glossary of terms used by frithjof schuon - Sophia Perennis

Anger (holy / passionate): Holy anger is a movement of concentration and not a going
outside oneself; it is like an “incarnation” of the divine Wrath in the human microcosm,
which must at that moment be free from passionate anger. The inner criterion of holy
anger is precisely calmness, whereas passionate anger carries away the entire being and
brings forgetfulness of God; it has no centre, that is to say it is entirely peripheral and
dissipated. Holy anger exists only by virtue of a motionless centre, an implacable truth
which determines it; when driving the money-changers from the Temple, Christ was
impassible. [SW, Nature and Arguments of Faith]
Antinomic Theology: “Antinomic” theology which consists in confronting two
contradictory affirmations concerning God in view of a superior, possibly ineffable, truth,
but without intending to negate either of the two affirmations; for the purpose is to
confront, not a truth and an error, since that would not lead to a new conclusion, but two
truths, each of which is valid in itself but insufficient in respect to their antinomy. [IFA,
Observations on Dialectical Antinomism]
Archangel Gabriel: The Archangel Gabriel is a personification of a function of the
Spirit, the celestial ray which reaches the Prophets on earth. [UI, The Prophet]
Archetype: The archetypes represent uniquely perfections and totalities, and not
privative and hence fragmentary manifestations, and that in consequence there are earthly
phenomena which are not to be found as such in the Platonic ideas precisely because they
are either privative or existentially fragmentary by virtue of privation. [LT, Rationalism,
Real and Apparent]
Argument: The Greek word kategoria, “argument,” means in the last analysis: an
ultimate form of thought, that is to say a key-notion capable of classifying other notions,
or even all the notions having a bearing on existence. [THC, Universal Categories]
Aristocratic / Plebeian Nature: The man of “aristocratic” nature – we are not speaking
of social classes – is he who masters himself and who loves to master himself; the
“plebeian” by nature – with the same reservation – is on the contrary he who does not
master himself, and who does not wish to do so. To master oneself is in substance to want
to transcend oneself, in conformity with the reason for being of that central and total
creature which is man; in fact, the man of the “dark age” lives below himself. Thus he
must transcend himself – or re-establish the equilibrium between Maya and Atma – in
accordance with a norm which he bears within himself, and which comprises all that
makes life worth living. [PM, On Intention]
Art: Art in the broadest sense is the crystallization of archetypal values. [THC, To Have
a Center]
Art is the quest for – and the revelation of – the center, within us as well as around us.
[THC, To Have a Center]
Art is an activity, an exteriorization, and thus depends by definition on a knowledge that
transcends it and gives it order; apart from such knowledge, art has no justification: it is
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