Parent company | World Wisdom |
---|---|
Founded | 1980 |
Country of origin | United States |
Headquarters location | Bloomington, Indiana |
Distribution | National Book Network |
Publication types | Books |
Imprints | Wisdom Tales Press |
Official website | worldwisdom |
World Wisdom is an independent American publishing company established in 1980 in Bloomington, Indiana. World Wisdom publishes religious and philosophical texts, including the work of authors such as Frithjof Schuon, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Titus Burckhardt, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Joseph Epes Brown, Charles Eastman, Paul Goble, Swami Ramdas, Samdhong Rinpoche, William Stoddart, and Martin Lings.
The company publishes The Library of Perennial Philosophy, which focuses on the beliefs underlying the diverse religions, also referred to as Sophia Perennis or "Perennial Philosophy". World Wisdom’s Library of Perennial Philosophy encompasses seven series.
Perennial Philosophy
Sacred Worlds
Sacred Art in Tradition
Spiritual Classics
Spiritual Masters—East & West
Treasures of the World's Religions
Writings of Frithjof Schuon
In 2012, World Wisdom launched a children and teen book imprint, Wisdom Tales Press, with its stated goal as "Sharing the wisdom and beauty of cultures from around the world with young readers and their families." [3]
Wisdom Tales publishes titles by well-known children book authors Paul Goble and Demi, as well as teen author Michael O. Fitzgerald. [4] [5]
Seyyed Hossein Nasr is an Iranian 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 perspective in philosophy and spirituality that views religious traditions as sharing a single, metaphysical truth or origin from which all esoteric and exoteric knowledge and doctrine has grown.
Frithjof Schuon was a Swiss metaphysician of German descent, belonging to the Perennialist or Traditionalist School of thought. 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.
Huston Cummings Smith was a scholar of religious studies in the United States, He authored at least thirteen books on world's religions and philosophy, and his book about comparative religion, The World's Religions sold over three million copies as of 2017.
Traditionalism 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.
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.
Tage Leonard Lindbom was a mystic and conservative philosopher, who early in his life was the party theoretician and director of the archives of the Swedish Social Democratic Party 1938–1965.
Kurt Almqvist (1912–2001) was a Swedish poet, intellectual and spiritual figure, representative of the Traditionalist School and the Perennial philosophy.
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.
Tipi: Home of the Nomadic Buffalo Hunters is an illustrated, non-fiction, young adult picture book by Caldecott-winning author and illustrator Paul Goble. It was published by World Wisdom Books in 2007.
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.
Michael Oren Fitzgerald is an author, editor and entrepreneur. He and his wife, Judith Fitzgerald, have an adult son and live in Bloomington, Indiana.
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.
The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times is a 1945 book by the French intellectual René Guénon, in which the author offers a comprehensive explanation, based on tradition, of the cyclical conditions that led to the modern world in general and to the Second World War in particular. The book was published with the support of Jean Paulhan from Gallimard, who created a collection exclusively dedicated to "Tradition" in order to publish Guénon.
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.
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.