That is why the revival of tradition in modern times and the...

That is why the revival of tradition in modern times and the attempt to resacralize knowledge have been accompanied from the beginning with concern with the multiplicity of traditions and their inner unity.2 What is remarkable is that even in the study of the sacred, the principle that only the like can know the like has been forgotten and the secularized mind has adopted every possible path and method to study the phenomenon and reality of religion and religions, provided the nature of the sacred as sacred is not considered seriously.

That is why despite all the light that the traditional perspective brings to bear upon the study of religions, it is so widely neglected.

Hardly anyone in Western theological circles has made use of the keys which tradition alone provides to unlock the door of the understanding of other worlds of sacred form and meaning without destroying the absoluteness of religion; for traditional metaphysics alone is able to see each religion as a religion and the religion, “absolute” within its own universe, while reconfirming that ultimately only the Absolute is absolute.

The neglect in official academic, and even theological and religious circles, in the West of traditional doctrines concerning the study of religions, either through chance or deliberately, is one of the most amazing phenomena in a world which claims objectivity for its scientific approach and manner of carrying out the study of any subject, but which usually mistakes the reduction of all reality to what can be grasped by secularized reason for objectivity resulting from the miraculous functioning of the intelligence.3 If one meditates upon the structure of reality, consisting of the three grand theophanies of the Principle as the cosmos, man, and revelation in the sense of religion and also tradition, it becomes clear that since manifestation implies externalization, the penetration into the meaning of external forms in all three cases is essentially an esoteric function.

To go from the form to the essence, the exterior to the interior, the symbol to the reality symbolized, whether concerning the cosmos, man, or revelation, is itself an esoteric activity and is dependent upon esoteric knowledge. To carry out the study of other religions in depth, therefore, requires a penetration into the depth of one's own being and an interiorizing and penetrating intelligence which is already imbued with the sacred.