The Matheson Trust is an educational charity based in London dedicated to further and disseminate the study of comparative religion, especially from the point of view of the underlying harmony of the major religious and philosophical traditions of the world.
Registered as a UK charity in 1982,[5] the trust was for years active sponsoring academic research,[6] lectures,[7] film production[8] and publications.[9][10] In January 2011 a new series of paperback publications was launched, the Matheson Monographs, and a public website went online hosting the Matheson Library.
Since 2008, The Matheson Trust had been co-producing publications with a number of kindred organisations and established publishers: The Prometheus Trust,[11] Fons Vitae[12] (KY), Archetype UK,[13] but December 2010[14] saw the launch of an independent series, the "Matheson Monographs", covering "scriptural exegesis, the modalities of spiritual and contemplative life, studies of particular religious traditions, comparative analyses, studies of traditional arts, crafts and cosmological sciences, contemporary scholarly expositions of religious philosophy and metaphysics, translations of both classical and contemporary texts and transcriptions of lectures by, and interviews with, spiritual and scholarly authorities from different religious and philosophical traditions".[15]
As of December 2021, there are approximately 750 holdings in the library, a quarter of which are audio recordings.
Audio Library
One of the purported aims of the Matheson Library is to use existing contemporary media technologies to make available resources from ancient traditions, either in the form of recitation of traditional scriptures or in the scholarly transmission of the doctrines and insights pertaining to the different religions. An ongoing hear! project is converting scholarly texts and other texts of interest into MP3 format, and making them available through the Audio section of the library.[18] In April 2012 the Matheson Trust Sacred Audio Collection was launched, a repository of selected liturgical audio recordings from the major religious traditions. This collection includes live recordings from temples and ritual gatherings around the world.[19]
Publications
Christianity & Islam: Essays on Ontology and Archetype, by Samuel Zinner, 2010. ISBN978-1-908092-01-4
The Living Palm Tree: Parables, Stories, and Teachings from the Kabbalah, by Mario Satz, translated by Juan Acevedo, 2010. ISBN978-1-908092-00-7
Louis Massignon: The Vow and the Oath, by Patrick Laude, translated by Edin Q. Lohja, 2011. ISBN978-1-908092-06-9
The Gospel of Thomas: In the Light of Early Jewish, Christian and Islamic Esoteric Trajectories, by Samuel Zinner, 2011. ISBN978-1-908092-04-5
Sacred Royalty: From The Pharaoh to The Most Christian King, by Jean Hani, translated by Gustavo Polit, 2011. ISBN978-1-908092-05-2
Ascent to Heaven in Islamic and Jewish Mysticism, by Algis Uždavinys, 2011. ISBN978-1-908092-02-1
Seyyed Hossein Nasr is an Iranian-American philosopher, theologian and Islamic scholar. He is University Professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University.
The perennial philosophy, also referred to as perennialism and perennial wisdom, is a school of thought in philosophy and spirituality that posits that the recurrence of common themes across world religions illuminates universal truths about the nature of reality, humanity, ethics, and consciousness. Some perennialists emphasize common themes in religious experiences and mystical traditions across time and cultures; others argue that religious traditions share a single metaphysical truth or origin from which all esoteric and exoteric knowledge and doctrine have developed.
Frithjof Schuon was a Swiss metaphysician of German descent, belonging to the Traditionalist School of Perennialism. He was the author of more than twenty works in French on metaphysics, spirituality, religion, anthropology and art, which have been translated into English and many other languages. He was also a painter and a poet.
Traditionalism, also sometimes known as Perennialism, posits the existence of a perennial wisdom or perennial philosophy, primordial and universal truths which form the source for, and are shared by, all the major world religions. Historian Mark Sedgwick identifies René Guénon, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Julius Evola, Mircea Eliade, Frithjof Schuon, Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Alexandr Dugin to be the seven most prominent Traditionalists.
Martin Lings, also known as Abū Bakr Sirāj ad-Dīn, was an English writer, Islamic scholar, and philosopher. A student of the Swiss metaphysician Frithjof Schuon and an authority on the work of William Shakespeare, he is best known as the author of Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources, first published in 1983 and still in print.
William Smith Stoddart was a Scottish-Canadian physician, author and spiritual traveller, who wrote several books on the Perennial Philosophy and on comparative religion.
Titus Burckhardt was a Swiss writer and a leading member of the Perennialist or Traditionalist School. He was the author of numerous works on metaphysics, cosmology, anthropology, esoterism, alchemy, Sufism, symbolism and sacred art.
Charles le Gai Eaton was a British diplomat, writer, historian, and an Islamic scholar. He is perhaps best known for his 1994 book, Islam and the Destiny of Man.
Kenneth "Harry" Oldmeadow is an Australian academic, author, editor and educator whose works focus on religion, tradition, traditionalist writers and philosophy.
Patrick Laude is a scholar, author and teacher. His works deal with the relationship between mysticism, symbolism and poetry, as well as focusing on contemporary spiritual figures such as Simone Weil, Louis Massignon and Frithjof Schuon.
James Sherman Cutsinger was an author, editor, and professor of religious studies (emeritus) at the University of South Carolina, whose works focused primarily on comparative religion, the modern Traditionalist School of perennial philosophy, Eastern Christian spirituality, and the mystical tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Jean-Louis Michon was a French traditionalist and translator who specialized in Islamic art and Sufism. He worked extensively with the United Nations to preserve the cultural heritage of Morocco.
M. Ali Lakhani, is a writer, lawyer, and editor whose works focus on metaphysics and the perennial principles found in the wisdom traditions of the world.
Whitall Nicholson Perry was an American author born in Belmont, Massachusetts, member of the Perennialist School, which is based primarily on the work of René Guénon, Ananda Coomaraswamy and Frithjof Schuon. Perry’s major opus, A Treasury of Traditional Wisdom, is a compilation of thousands of quotations from all the great religious and esoteric traditions, supported by commentaries.
Algis Uždavinys (1962–2010) was a Lithuanian philosopher and scholar. His work pioneered the hermeneutical comparative study of Egyptian and Greek religions, especially their esoteric relations to Semitic religions, and in particular the inner aspect of Islam (Sufism). His books have been published in Lithuanian, Russian, English and French, including translations of Plotinus, Frithjof Schuon and Ananda Coomaraswamy into Russian and Lithuanian.
Donald Macleod Matheson CBE (1896–1979) was Secretary to the National Trust from 1934 to 1945. Active within the Traditionalist School as a translator and author, he founded The Matheson Trust for the study of comparative religion.
In perennial philosophy, tradition means divinely ordained truths or principles that have been communicated to humanity as well as an entire cosmic sector through various figures such as messengers, prophets, avataras, the Logos, or other transmitting agencies. The purpose of these sacred truths or principles is to continuously remind human beings of the existence of a "Divine Center" and an "Ultimate Origin." According to this perspective, tradition does not refer to custom, habit, or inherited ways of thinking and living. Contrarily, it has a divine foundation and involves the transmission of the sacred message down through the ages. Used in this sense, tradition is synonymous with revelation, and it encompasses all forms of philosophy, art, and culture that are influenced by it.
Victor Danner was a Mexican-American author, researcher, and translator specializing in comparative religion and Islamic mysticism.
Mateus Soares de Azevedo is a Brazilian writer. He has published books, essays and articles on the perennial philosophy and the mystical and esoteric themes within Christianity and Islam.
The Maryamiyya Order is a tariqa or Sufi order founded by Sheikh Isa Nur ad-Din–Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998). It is a branch of the Shadhiliyya-Darqawiyya-Alawiyya order, with communities in Europe, the Americas and the Islamic world. Its doctrine is based on what it understands to be the universal truths of pure esoterism, and its method conforms to the essential elements of the Sufi path.
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