Cover; About This Book; Series Page; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; List of Color Illustrations; List of Black-and-White Illustrations; List of Abbreviations; Foreword; Introduction; Prologue -- A Fateful Meeting of Minds: A.K. Coomaraswamy and R. Guénon; 1. A Figure of Speech or a Figure of Thought?; 2. The Bugbear of Literacy; 3. On the Pertinence of Philosophy; 4. Eastern Wisdom and Western Knowledge; 5. Beauty and Truth; 6. The Interpretation of Symbols; 7. Why Exhibit Works of Art?; 8. The Christian and Oriental, or True, Philosophy of Art.;A new collection of essays by the great traditionalist/perennialist Ananda K. Coomaraswamy. This collection has been edited by his son, Rama Coomaraswamy, who is well known for his writings on the Christian tradition. The Essential Ananda K. Coomaraswamy contains 21 essays on topics reflecting the vast scope of Coomaraswamy's intellect, including those topics with which he is most associated, such as symbolism, Eastern vs. Western thinking, mythology, literature, metaphysics, traditional art, folklore, and even more.