Traditionalism: The Radical Project for Restoring Sacred Order

About the Book

From a leading expert comes an intellectual history and analysis of Traditionalism, one of the least known and most influential philosophies that continues to impact politics today

Traditionalism is a shadowy philosophy that has influenced much of the twentieth century and beyond: from the far-right to the environmental movement, from Sufi shaykhs and their followers to Trump advisor and right-wing provocateur Steve Bannon. It is a worldview that rejects modernity and instead turns to mystical truth and tradition as its guide.

Mark Sedgwick, one of the world's leading scholars of Traditionalism, presents a major new analysis, pulling back the curtain on the foundations of Traditionalist philosophy, its major proponents--René Guénon, Julius Evola, and Frithjof Schuon--and their thought. One of Traditionalism's fundamental pillars is perennialism, the idea that beneath all the different forms of religion there lies one single timeless and esoteric tradition. A second is the view that everything is getting worse, rather than better, over time, leading to the Traditionalist critique of modernity. Sedgwick details Traditionalism's unique ideas about self-realization, religion, politics, and many other spheres.

Traditionalism provides an expansive guide to this important school of thought--one that is little-known and even less understood--and shows how pervasive these ideas have become.

About the Author :
Mark Sedgwick trained as a historian at Oxford University, taught for many years at the American University in Cairo, and finally moved to Denmark, where he is Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at Aarhus University. He is also Chair of the Nordic Society for Middle Eastern Studies. His work focuses primarily on Islam, Sufism, Traditionalism, terrorism, and radicalization, and he is known especially for his book Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century.

Review :
"Mark Sedgwick has with Traditionalism: The Radical Project for Restoring Sacred Order written the quintessential guide to traditionalism. This is intellectual history at its most erudite and informative." -- Sindre Bangstad, Stanley J. Kelley Jr. Distinguished Visiting Professor in Anthropology, Princeton University

"Mark Sedgwick is one of our most trustworthy and erudite scholars of religion. Here, with a sure hand, he guides readers through a terribly important conversation among a group of intellectuals, commonly called Traditionalists, who see flaws in modernity, secularism, and democracy. The end result is a much better understanding of Traditionalism and how its contemporary right-wing proponents have distorted it. This will become a kind of go-to book for how to think, subtly and robustly, about Traditionalism in our contemporary world." -- Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of The Superhumanities: Historical Precedents, Moral Objections, New Realities

"Traditionalism, propounded by René Guénon and pursued by others through the twentieth century, has roared back into prominence in recent years, having once been declared almost entirely defunct. Mark Sedgwick's literate and sensible thematic overview of this movement's principal doctrines is indispensable for anyone seeking to make sense of the changing ideological landscape of the present." -- Samuel Moyn, Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and History, Yale University

"An informed, broad, user-friendly book on Traditionalism needed to be written--the ideas at the core of this philosophy, though once confined to the underground of Western thought, have become increasingly influential. Nobody is more qualified than Professor Mark Sedgwick to write such a book. The foremost international expert on Traditionalism and its history, Sedgwick draws here on his extensive academic knowledge and talent as a writer to produce an accessible guide, illuminating hidden ideas and providing readers a path to understand some of the most radical social, religious, and political thinking in the world." -- Benjamin R. Teitelbaum, author of War for Eternity: The Rise of the Populist Right and the Return of Traditionalism

"Sedgwick, professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at Denmark's Aarhus University, has written Traditionalism in a textbook-like format with enough redundancies to remind even the laziest student of his central points." -- David Luhrssen, Shepherd Express

"Superb" -- David Brooks, The Atlantic