In the Face of the Absolute: A New Translation with Selected Letters

Religion scholar Huston Smith called Frithjof Schuon "the most important religious thinker of [the 20th] century." In this revised edition of his classic work, perennialist author Frithjof Schuon addresses diverse aspects of the religious phenomenon with his characteristic authority. In the book’s first section, Schuon provides striking insights into age-old religious and philosophical controversies such as the problem of evil, predestination and free will, and the meaning of eternity in the realms of heaven and hell. In the second section, Schuon masterfully harmonizes the divergent theological claims of the three main branches of Christianity—Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Protestantism—in the light of universal metaphysical truth. The final section contains several chapters relating to Islamic esoterism and concludes with a remarkable chapter on the spiritual substance of the Prophet of Islam.
This fully revised edition contains 60 pages of completely new material, including a new translation from the original French that corrects errors and omissions in the previous edition, as well as a new Appendix of previously unpublished letters and other writings. Also featured are a new Editor’s Preface and extensive Editor’s Notes by Harry Oldmeadow, which have been included to help explain and annotate various key terms, references, and historical figures mentioned in the text. A helpful Glossary of foreign terms and an Index have also been added.

Frithjof Schuon wrote more than two dozen books on metaphysical, spiritual, artistic, and ethnic themes and was a regular contributor to journals on comparative religion in both Europe and America. He is best known as the foremost spokesman of the Perennial Philosophy and his writings have been consistently featured and reviewed in a wide range of scholarly and philosophical publications around the world, respected by both scholars and spiritual authorities. He was born in 1907 in Basle, Switzerland and died in the US in 1998.
Harry Oldmeadow was Coordinator of Philosophy and Religious Studies at La Trobe University Bendigo, Australia, until his recent retirement. An acknowledged authority on the Perennialist school in general and Frithjof Schuon in particular, his articles have featured extensively in journals on comparative religion in America and Europe. He is the author of numerous works, including Traditionalism: Religion in the Light of the Perennial Philosophy (winner of the University of Sydney Medal for excellence in research), and Frithjof Schuon and the Perennial Philosophy. He lives in Australia.