Concept
Scientia sacra
Overview
In perennial philosophy, scientia sacra or sacred science is a form of spiritual knowledge that lies at the heart of divine revelations and traditional sciences, embodying the essential core of every sacred tradition. It recognizes sources of knowledge beyond those accepted by modern epistemology, such as divine revelations and intellectual intuition. Intellectual intuition is believed to allow access to an innate knowledge of God, which is to be reawakened through the use of human intellect. The principles and doctrines of scientia sacra are derived from reason, revelation, and intellectual intuition, with the conviction that these sources of knowledge can be reconciled in a hierarchical order, and applied in the human quest to understand different orders of reality. Its objective is to show how the transmitted, intellectual, and physical sciences are related and unified within the framework of metaphysics, as traditionally defined.
According to this perspective, scientia sacra is synonymous with metaphysics, which is seen not as a branch of philosophy but rather what the Sufis call ma'rifa or gnostic knowledge—the ultimate goal of which is the knowledge of "the Real". It is based on a holistic and hierarchical view of reality that emphasizes the connections between the various levels and states of being. This viewpoint holds that God, the Principle or the One, is the Ultimate Reality—who is absolute, eternal, infinite, and necessary but whose knowledge lies beyond the reach of sense perception and reason. According to the doctrines of scientia sacra, the universe is not a separate reality, but rather only a "manifestation and theophany" of the "Divine Essence", which is essentially the source and center of all other realities.
The notion of scientia sacra may be traced back to Islamic intellectual tradition, particularly the ideas of Ibn Arabi and Suhrawardi. This was further explored in modern times by the French metaphysician René Guénon and others, including Frithjof Schuon and Titus Burckhardt. However, the concept was most notably conceptualized in contemporary language by the Iranian philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr in his 1981 Gifford Lectures, published in the same year as Knowledge and the Sacred. He elaborated further on the concept of sacred science in his 1993 book The Need for a Sacred Science.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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The higher life which belongs to this sphere, this supreme enjoyment of truth, which as feeling is called "blessedness," and as conscious thought "contemplation," we may describe generically as the life known to religion. For religion is just this universal domain[184], in virtue of which the _one_ concrete totality of the World comes to each man in union with himself, as his essential substance, while it remains no…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 1
States what Scientia sacra is.
There is only one way in which one person can benefit another; and that is by assigning to him his proper nurture and motion. To the motions of the soul answer the motions of the universe, and by the study of these the individual is restored to his original nature.
Plato, Timaeus
The author is tied to Scientia sacra in the knowledge graph.
Therefore they are called "intellectual beings": because even with ourselves the things which are instantly grasped by the mind are said to be understood [intelligi]; hence "intellect" is defined as the habit of first principles. But human souls which acquire knowledge of truth by the discursive method are called "rational"; and this comes of the feebleness of their intellectual light. For if they possessed the…
Aquinas Thomas, Summa Theologica, Part I
States what Scientia sacra is.
Philosophers who discussed Scientia sacra
Related ideas
- Telos
- Hungary
- The Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Philosophy
- Iran
- Intuition
- Islamic philosophy
- Seyyed Hossein Nasr
- Cosmology
- Metaphysics
- Medicine
- Tawhid
- Perennial philosophy
- Ibn Arabi
- Infinity
- Absolute (philosophy)
- Ontology
- Plato
- Neoplatonism
- Titus Burckhardt
- Revelation
- Henry Corbin
- Sufism
- Spirituality
Place in the tradition
Part of Contemporary Islamic philosophy.