The Essential Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (Perennial Philosophy Series)

You would think that a company founded on shipping books would prove more adept at shipping books. Nothing like gifting a paperback that was damaged in shipping due to an incompetent packaging choice. Hard rule Amazon: don’t ship books in oversized soft envelopes with other items.

It makes a nice companion to the other Sophia Perrenis (World Wisdom) books, especially those by Guenon. I found those fascinating and griping. I must distinguish the younger Coomswarmey from Anananda Coomswarmey. The later is full of wisdom and tolerance and edifying insights.The younger is shameful to my library. Fortunately only exists in Kindle.

Always Essential !!!

Do you want to understand what beauty really is? Do you want to delved deeply into an understanding of myth and art? Then this book is for you.

The "communication society" in which we live submerges us with raw information in terms of numbers, dates, facts and figures. The net result is that our mind becomes cloged.More than ever, it is necessary to harmonize information with real knowledge.Only few writers of our epoch have the gift of combining pure information and pure wisdom. Ananda Coomaraswamy is one of them.The writings collected by his son, the noted Christian traditional theologian Rama Coomaraswamy, constitute an outstanding instance of how to apply an immense erudition to the service of truth.This stimulating book demonstrates that Ananda Coomaraswamy is one of the few truly "essential" writers of our time.

While I just received this book and already have problems with it. For an older and fairly prominent book, it is disappointing to find neither page numbers nor a Table of Contents. This information should be provided before buying. Had I known there was no direct link to each section and essay, I would forgo the purchase and not waste the time.The One Star is only for formatting and in no way concerns the contents.

Quickly delivered!

Great book. It echoes thoughts that I’ve had over many years but never managed to properly express.An excellent and fascinating book.

Ananda Coomaraswamy was a genuine polymath who excelled in the fields of geology, art theory, Hindu theology, language and the Perennial Philosophy. An important and unapologetic bridge-builder between the East and the West, he reminded European and American people of the timeless brilliance of Asian art and philosophy. This collection almost reflects the breadth and substance of his thought.It ought to be on the shelf of every philosopher and art historian/theorist.