Sketching a Christo-Centric Perennialism: A Speculative Reading of Some Scriptures
The Perennial Philosophy, Sophia Perennis, is a school of thought within the field of Comparative Religion which aims to understand the plurality of religions as stemming from a singular Source. In the West we call this Beginning Point, God. Perennial Philosophy is also described as: "[an] underlying basic shared human metaphysical reality…[an] experience of the ground of being, which, if true, is true and verifiable by others"[1]; "The Transcendent Unity of Religions"[2]; and more poetically, "…the wonderful privilege of drinking an altogether Transcendent Wine to the Glory of God, and becoming thereby drunk, a Wine that is far beyond the level of the created universe to which the vine belongs."[3]
In this understanding, God is Truth. Wherever and whenever Truth is witnessed, it is eternal and absolute by their unitive nature. Likewise, wherever God is met, He is truly there.
Perennialists don’t think that all religions are the same or undifferentiated. Nor does perennialism expound a postmodern free-for-all which claims no religion has complete truth. Rather, Perennialists assert True Religions are particular manifestations of God's Full Revelation (i.e. the Truth) to particular people with different dispositions of thought, spirit, and act. One can see this in God’s calling to Israel as a nation set apart. Without Israel and their messianic hope, Jesus wouldn't have been born.
Perennialism doesn't deny differences between religious expressions of God, rather it exults the Absolute Unity of God that they symbolize – All of God’s acts and words are one in essence because he is One Essence. We call this the Eternal Truth of Being (see Psalm 119:160; Truth being the word we use for what corresponds to reality). As the Son proclaims: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6), the whole of God's manifold attributes united as one person.
Perennialism acknowledges that “in reality, every expressed truth necessarily assumes a form," because humans are finite beings bound by time, materiality, and limited knowledge.[4] We can only understand so much at a given time. So, God "shrinks" himself into forms we call revelatory. Because they are from God, we can understand them as the paths to him. In poetic images they become rays of the Sun or spokes in a Wheel. The Sun and Wheel being a symbol of the infinite and rays and spokes being the soul, spirit, or life force of created finite beings. If one were to follow a ray back to its home, one could experience the overwhelming heat and blinding light of the Sun. If one follows a spoke, one gets to the Center of the Wheel.
Many proponents of the Sophia Perennis are convinced of its Truth philosophically, enhanced by their own experience or the experiences of the Saints and Friends of God. [5] The late Eastern Orthodox theologian James Cutsinger also verified its basis in Truth by the character of its adherents in a 2007 paper:
But if ‘by their fruits’ (Matt. 7:20) one may discern whether religions are valid and if the good fruit of sanctity is often found growing along non-Christian paths, it will perhaps seem instead that the power and scope of the Son of God are actually much greater than Christians had been led to believe, and the perennial philosophy will itself appear as a kind of inclusivism, but with an inclusivity no longer centered on Christianity or the church or its sacraments, but on Jesus Christ, the saving Source of all wisdom.
I think this inclusivity centered on Jesus Christ as the saving Source of wisdom can be argued biblically, meaning no references to things outside the Scriptures themselves. [6] In what follows, I'll briefly explore this from the perspective of the New Testament proclamation of the Gospel. First, I'll look at Peter's vision of the animals in Acts 10:9-42. Next, I’ll briefly explore Christ’s sacrifice understood in Revelation 13. Finally, I'll explore Paul’s interactions with Gentiles in Acts 14-17 as well as some of his letters. To end, I’ll share brief spiritual and poetic meditations I had while thinking through a Christo-centric perennialism. I want to be as faithful to Him as I can be, never neglecting the Lord of Creation.
What I hope to accomplish in this essay is an articulation of a biblically-based argument for a perennialism centered on Jesus Christ for those who are weary of incorporating philosophical approaches to God into their Faith. The Old Testament makes it known that it's given to a specific people group we call Israel. The New Testament takes this up and extends Israel to include a broader group of people. As Paul writes, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28 RSV). I don’t deny the particularism of Israel’s relationship to God nor the specific calling of us Christians to be a “royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that [we] may proclaim the excellencies of him who called [us] out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9 ESV). As noted above, perennial philosophy requires this particularity. In Christianity, the Scriptures are the most concrete particularity. That's why they form the basis of this essay. As the most concrete expression of the Christian Faith, they are the most outward facing. If the most outward object of Christianity claims a perennial philosophy, then look at how much more the inner facing Spirit confirms it! And if the Scriptures are the Revelation of Christ in written word, then look at how much more the Spirit is the witness of the Father in the living Word! This is what "God-breathed" means: the Spirit enlivens the text by whispering Truth to those budding sprouts beneath the surface waiting to bloom.
“What God has made clean, do not call impure”
The next day, as they were traveling and nearing the city, Peter went up to pray on the roof about noon. He became hungry and wanted to eat, but while they were preparing something, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and an object that resembled a large sheet coming down, being lowered by its four corners to the earth. In it were all the four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth, and the birds of the sky. A voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat. “No, Lord!” Peter said. “For I have never eaten anything impure and ritually unclean.” Again, a second time, the voice said to him, “What God has made clean, do not call impure.” This happened three times, and suddenly the object was taken up into heaven. (Acts 10:9-15 CSB)
I want to focus on the vision before we explore Peter’s reaction to it in verses 17-43. I want to note two things: a) Peter has understood that God has made certain animals impure and ritually clean, and b) God doesn’t make anything clean in the vision, he proclaims the animals as descending from heaven already made clean.
A) In the Torah, certain animals are revealed as being ritually unclean for the Israelites. For example, in Leviticus 11:3-8, God gives a list: camels, rock badgers, hares, and pigs. The Israelites are commanded to “not eat any of their meat or touch their carcasses [because] they are unclean for you” (Leviticus 11:8 CSB). This is the law Peter followed. As a Jew, he practiced and kept Torah.
B) According to the vision, a voice calls out and tells Peter “What God has made clean, do not call impure”, but nowhere does the voice tell Peter when God did so. It’s declared as an already established fact. The animals come from heaven, the eternal abode of God - they have been declared always clean.
What I think the above two remarks establish is that God, though providing specific laws for a specific people, isn’t bound by their particularities. The animals have always been made clean and pure and are thereby part of a higher law than Torah. In Christian language, the law of Grace. The Torah’s existence, as well as Israel’s, doesn’t negate the existence of God giving laws to other nations and people groups. This is because His Being and law transcends theirs. He’s not contingent on the Israelites, rather, they’re dependent on Him. Indeed, He made promises and covenants with them. However, this new revelation for Peter points toward the higher law. And Peter himself recognizes this!
As the narrative continues, three people (reflecting the “three times” of the vision) come and lodge with Peter at the behest of Cornelius the centurion. The following morning, Cornelius bows at Peter’s feet. He refuses the worship and declares “I too am a man” (10:26). He then goes inside and finds a group of people and says: “‘You know it’s forbidden for a Jewish man to associate with or visit a foreigner, but God has shown me that I must not call any person impure or unclean’” (10:28). It has been revealed to Peter that the Gentiles are clean and pure – they too are the sons and daughters of God descended from Adam. God has shown that He transcends the division between Jew and Gentile.
What else does Peter say? “Now I truly understand that God doesn’t show favoritism, but in every nation the person who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (10:34b-35). God doesn’t show favoritism even to those nations unmentioned in the Old Testament. There are people everywhere who have the potentiality to fear God and do what is right. As Peter spoke, there was a chance for a person across the ocean to fear God and do right. The only way this is possible is by knowing God and the only way to know God is through him revealing himself. It took a vision for Peter to realize that God shows no favoritism – not began showing, not will begin showing, rather, God always has shown no favoritism! If God has never shown favoritism and it’s a possibility for someone anywhere in the world to be acceptable to him, then God must have revealed himself to every nation.
To put it negatively, if God didn’t reveal himself to every nation, he’d be showing favoritism and closing off people from accepting him. Like a ray of Sun, every revelation, no matter how partial the perception, is the Sun’s heat and light made known, is God Revealed.
“Lamb slain from the foundations of the world”
These Revelations outside of Israel aren't tiny lamps in the distance seen by people wearing tinted glasses. Even if it were the case, the flame of the lamps is still fire, is still the same substance of the Sun, is still the fullness of God by its nature.The flame can be followed to its Source. With that in the mind, how can we show that this knowledge of God is salvific (no matter the size)?
In Revelation 13, John talks about a beast who derives his power from “that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world (12:9b KJV) who was cast out from heaven. This beast causes people of every nation to blaspheme God and fight against God’s people, the saints, unless their name is written in the Book of Life: “…And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. They are the ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life that belongs to the Lamb who was slaughtered before the world was made” (13:8 NLT, emphasis added). [7] This is how the knowledge of God can be salvific for those outside Christendom. Christ, as the Son of God, took his death in 33 AD under Pontius Pilate and made it an eternal act. The sacrifice took place in time but atoned for all eternity. In eternity, Christ makes known his wounds because they are the embodiment and totality of humanity’s sins. Humans, particularly the religious exclusivists and political powers, put him to death. It's our fault that he was killed. In Adam, all have been put to death. But in Christ, all have been made alive.
So, “as obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance. But as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; for it is written, be holy, because I am holy. If you appeal to the Father who judges impartially according to each one’s work, you are to conduct yourselves in reverence during your time living as strangers. For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was revealed in these last times for you” (1 Peter 1:14-20 CSB, emphasis added).
We, as Christians, have been given the historical moment in which eternal Salvation took place. This saving Grace has been known by God before time began because this saving Grace is God - “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God….The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world’” (John 1:1,29 CSB; cf. 1 Corinthians 5:21)! How marvelous that the God who created us has revealed to us Christians the moment Salvation took place! How marvelous is the Revelation that Salvation knows no bounds because it’s timeless! Though the apostles attended synagogue and the pre-death Jesus assumed the continuation of animal sacrifice, the mystery of Christ reveals God’s inheritance belongs to all nations and peoples. And remember, people’s nationalities were united by religion as much as location and ethnicity. The Sun shines on all nations and they see by the same Sun’s light. They are covered with the warmth of the Sun.
To put it simply, the knowledge of God is salvific because Christ's sacrifice covers everything in his Love, the fullness of who God is.
“By reading this you are able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ”
In Acts 14, Paul and his traveling buddies fled to the Lycaonian towns of Lystra and Derbe. There they healed a lame man and were praised as Hermes and Zeus:
The apostles Barnabas and Paul tore their robes when they heard this and rushed into the crowd, shouting, “People! Why are you doing these things? We are people also, just like you, and we are proclaiming good news to you, that you turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them. In past generations he allowed all the nations to go their own way, although he did not leave himself without a witness, since he did what is good by giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons and filling you with food and your hearts with joy.” – Acts 14:14-17 CSB, emphasis added.
As Paul says, God has allowed the peoples of the world to go their own way, much like he allows us Christians to do (1 Corinthians 5:5). God even goes so far as to solidify people’s fleshly desires by hardening their hearts (Exodus 4:21). But God never shuts people off from knowing Him. He reveals himself by giving “rain from heaven and fruitful seasons and filling you with food and your hearts with joy”. But, as Israel themselves did, most people turn toward gold and silver idols and see other humans as God. It's not that they aren't worshiping the same way the Jews did (or us Christians), rather they confuse the witnesses of God with God Himself –the golden calf as pure unadulterated God, not the burning bush manifesting God.
Later in Acts, Paul finds himself among sophists in Athens. [8] Paul responds:
“People of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect. For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it—he is Lord of heaven and earth—does not live in shrines made by hands. Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things. From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’ Since, then, we are God’s offspring, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination.” – Acts 1722b-29 CSB, emphasis added.
What I find fascinating is that Paul has attributed to God the “appointed times and boundaries” of every nationality. As the text says, God did this so they may find God, the One in whom we “live and move and have our being”. This shows, like Peter’s vision above, God has provided the ability for people outside of Israel to know him, to hear him, to see him, and the capacity to dwell in the divine nature. To emphasize this, Paul quotes from one of their poets as an authority. It’s not that Paul finds this poet authoritative, rather it’s God who has made him so for the Greeks. Paul has recognized that the Gentiles have descended from one man (Adam) and God has provided them with ways to know God (the poet).
If it's true that a) God is the one determining nationalities, b) God has given the "gentiles" ways of knowing him and c) there are "gentiles" who earnestly seek him without confusing him with idols and d) those "gentiles" bear the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), then we can conclude that God has revealed himself to those outside Israel or Christendom. That Revelation is what we call a religion. This is the basis of Perennial Philosophy.
Christ is central to my articulation of the Sophia Perennis. We can know God because through Christ and in Christ we are made (Colossians 1, John 1, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Hebrews 1:2, etc.) - He is ever present with us. Christ being through whom, by whom, and in whom we are made shows us that non-Christians can know God in an intimate way without knowing the Jewish or Christian Traditions. This is reiterated in the “mystery of God” Paul describes in Ephesians 3:6: “The Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and partners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (CSB). Granted Paul does state this wasn’t known to previous generations “as it is now revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit” (3:5 CSB). However, I think the operative phrase is as it is now revealed – the Revelation being the incarnated, crucified, resurrected and ascended Christ [8]. This is the special Revelation for Christians to hold and to keep. At the same time, this can't contradict the knowledge of God Paul proclaimed in Athens or the knowledge of God revealed to Peter in his vision. It doesn’t precisely because the knowledge non-Christians have is salvific.
Any knowledge of God is salvific because Christ’s blood covers it from eternity. He is the lamb of God slain from the foundations of the world. The secret, or esoteric, mystery of Christ has been revealed in the flesh! All rays point to the Sun.
Meditationes
Meditation on the Meaning of the Name of Jesus and on Those Who Profess it.
Philippians 2, Romans 14, Isaiah 45 point to the Word we shall confess – Jesus Christ, God (YHWH, The Infinite I AM) Saves, Anointed One. In His Name lies the Grace of Reality: that the Father of All Things is Good and Saves us All through the Word, which is the Foundation of All Things – our very Life is thanks to Salvation. Because of this, I always remain Christian – a follower of the Anointed Name, the Savior – as one who is like a little savior by Participation in His Life, Who Breathes All Things.
His Name, the Word’s, Jesus, IS His Action: “God (the I AM) Saves” is the Name at which every knee shall bow. Our tongues will confess Salvation, the partaking of the Divine Nature. It is our spiritual home – to be in His very Bosom.
If and any religion that realizes (understands & embodies) this (being the Truth), then it shall be of the narrow gate that IS Jesus, the Anointed One, the Word, God Saves.
Jesus of Nazareth & the Word are One and the Same. The Word IS the Anointed One, the God (I AM) who Saves. The God who IS Salvation.
The Knowledge of God and Knowledge of Salvation and Their Inherent Identity.
If God is Salvation, as His Name states and the Scriptures testify, then when God is found anywhere at any time then the seeker who found Him can follow His path, the path of Salvation. For every path of God is a path of Salvation and every path of Salvation is a path of God. How do we know if a path is of God? By the fruits borne.
Knowledge of Salvation, the Saving Grace, is knowledge of God – “the Father and I are One”. Knowledge of God (metaphysical) is knowledge of Salvation (experiential). The whole can be known through part. How? Participation; Microcosm & Macrocosm; fulfillment of Goethe’s leaf – In the heights of Heaven and the depths of Sheol, where can I go? All Things are created by Him, through Him, and in Him. All is Symbol of God.
True Religion is True Language – the Poem of God sung into Being. Each Creation, because God spoke it, is by its very nature participant in the Word – and it is Good.
On the Holy Spirit
The Voice of God (that which carries His Word out) is found in All Things – the Spirit bloweth where it willeth. That is, all of Creation. We must have ears to hear and eyes to see to discern this Wind and Sigh. The Sigh too deep for human words because we have fallen - the Spirit groans by and through Creation for Restoration.
Each pause of breath is a remembrance of the Wind of Life - a sacramental Reality known to ALL.
What of the Incarnation?
The Word became Flesh, put on all of humanity. Jesus, God as Salvation, is the Divine-Human. By this, all of humanity is on the road toward Divinization/Theosis, which is True Knowledge, The Full and Continual Participating in Good.
What of the Death?
The death of Christ is the destruction and revelation of sin. The revelation of sin is its violence toward the very Good that allows the sinner to exist. The harrowing of the dead is the freeing of those trapped by the consequence of sin, death. All who have sinned shall be saved. The Lamb slain before the world.
What of the Resurrection?
The completion of Life. The death of death (2nd death) is Life itself. Only Life has the power to transform. Love conquers.
The Desire of Individual good, aka sin, As the Revealer of the Desire for True Good.
To sin is to twist our innate desire of Good, Truth, Beauty i.e. God, into an ego-centric, literally anti-Christ, pleasure. A perversion of desire for an individual’s own “good” or happiness. This desire, no matter how selfish, is a proof of our innate predisposition toward God – our reality as image-bearers. No matter what we do – whether for fleeting happiness or sacrificial love for others – our actions are attempts at incarnating God in our being. We ultimately are Good, True, and Beautiful in God. Even in desperation/ “giving up” on the Good Life, contentment and peace is the desire and telos. The Good is our beginning and our end. Ever growing into Christ.
Explorations of sin
Sin is the apotheosis of flesh – the perceptual divinization of the material – the reflection of ego toward itself – the illusory existence of unreality – the fake truth of falsehood – the turning away from God – the costume of selflessness in selfishhood – blasphemy of the Holy Spirit – the nothing of evil’s non-being – existence prioritized over Reality.
The violent crucifixion of Nonviolence.
In Whom We Live And Move And Have Our Being.
True Religion blossoms
like an indigo tulip petals –
from the seed of a like flower
a seed all father, mother, brother, sister
a seed fed with moving water.
It grows into itself, outwardly
as a leaf of Revelation. What
Inspiration! What Ecstasy
pouring into the Nothingness
of the field of Creation! Each petal
an expression of indigo, each petal
an expression of the tulip, each petal
singing praises to the wind waiting
for inspired bees to continue
pollinating the True Religion.
To put it into an outline:
1. If Christ is through whom everything is made,
2. And Christ’s blood covers eternity,
3. And God has established witnesses in Creation to who he is,
4. And God shows no favoritism,
5. Then the knowledge given by the witnesses is the saving knowledge of Christ, which we call Revelation.
That is the farthest we can get without going outside the scriptures (as certain as I can be right now). What follows next is the terms we use to describe those who know Christ outside Christianity:
1. If the saving knowledge of Christ is called Revelation,
2. And those who adhere to Revelation we call Religious,
3. And we call it Religion when Religious people group together and recognize each other’s practices and beliefs as one,
4. And because God is the source of Revelation, so He is the source of Religion,
5. Then God has Revealed Himself in other Religions.
A Caveat and Confession
I am not an expert in any sense of the word. This is a pure “speculative” account of what I believe to be true. But, as everyone else, I see through the glass dimly, no matter how bright the light may be. In particular, I failed out of bible school, am terrible at memorizing specific verses, and have only known one language fully. Also, with Paul I am the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). I have been a slave to sin and have partaken in, explicitly and knowingly, and implicitly complying, in the works of the flesh: "sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar" (Galatians 5:19b-21, CSB). At one point in my life, I (without intention) listened to Paul and handed myself over to Satan and was only saved by the Grace of God through the love of my wife and daughter (1 Corinthians 5:5). It is in praise and thanksgiving to His grace that I dedicate the above thoughts.
To God the Father Almighty, in the Name of His Son Jesus, through His Holy Spirit, I raise these words. May they proclaim His majesty, glory, and power. May the Creator of all be praised. Amen.
[If you’re more inclined toward philosophical approaches, or want a better beginner understanding of perennialism, I suggest Advice to the Serious Seeker by James Cutsinger or The Perennial Philosophy: An Introduction to the Perennialist School of Comparative Religious Thought edited by James Cutsinger, which can be found at https://www.cutsinger.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/world_spirituality_reader.pdf
If you’d like to read an experience of someone who had extreme experiences of the Truth of two religions at once, I suggest The Essential Writings of Swami Abhishiktananda, written by a French Catholic monk with the given name Henri Le Saux.
See also, Origins of the Perennial Philosophy School of Thought on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_CNg4dpU54 note that this is the origins of a particular type of perennialism known as “the Traditionalist School” and has apologetic undertones.]
[1] Arthur Versluis, Perennial Philosophy, pg 2.
[2] Frithjof Schuon, The Transcendent Unity of Religions.
[3] The Underlying Religion: An Introduction to the Perennial Philosophy, loc. 25. Kindle edition.
[4] The Transcendent Unity of Religions, pg 18.
[5] Many also come from experience searching for philosophical grounding, e.g. Aldous Huxley or possibly Arthur Versluis.
[6] I am prioritizing the Scriptures without explicit recourse to outside help to make two points: 1) The Biblical God can be read and described as the philosophical God while still being faithful and loyal to the text . 2) The Scriptures can't be read without some sort of prior commitment on how God interacts with the world and communicates with us. They can't be read without a theory of how language itself works either. To put my biases out there, I think language is inherently symbolic. Each word "is the reflection or shadow [or extended embodiment] of a higher reality" (Matin Lings, Symbol and Archetype). Additionally, the biases of scriptural interpretation fall within a spectrum between: 1) a time-bound historical exegesis or 2) an eternal metaphysical symbolism. My interpretation is closer to the latter.
[7] Other translations say, “…and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. (ESV, emphasis added). I don’t think it makes a difference. Their name being written in the Book of Life before Creation still points to the effects of Christ’s sacrifice being outside of time, thus eternally salvific.
[8] I say sophists rather than philosophers because they were essentially sell-outs rather than people seeking Truth. They persuaded people for a dime and entertained them for a dollare like Simon Magus.
