Professor James Cutsinger, the department's resident theologian-perennialist, has completed editing the first volume of Essential Works of Frithjof Schuon, The Fullness of God, set to come out in the spring of 2004. In a thoroughly revised translation from the original French. the volume features selections from Schuon's letters, autobiographical memoirs, and spiritual writings.
Cutsinger has long been drawn to the perennialist perspective enunciated early in the last century by Rene Guenon and Ananda Coomarasawamy. The religio perennis holds that every religion has besides its literal meaning an esoteric dimension, which is essential, primordial and universal. This intellectual universality is one of the hallmarks of Schuon's works, giving rise to fascinating insights into history, science, and art, as well as the spiritual traditions.
In addition to his work on the Swiss philosopher Frithjof Schuon, Cutsinger has also edited Not of This World, A Treasury of Christian Mysticism (World Wisdom, 2003). He describes the anthology as "a basis of ecumenical dialogue through methods of contemplation and prayer." Louis Dupre of Yale University adds that it is a "well-chosen collection of excerpts from spiritual writings in the Catholic, Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox traditions…This imaginative chrestomathy must be highly recommended for its successful attempt to render Christian piety of past ages a living source of contemporary inspiration."
Cutsinger's has edited Paths to the Heart: Sufism and the Christian East (World Wisdom, 2002) which includes his article "Hesychia: An Orthodox Opening to Esoteric Ecumenism" (also appearing in Serbo-Croatian in Bosnia Franciscana[2002]).
On the teaching front, Cutsinger remains actively involved in the Great Books honors courses that he devised. An adept in the Socratic method of dialoguing, he creates a classroom in which students can and do talk "passionately about enduring issues" in the works, for example, of Plato, Aristotle and Dante.
