Essential Ananda K. Coomaraswamy

Ananda K. Coomaraswamy was engaged in the world not only as a scholarly expositor of traditional culture and philosophy, but also as a radical critic of contemporary life.

Born in 1877 in Ceylon, Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy was a multi-talented researcher, scientist, linguist, expert on culture and art, philosopher, museum curator, and author. He was the first well-known author of the modern era to expound the importance of traditional arts, culture, and thought as more than simply relics of a bygone past—in all that he wrote, he pointed to their critical role in restoring to modern man his true intellectual and spiritual birthright. Dr. Coomaraswamy has often been credited with reintroducing the concept of the "Perennial Philosophy" to a West dazed by the endless multiplicity of the modern world.

Dr. Rama P. Coomaraswamy, son of the renowned perennialist writer Ananda Coomaraswamy, received his early education in India in an orthodox Hindu setting. Graduating from Harvard University with a major in Geology, he went on to Medical School, graduating in 1959. He spent 8 years in post graduate training and then some 30 years as a Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon, holding the position of Assistant Professor of Surgery at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, as well as Chief of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at Stamford Hospital.

For five years he was Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the St. Thomas Aquinas (Lefebrist) Seminary. He has published extensively both in the fields of medicine and theology. His works include, The Destruction of the Christian Tradition (1972) and The Invocation of the Name of Jesus (1999).