology, and what not. This tendency is even more pronounced in the writings of Julius Evola, whose wild speculations have nothing in common with traditional religion. (But then, we are supposed to believe that this is an "esoteric" message, revealed to the hoi polloi only in the present dispensation.) As for Frithjof Schuon, I think it's fairly obvious that his Sufi order was really a modern, syncretist movement - something Traditionalists ostensibly oppose.

I recommend Mark Sedgwick's book to everyone interested in...New Religious Movements.