The Perennial Philosophy - Critical Reception - in The USA

In The USA

The Perennial Philosophy was widely reviewed when first published in 1945, with articles appearing in Book Week, Booklist, The Christian Century, Bull VA Kirkus' Bookshop Serv., The Nation, The New Republic, The New Yorker, Saturday Review of Literature, Springfield Republican, New York Herald Tribune, and the Wilson Bulletin.

The New York Times wrote that "Perhaps Mr. Huxley, in 'The Perennial Philosophy' has, at this time, written the most needed book in the world." The Times described the book as

an "anthology is above all a masterpiece of discrimination.... Leibniz gave the name of 'The Perennial Philosophy' to this theme. Mr. Huxley has systematized, and dealt with, its many-branching problems, perils and beatitudes.

The Times also stated that "it is important to say that even an agnostic, even a behaviorist-materialist... can read this book with joy. It is the masterpiece of all anthologies."

Similarly, forty years later, Huston Smith, a religious scholar, wrote that in The Perennial Philosophy:

"Huxley provides us with the most systematic statement of his mature outlook. Its running commentary deals with many of the social implications of Huxley's metaphysics."

Not all the reception was so positive. Chad Walsh, writing in the Journal of Bible and Religion in 1948, spoke of Huxley's distinguished family background, only to continue:

"The only startling fact, and the one that could not have been predicted by the most discerning sociologist or psychologist, is that in his mid-forties he was destined to turn also to mysticism, and that since his conversion he was to be one of a small group in California busily writing books to win as many people as possible over to the "perennial philosophy" as a way of life."