Postmodern Perennialist
My name is Jonathan Culbreath. I am a Roman Catholic and a graduate of Thomas Aquinas College (’17), and I have obtained a graduate degree in philosophy with the University of Leuven, in Belgium. I currently live in the U.S. with my wife and two young sons. As an independent scholar, I dabble variously in the study of philosophy, theology, mysticism, political science, economics, and history of religion. This newsletter will contain some of my original writings, as well as occasional updates about my other publications around the web.
The original “about” page featured the following paragraph:
The title is meant to convey a dual commitment to tradition and progress. There is an implicit philosophy of time in this commitment, which rejects the standard linear conception of time that defines, among other things, the accepted poles of political ideology in modernity. I reject these poles, and instead embrace a philosophy of history that is forward-looking and rooted in an immemorial tradition at the same time. That philosophy is inextricable from a rigorous conception of the spiritual dimension of human nature as well as the material conditions in which that nature is necessarily embodied in history. Postmodern perennialism seeks to transcend modernity in both directions: through tradition and through progress. In particular, it seeks to utilize the instruments of progress in the service of keeping alive and even reawakening the deepest aspirations of humankind, which at their summit are inescapably mystical in nature.
I am still basically committed to this original mission statement. My “ideology” would be impossible to place squarely along any spectrum which purports to measure ideological radicalisms. But as the title of my blog might suggest, you’ll find here many reflections inspired by the deep traditions of human wisdom that have been incubated in both the East and the West, as well as many reflections inspired by the revolutionary currents of late and post-modernity. Somehow (perhaps with some still unresolved contradictions), I manage to be both a staunch traditionalist and a committed student of Marxist theory.
However, the scope of this blog (as frequently happens to me) has considerably exceeded even what was stated in the above paragraph. You will find here many reflections on metaphysics and mysticism and their interrelation, and perhaps fewer reflections on politics, history, and the history of ideas than you might have expected. Similarly, you’ll find less polemical engagement with the very categories of “traditionalist,” “progressive,” “reactionary,” “revolutionary,” “Right,” “Left,” and so forth (whether in politics or in cultural criticism or ideas more generally) than you’ll expect, given the title of the blog. While those latter reflections do indeed spell out essential elements of my philosophical theory, they tend to be more publishable at professional publications, and so appear less often here. Accordingly, the natural trend of things has reserved this space for the more esoteric and metaphysical reflections that a popular audience is less likely to be inclined to pay money to read.
All this being said, the trend of thought evolves almost independently of any individual thinker’s intentions. I could certainly not have predicted or planned the route by which my mind has been led over many years. So I must simply advise my readers not to expect any particularly coherent “theme” for this blog. I will write what I am moved to write.
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