Sacred Web 35
Editorial: The Repeal of Reticence and the Need for Connection: A Note on the Internet
by M. Ali Lakhani
The digital era has coincided with a world that has lost its sense of propriety. The editorial reflects on the spiritual effects of the Internet, and of the virtue of prudence and reticence in the face of a virtual world that promises 'connectivity' without true ‘connection’. Read more...
“Who will Rule, God or Man?” – Politics and the Sacred
by M. Ali Lakhani
This essay, a chapter of a forthcoming book to be published by Oxford University Press, argues that politics must have spiritual foundations to sustain civic order. It traces the metaphysical basis for this argument, surveying the topics of politics and human nature, faith and community, the secular and the sacred, authority and legitimacy, hierarchy and order, freedom and equality, diversity and pluralism, and representative government and political integrity. Read more...
The Human and Transpersonal Dimensions of Personality
by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos
Contemporary psychology is in a state of confusion, claims this perennialist author and psychologist, because it cannot identify the 'self' or 'the unity of the personality'. This is because it "attempts to study what is beyond its epistemological and ontological scope and trespasses upon the domain of metaphysics". Drawing attention to the materialistic biases in contemporary psychology, which focuses on the empirical ‘self’ and its pathology without the normative criterion of a 'healthy personality', the author contrasts contemporary psychology with traditional pneumatology, which acknowledges the transpersonal Self as the source of normative personality. Read more...
Two Thrusts against Scientism
by Charles Upton
In an open letter to the theoretical physicist and cosmologist, Stephen Hawking, the author issues three challenges for Professor Hawking’s response. The second 'thrust' against scientism is a note on Darwinism. Read more...
The Name of Jesus: A Metaphysical Doxology
by Larry Rinehart
This article proclaims its intention "to expand or magnify the name of Jesus in the three ancient Scriptural languages of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, into sets of words descriptive sequentially of four metaphysical orders comprised in the one universal Order described by the founding authorities of philosophia perennis." Read more...
The Significance of Prester John in Traditional Metaphysics
by Nigel Jackson
The cover for this edition of Sacred Web depicts the legendary Christian patriarch, 'Prester John'. In this short essay, the illustrator reveals the rich symbolism associated with this king-pontiff, ruler of an oriental Christian kingdom founded on the archetype of the sacred abode of the Holy Grail. Read more...
On Visionary Art: A Traditional Critique
by Hieromonk Silouan
The author, a monk and iconographer, examines Visionary Art in light of Eastern Orthodox spirituality, presenting a critique of sentimentalist tendencies in "spiritual" art 'pursued as a way of partaking of "spirituality" without the burden of being religious'. Commenting on the theories of Visionary Art, particularly through the writings of Ken Wilber, which he contrasts with the views of patristic authorities, the author remarks on how these theories in effect dilute spirituality, collapsing it into the psyche. Read more...
Special Section: A Festschrift to William Stoddart on the Occasion of his 90th Birthday
The Peregrin Falcon
by Mateus Soares de Azevedo
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William Stoddart: An Appreciation
by Patrick Laude
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William Stoddart as Translator
by Alberto V. Queiroz
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Remembering the True and the Real
by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos
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A Portrait of William Stoddart
by Nuno Marques de Almeida
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William Stoddart: A Teacher of Sophia Perennis
by Raul Burneo
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Special Poetry Section
Sonnet Corona by Peter Samsel
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Poems by Brian Keeble
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Poems by M. Ali Lakhani
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Notes on Contributors
