Traditionalist School - Terminology

Terminology

Traditionalist authors themselves have always had reservations about the use of the term "traditionalist":

… “traditionalism”; like “esoterism,” (…) has nothing pejorative about it in itself and one might even say that it is less open to argument and a far broader term, in any case, than the latter; in fact, however, (…) it has been associated with an idea which inevitably devalues its meaning, namely the idea of “nostalgia for the past” (…) If to recognize what is true and just is “nostalgia for the past,” it is quite clearly a crime or a disgrace not to feel this nostalgia.

A similar objection, coming from Guénon, is reported in an article by Renaud Fabbri:

It could be argued that Traditionalism and Perennialism are synonymous, “traditionalism” being used mostly in France and Europe. However, Guénon himself dismissed the term of traditionalist because it implies in his view a kind of sentimental attachment to a tradition which, most of the time, has lost its metaphysical foundation.

Coomaraswamy touches on these terms as he discusses Vedanta and an important Perennialist concept, that of metaphysics:

The metaphysical "philosophy" is called "perennial" because of its eternity, universality, and immutability; it is Augustine's "Wisdom uncreate, the same now as it ever was and ever will be"; the religion which, as he also says, only came to be called "Christianity" after the coming of Christ (…) and so long as the tradition is transmitted without deviation (…)

Further down in the same essay he does not shun the use of "traditionalist": "…ultimate Truth is not, for the Vedantist, or for any traditionalist, a something that remains to be discovered, but a something that remains to be understood…" Similarly, in his "Introduction" to the Sacred Web Conference on “Tradition in the Modern World” Prince Charles of Wales uses repeatedly the term traditionalist.

Nowadays some traditional/perennialist authors appear to be more comfortable with the simpler designation of "traditional" and the use of the word "tradition", as evinced by the names of several organizations and publications related to these authors, viz. "The Foundation for Traditional Studies", Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition & Modernity, Eye of the Heart: A Journal of Traditional Wisdom.

The word "Tradition" has a special meaning for the Traditionalist school, removed from the current meaning of folklore, but pointing instead to a profound understanding of the term. "Integral Tradition" does not have a human origin, and consists of eternal principles of divine origin, calling man back to what Schuon called a "transcendent unity". Against the "modern error," Traditionalists propose a "Primordial Tradition", transmitted from the very origin of humanity and partially restored by each genuine founder of a new religion.