A Note on the Contributors

Robert Bolton

Educated in th e sc ie nces, Robert Bolton developed a strong int erest in Traditiona l metaphysics, obtaining from Exeter University the degrees of M.Phii and Ph.D, w ith a specia l interest in the areas of free will , and personal iden tity and the sou l. He is th e author of two books , Person, So,,1 and Identity and tbe Logic a/Spiritual Values. A th ird book on the cyclic nature of tim e i s forthcoming.

Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1877-1947)

Born in Ceylon o f a Tamil father (Sir Mutu Coomaraswamy) and an Engli s h mother, Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy received hi s early formal educa tion in England, study ing botany and geology at London University. Afte r g raduating with a doctoral d egree in min e r a logy, Coomaraswamy moved between Ceylon, Ind ia and England, during which time he s tudied the traditional arts and crafts of Ceylo n , and founded the Ceylon Social Reform Society , aimed at reviving traditional values and expressio ns in Ceylonese culture and coun tering the nega· tive e ffects of Brili s h colonia lism. In India, he formed close ties w ith the Tagore famil y and was influ en tial in the literary renaissance and the in · d ependence movement. Moving to th e USA, he became a professor at Ha lVa rd and Cura to r at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Scho lar, linguist, socia l think e r and prolific writer, Coomaraswamy has claim to be o n e of the intellectual giants of the modern era and is one of th e fo remost exponents (along with Rene Guenon and Frit hj of Schuon) of Traditiona l metaphysics this ce ntury

Rama P. Coomaraswamy

Born in Massachusetts in 1932, Rama P. Coomaraswamy is the son of the late Ananda K. Coo maraswamy. H e st udied in England and later in I ndia, where he received a trad itional educat ion in Hindi and Sa nsk rit. After his father 's d eath, he returned to the USA where he stu died medicine and laler practiced as a surgeon. H e is a writer of works on theology and on Trad iti on, incl udin g The DestnlCtion of the ChrisUan Tradition (Perennial Books, 1981).

James

S. Cutsinger

Professor of Theo logy and Religiou s Thought at the University of South Carolina , and secretary of the Foundation for Tradit io nal Studies in the USA, Cutsinger is the author of The Form oj Transformed Vision: Coleridge and the Knowledge oj God (Me rcer, 1987) and Advice to the Serious Meditations on the Teaching oj FrithjoJ Schuon (SUNY, 199 7).

Roger Lipsey

Roger Lipsey, Ph.D (a rt history), entered the area of Trad iti ona l studies through hi s work as an editor and biographer of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (see the tril ogy published by Princeton in the Boll ingen Se rie s, 1977). His fo rthcoming book , Ha ve You Been to Delphi? Tal es oj the Ancient OracleJorModemMinds, will be published by SUNY.

Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Born in Iran in 1933, Nasr studied physics and mathemati cs at the Massachusetts Ins titute of Technology, and geology and geophysics at Harvard , obtaining a Ph.D from Harvard in the history of science and philosophy, wi th em phasis on Islamic scie nce. He is an emi nent Isla micist and a leading aut hority on Is lami c phi losop hy , scie n ce and Sufism. He has taught science and philosophy at Tehran University, ha s occ upied the first Aga Khan Chair of Is lami c St udi es at the American Un ivers ity at Beirut, was th e fir st Chancellor of Aryamehr Univers ity , and was the founding presiden t of the Im perial Iranian Academy of Philosop hy , which published the traditionalist journal , Soph ia Perennis. After moving to the USA from Iran , Nasr taught at Temple University, and was a vis iting lecturer at Harvard and Ch icago. Cu rrenli y, he is the Uni vers ity Profes- sor of Islamic Studi es at George Was hin gton University. He has lectured ex tensively worldwid e, and in 1981 was the fir st Muslim in vited by Edinburgh Un ive rsity to deliver the pres tigiou s G iffo rd Lectures in Na tural Theology , s ub se qu en tl y published as Know/edge and th e Sacred (Crossroad, 1981). He is the a uth or of num erous books and art icl es o n Islamic scie nce , phil osop hy and mysticism , and on issues of Tradition a nd mo d e rnity . NasI" is also th e president of th e Fo un dat io n for Trad itional Stu d ies in th e USA, w h ich pu bl ishes th e jo urn a l, Sophia.

Kenneth Oldmeadow

Curre ntly th e Coordinator o f Philosophy and Re li g io us Studi es at La Trobe Unive rsity, Bendi go, Australia , Kenneth ( Ha rry) Old meadow earned an M.A . from Syd ney in re li g io us stu di es, fo r w hich he wro te a thesi s titled "Frith jof Schuon , the Perennial Philoso ph y and th e Meaning o f Trad ition " . He obtained a Ph.D from La Trobe in ci nema s tudi es. He is the a uth or of numero us publications in t h e fields of literature and religiO US s tu d ies , including hi s fo rth com ing book on Tradition, from w hich th e a rticl e in thi s journal is excerpted.

Willlam W. Quinn

Introduced to t he w ritings of Cooma ra swamy a nd G ue non w hi le studying under th e late Mircea Eli ade, Quinn receiv e d an M.A. and a Ph.D for religious s tu dies from Chicago. The text of his M.A. th es is h as been revised and published under th e titl e "Anand a K. Coomaraswamy o n th e Philosophia Perenni s" (Re-V isio n 2, No. 2, 1979), and the text of hi s Ph .D th es is formed th e b as is fo r his rece nt boo k , The On ly Tradition (SUNY, 1997). Quinn p ra ctices law in Phoen ix , Arizona.

Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998)

Born in Sw itzerla nd of German parents, Schuon re ce ived his early educat io n in French a nd Ge rm an. From his youth, Sc hu on devoted him sel f to a searc h for metaphysica ll ruth , stud y ing the clas s ics of Western p hilosop hy a nd the sac re d lite ratures of the East. Mov ing to France, Sc hu on became influen ce d by the writings of Rene Guenon, w hich confirmed his own intell ectua l intuitions. A student of Arabic and o f Is lam , Sc h uon travelled se veral tim es to Nort h Africa , where he me t Guonon and the Algerian Su fi Sh ayk h Ahmad a l-'A law]. Impri soned by the Germans dur- ing the Second World Wa r, he was even tua ll y released and gr:mted asylum by Switzerland, which became home until 1980, when he em igrated to th e USA. Metaphysician, and painter, Schuon's writings have been compared to those of Plato and Shanka racha ,ya. A sa mpling of his oeuvre is avai lable in The Essential Writings of Fritbjof Scbuon (Amity Hou se, 1986), edited by Seyyed Hosse in Nas!. Of his first publication in Eng li sh, The Transcendent Unity oj Religions (1953), T.S. Eli ot remark ed , "I ha ve met w ith no more impressive work on th e co mparative study of Oriental and Occiden tal religion " .

A Note on the Artists

Michael Bender

A resident of Vancouver, British Columbia , Michael Bender is a painter, lamp-maker and book illustrator. Many of hi s ill ustrations are reminiscent of Persi an miniatures and depict sce nes from children 's literature . especially th e fairy tales and myths of the Middle East and Ce ntral As ia.

Susan Point

Susan Point is a Coast Salish prinlmaker and jeweller fmm th e Musqueam Reserve in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is one of a handful of contemporary artists engaged in reviving the ancient principles of Coas t Salish two-dimensional design. Born in 1952, she was 29 when she began to stu dy Salish arl, creating her first pi eces in silve r and gold. She has si nce become best known for her work in serigraphy. Her work is hou sed in many publi c and private collections , and graces many prominent si tes in Vancouver, in cluding the Vancouver International Airport and the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology .

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