What is the basis and purpose of esoteric religion, and what is the self? Self and Spirit answers these questions in depth and in a way true to the spirit of traditional wisdom. This latest book by Robert Bolton illuminates from a new angle the non-dualistic conceptions that have become influential through the work of many modern traditionalist and perennialist authors. For Bolton, a practicing Catholic, gnostic ideas usually taken to support pantheistic religion are shown to be able to provide a foundation for belief in a personal God. Religion is not forced into a preconceived system, because no attempt is made to evaluate all religious doctrines by the standard of one doctrine. Instead, certain profound ideas common to many traditions are invoked, these ideas being of a kind that cannot be identified with any one confessional origin. This in turn sheds new light on the dividing-line between the esoteric and the exoteric, allowing these ideas to combine in ways that are natural and free. The key to this new departure is the true nature of the individual self, a subject largely ignored by non-dualist thought. Here it is given its full weight, however, and its impact on all other realities is made clear. The relation of the self to its world is also here connected significantly to the cosmic role of religion, illustrating how a conversion from worldly to spiritual priorities can have consequences far beyond the personal concerns of those involved. Throughout, Bolton’s thinking is daring, yet true to traditional spirituality.
Praise
“Christian Platonism has a long and distinguished history, but few orthodox Catholics have tried to make a serious contribution to this tradition in recent times. Robert Bolton’s extraordinary books are just such a contribution. This is a work of great creativity as well as metaphysical intelligence.”—Stratford Caldecott, Chesterton Review, Centre for Faith & Culture, Oxford
“How should we think, believe, and conduct ourselves? Where is firm ground? Or should we rather ask, like Socrates, what are the best possible myths to live by? All that can honestly be given in response to such questions is an introduction to that constant and recurrent worldview that this book uniquely provides.”—John Michell, author of Trivium, The Dimensions of Paradise, etc.
“A perennial concern for reflective beings is fathoming who we really are. This enigma has now taken on a greater urgency, given the rampant confusion that prevails in our age. Across the spiritual patrimonies of the world there have always been teachings and transformative practices that provide existentially compelling answers to this question. By means of traditional metaphysics we can come to see the primordial nature that sustains our true identity, and discern what an authentic existence looks like according to a wisdom that is timeless and universal. Robert Bolton’s invaluable work is critical in the quest to understand our complex human condition in light of the sacred.”—Samuel Bendeck Sotillos, PsyD, LMFT, LPCC, practicing psychotherapist, author ofThe Quest For Who We Are: Modern Psychology and the Sacred
About the Author
Robert Bolton was educated in the sciences and developed a strong interest in traditional metaphysics, obtaining from Exeter University the degrees of M.Phil and Ph.D. He is the author of The Order of the Ages: The Hidden Laws of World History, The Logic of Spiritual Values, Self and Spirit, The One and the Many: A Defense of Theistic Religion, Foundations of Free Will, and Person, Soul, and Identity: Philosophy and the Real Self. All these books are written from the point of view of traditional wisdom, and not tradition for its own sake—for in a world where wisdom is disregarded in favor of power, this point of view keeps all of its relevance. Bolton also contributed regularly to the journal Sacred Web, in which unfolded epistolary exchanges with traditionalist author Charles Upton that may be found in the latter’s book, Knowings in the Arts of Metaphysics, Cosmology, and the Spiritual Path. Bolton was a member of the Church of England until the 1960s, when, having observed how willingly that Church was accepting the changes demanded by modern secularism, he converted to the Catholic Church, and to the reality of sacred tradition, which gave him the confidence to write the kind of philosophy he believed the modern world sorely needed. Well-known author Stratford Caldecott credits his first steps toward conversion to Catholicism to Robert Bolton.
