The Need For a Sacred Science

The very term ‘sacred science’ may appear contradictory to those for whom ‘science’ is identified with that particular mode of knowledge which has come to monopolize almost completely the term science since the seventeenth century in the West. Science, thus understood, has by definition nothing to do with the sacred, a term which is meaningless in its worldview, while what is called sacred, to the extent that this category still possesses meaning in the contemporary world, seems to have little to do with science. Even if the term sacred science is used from time to time, it is in relation to ancient civilizations and bygone days. It appears, therefore, even more strange that one should speak of the need for a sacred science in a world where not everyone understands what is meant by sacred science and fewer still are aware of its absence and therefore have a conscious sense of need for such a science. And yet there does in reality exist a profound need for a sacred science in a world which, having lost such a science, is groping in the dark for many false substitutes and also suffers grievously from the lack of such a science even if it remains unaware of the causes for this suffering.