New book on Western Sufism

A new book on Western Sufism is due out some time around October 2016: Mark Sedgwick, Western Sufism: From the Abbasids to the New Age (New York: Oxford University Press).

Western Sufism is in some ways the continuation of Against the Modern World, but also goes a long way back in time, as the subtitle suggests. Actual Guénonian Traditionalism is only one topic among many, but perennialism is a topic that comes and goes throughout the book, and Guénonian Traditionalism appears in a new light (as do many other things, from Maimonides to Gurdjieff). Ivan Aguéli is covered in more detail than in Against the Modern World, as Swedish sources have been used.

The table of contents can be seen on the companion website, which also has a gallery which gives a good idea of the book's contents. There is also a companion blog, which will be used for posts that are not relevant to Traditionalism.

It is possible to pre-order the book now: $35.00 from Amazon in the US or from Oxford, or £22.99 from Amazon in the UK.

The United States and Eurasia

An interesting on-line debate between Alexander Dugin and Olavo de Carvalho (both pictured below) has been going on since March elsewhere on blogspot.

Dugin requires no introduction to readers of this blog; de Carvalho does require some introduction. He is a Brazilian journalist, columnist and philosopher now living in the United States, where since 2009 he has been heading an Inter-American Institute for Philosophy, Government, and Social Thought. According to this institute's website, "the keynote of his work is the defense of man's innermost consciousness against the tyranny of collective authority," and he believes that "the most solid shelter for individual consciousness against alienation and reification can be found in widely varying degrees in the ancient spiritual traditions."

And Dugin, of course, represents another form of Traditionalism, similar and yet different--as the two photographs above, chosen by de Carvalho, indicate. And as the development of the on-line debate, entitled "The United States and the New World Order" and focusing on Eurasian-Atlantic relations, has also indicated.

Worth looking at.

Traditionalism and globalization

I ended an article published in 2003 "Vestlig sufisme og traditionalisme,"* by saying that "Traditionalism seems to benefit from globalization." A correspondent in Georgia wrote to question this, arguing that since globalization was the negation of tradition, this could not be the case. An interesting discussion followed.

• What I mean by Traditionalism is acceptance of the main ideas found in the work of Guénon and others, i.e. the attempt to safeguard or recover a certain conception of tradition. What my correspondent meant by traditionalism was the success of such an attempt, or of a similar attempt.


• What I meant by globalization was the changes that have happened so far. What my correspondent meant was something like an attempt to adjust the entire globe to current mainstream American norms.

Conclusion: indeed, the success of a project to adjust the globe to American norms would certainly mean the extinction of local traditions, and the defeat of Traditionalism. However, in the absence of its complete success, the perception of such a project--whether it really exists or not--engenders resistance to it, and one form that resistance can take is Traditionalism.

It seems to me that one reason for enthusiasm for Traditionalism in countries such as Georgia (and--more frequently--Russia) is precisely this: perception of a threatening project of globalization, a perception that is strengthened by the changes that have already taken place.

* In Den gamle nyreligiøsitet, Vestens glemte kulturarv, ed. Mette Buchardt and Pia Böwadt (Copenhagen: Anis, 2003), pp. 139-51. No, they don't generally read Danish in Georgia, but there is an English translation of the article.