Monday, December 28, 2009

Guenon's negative theology

We do not share the perspective of Rene Guenon, who Eliade called “the foremost representative of modern esotericism.” Guenon astutely examines the decadence of the present world but he less astutely declares the end of the world.

We disagree with the central idea of Geunon, which he derived from the East, that personal and kosmic renovation is not possible and that the West is irremediably lost in decadence and that only after the destruction of the present “kali-yuga” age can we begin a new cycle. This radical—not conservative-- perspective is grounded in the exclusively Involutionary Inward Path, which defines only the nonmaterial inward enlightenment. This is also the base of the Revealed Religions, East and West.

The God of the Inward Path is experienced after much disciplining of the passions and turning away from the world. This view ultimately rejects the material world and defines God as beyond the natural world. We consider this exoteric (formerly esoteric) Inward Path only one of the Twofold Path to Godhood. The Inward Path is the Second Force which arrives at the Spark of God within but does not reach the Supreme God of the Evolutionary Outward Path.

To attain Godhood we must evolve in the material world through the Evolutionary Outward Path, the First Force, which has been utterly rejected by Guenon and the Revealed Religions who follow only the Inward Path. We do not affirm the pessimistic view of Guenon. Out theology is positive theology, representing the evolutionary Will to Godhood of the Spirit.

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