Wisdom Tradition is a term that is sometimes given to the inner core or mystic aspects of a religious or spiritual tradition, without the trappings, doctrinal literalism, sectarianism, and power structures that are associated with institutionalised religion. The Wisdom Tradition provides a conceptual framework for the development of the inner self, living a spiritual life, and the realisation of Enlightenment or of Union with God.
Ken Wilber frequently uses the term in the plural in his own books, shadowing the theologian Huston Smith who popularized the usage. In this context it can be considered synonymous with Esotericism, but does not have the faintly Western/Middle Eastern/Theosophical nuances that are sometimes associated with the latter term.
In Christianity and in the Hebrew Bible, the term is used to describe female images of the divine in the Book of Wisdom. It is one of the seven Sapiential or wisdom books of the Septuagint Old Testament, which includes Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon (Song of Songs), and Sirach.
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Famous quotes containing the words wisdom and/or tradition:
“Society always consists, in greatest part, of young and foolish persons. The old, who have seen through the hypocrisy of the courts and statesmen, die, and leave no wisdom to their sons. They believe their own newspaper, as their fathers did at their age.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“If we are related, we shall meet. It was a tradition of the ancient world, that no metamorphosis could hide a god from a god; and there is a Greek verse which runs, “The Gods are to each other not unknown.” Friends also follow the laws of divine necessity; they gravitate to each other, and cannot otherwise.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)