Editing Seyyed Hossein Nasr (section)

====Exoterism and esoterism====

Nasr says that every integral religion "possesses at once an external or exoteric dimension" and "an inner or esoteric dimension". The first is "concerned with the external and formal aspect of human life" with a view to the posthumous salvation of those "who follow the precepts" of their religion and who "have faith in its truths". The second concerns "the formless and the essential" with a view to the realization of "the Supreme Essence, here and now".{{sfn|The Need for a Sacred Science|1993 |p=30}}

These two dimensions unfold in "a hierarchy of levels from the most outward to the most inward which is the Supreme Center".{{sfn|The Need for a Sacred Science|1993 |p=30}} Nasr thus distinguishes three modes of "approaching ultimate Reality": "the ways of work, love and knowledge", which correspond to as many predispositions of human nature. The most interiorizing paths integrate those which are less so, but the latter, not necessarily possessing the capacity "to understand what is beyond them", sometimes become the causes of "tensions" within the same religion. Nasr adds that "all human beings can be saved if only they follow religion according to their own nature and vocation".{{sfn|The Need for a Sacred Science|1993 |p=31}} And he warns "on the social level, on the level of human action, the barriers and conditions established by the exoteric dimension of the religion should not be transgressed", including by those who "follow the path of esoterism, the inward or mystical path".{{sfn|Jahanbegloo|2010 |p=173}}{{sfn|Knowledge and the Sacred|1989 |p=274}}

Since there are "questions that exoterism cannot answer," it is important "for religion to keep alive the reality and the significance of esoterism for people who have the capability and need to understand the inner or esoteric dimension of the tradition".{{sfn|Jahanbegloo|2010 |p=174}}  This is what Islam, for example, continues to accomplish today with its inner dimension, Sufism, which remains a living tradition.{{sfn|The Garden of Truth|2008 |p=189-190}} On the other hand,

{{blockquote|what happened in Christianity, which is a great tragedy, I believe, for both Christianity and Western civilization, and in fact for the rest of the world, is that after the Renaissance, gradually a wall was created, and Western Christianity's inner dimension became more or less inaccessible and to a large extent eclipsed. It is not accidental that during the last two or three hundred years, Christianity has not produced figures such as a Meister Eckhart, Tauler, or Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, and we could go down the list of hundreds of earlier great saints and mystics. [...] today so many people of Christian background look to Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism for the inner dimension of religion.{{sfn|Jahanbegloo|2010|p=173}} <small>(interview)</small>}}