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Timothy Scott - René Guénon and The Christian Sacraments (Artigo) PDF
Timothy Scott - René Guénon and The Christian Sacraments (Artigo) PDF
Timothy Scott - René Guénon and The Christian Sacraments (Artigo) PDF
Christian Sacraments
© 2016 Timothy Scott
This unpublished essay was originally intended for publication as
a companion piece to ‘René Guénon and the question of initiation’
(Sophia: The Journal of Traditional Studies, 2008).
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‘…in our present state of affairs (and indeed for quite a long time
now) we can no longer in any way consider Christian rites to have
an initiatic character …’
(René Guénon, ‘Christianity and Initiation’)1
1R. Guénon, ‘Christianity and Initiation’ in Insights into Christian Esoterism, tr. H.
Fohr, Ghent, NY: Sophia Perennis, 2001, p.9.
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René Guénon and the Christian Sacraments
2
R. Guénon, Perspectives on Initiation, tr. H. Fohr, Ghent, NY: Sophia Perennis, 2001,
p.34, n.6. See Guénon’s, Studies in Freemasonry and the Compagnonnage, and The
Esoterism of Dante, both Ghent, NY, Sophia Perennis, 2005.
3 Guénon, ‘Christianity and Initiation,’ p.18.
4 Schuon questioned whether Guénon would have entered Islam as a “way” if
he had not settled in an Islamic country, given that he had already received an
Islamic initiation in France without practicing the Muslim religion: ‘When he
accepted the Shādhilī initiation, it was thus an initiation that Guénon chose, and
not a “way”’ (F. Schuon, René Guénon: Some observations, Hillsdale, NY: Sophia
Perennis, 2004, p.6). Nevertheless, Guénon did settle in a Muslim country and to
all intents and purposes conformed to a traditional Muslim life. Schuon, on the
other hand, has been criticised precisely because his “material” practice of the
Islamic way seemed, to some, to be heterodox (see for example Patrick
Ringgenberg’s, ‘Frithjof Schuon–Paradoxes and Providence’, Sacred Web 7, 2001).
5 Guénon, ‘Christianity and Initiation,’ p.10.
6 Guénon, ‘Christianity and Initiation,’ pp.9-10.
7 Guénon, ‘Christianity and Initiation,’ p.9.
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René Guénon and the Christian Sacraments
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René Guénon and the Christian Sacraments
Now, for reasons that stem from the very “mathematical” nature
of his intelligence, from his distrust of the history of religions, and
from the circumstances of his life and times, we are convinced that
it was not granted to Guénon to “see” what Christianity was. And
so, not having grasped its essence, he did not have the authority
to speak in such a global and peremptory manner—which does
not exclude that, on numerous particular points, he was able to
communicate valuable information.11
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René Guénon and the Christian Sacraments
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René Guénon and the Christian Sacraments
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René Guénon and the Christian Sacraments
16
F. Schuon, Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism, Bloomington, Indiana: World
Wisdom, 2000, p.115.
17 See F. Schuon, Spiritual Perspectives and Human Facts, Middlesex: Perennial
Books, 1987, p.80.
18 Schuon, Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism, p.117.
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René Guénon and the Christian Sacraments
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René Guénon and the Christian Sacraments
while those that are open to all without distinction are somehow
cut off from this transcendent element. On the one hand, Guénon
states that the nature of being open to all without distinction
disqualifies an organisation from being esoteric; here the term
“esoteric” is used in the sense of “that which is hidden.” On the
other hand, Guénon claims that organisations that are reserved for
a qualified elite are ipso facto esoteric, where “esoteric” now
indicates a non-human element.
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René Guénon and the Christian Sacraments
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René Guénon and the Christian Sacraments
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René Guénon and the Christian Sacraments
49
Guénon, ‘Christianity and Initiation,’ p.16.
50 Borella, Guénonian Esoterism and Christian Mystery, p.362.
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René Guénon and the Christian Sacraments
55 From a certain point of view because extinction (al-fanā) is also subsistence (al-
baqā) a truth not unrelated to the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the
flesh.
56 We are a long way here from denying an infant personality, which is an issue
of an altogether different level to that which we are discussing.
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