What is perennialism?

Answer

The term perennialism is sometimes used in the context of education or philosophy of religion. Although related, these two applications are not identical. Perennialism, in both cases, denotes something enduring and universal. In education, it involves emphasizing broad, commonly valued principles and major themes rather than specific facts or narrow interests. In spirituality, it suggests a shared truth among all religious concepts. This religious approach is commonly known as perennial philosophy.

Religious pluralism is typically approached in two distinct ways. The first assumes that each religion comprises a mixture of true and false elements, with individual ideas being subject to correctness or error, rather than the religions themselves. The second proposes that each religion holds a partially true but limited perspective. This perspective is illustrated by the analogy of blind men describing an elephant through touch, with each man likening the animal to a tree, a rope, a snake, or a spear based on where he touches it. In this analogy, each man’s perception is accurate but incomplete.

Another aspect of religious pluralism suggests that all spiritual perspectives share a fundamental truth, leading to differences between religions being attributed to distorted viewpoints. This form of “perennialism” posits a single origin from which all spiritual beliefs have evolved and implies that each religion is merely an adaptation of universal, eternal truths to a specific culture or individual. However, this perspective falls short when one considers that essential aspects of different religions create irreconcilable contradictions with one another.

Aldous Huxley, in his mid-20th-century work The Perennial Philosophy, elucidated this concept. Contemporary adaptations of New Age beliefs and recent manifestations of syncretism are grounded in perennialism. Throughout history, closely related concepts can be observed in Theosophy and Neoplatonism.

Onism. As one might expect, perennial philosophy heavily emphasizes personal experience over objective ideas. “All roads lead to God” is not a sure sign of perennialist thinking, but perennialism almost always includes a vague version of that sentiment.

Taken in the broadest sense, some aspects of perennialism are true. A biblical worldview agrees that diverging religious beliefs stem from misunderstandings about universally applicable truths. That is, the Bible teaches that most of humanity has drifted from an accurate understanding of God (Romans 1:18-23;Hebrews 2:1). Like perennialism, biblical Christianity summarizes the history of religion as a series of branches from a universal starting point (Isaiah 53:6;Jude 1:3-4). God’s Word endorses the idea of approaching certain disagreements with tolerance (Romans 14:1-10).

However, perennialism suggests most disagreements between faiths are irrelevant or unimportant, while the Bible indicates some issues are of eternal importance (John 3:36;John 14:6). God’s Word indicates that eternal truths have not changed, nor have they been lost. Scripture says good versus evil, right versus wrong, and truth versus lies are meaningful and objective distinctions (Isaiah 5:20;Romans 12:9;Hebrews 5:14;Revelation 20:11-12). Neither perennialism nor The Perennial Philosophy is biblical or compatible with Christian truth.