Humanities and Social Sciences

Philosophy and Religious Studies

Staff Directory

Teaching Responsibilities

• Introducing Religious Studies
• Philosophy of Religion
• Eastern Religion and Philosophy
• The Modern Era
• The Humanities in a Scientific Age
• World Cinema
• American Cinema

Research Interests

The traditionalist school of perennialism (Guénon, Coomaraswamy, Schuon et al); critiques of modernity; the Western encounter with Eastern religious traditions; religion and the environmental debate; primal and indigenous religions (particularly the Plains Indians of North America); classical Hollywood cinema (especially the Western and film noir).

Recent Publications

Books

• Traditionalism: Religion in the light of the Perennial Philosophy (Colombo: Sri Lanka Institute of Traditional Studies, 2000)
• Journeys East: Western Encounters with Eastern Religious Traditions (Bloomington: World Wisdom, 2004)
• (edited), The Betrayal of Tradition: Essays on the Spiritual Crisis of Modernity (Bloomington: World Wisdom, 2005)
• (edited) Light from the East: Eastern Wisdom for the Modern West (Bloomington, World Wisdom, 2007)
• Abhishiktananda: A Christian Pilgrim in India (Bloomington, World Wisdom, 2008)
• Mediations: Essays on Religious Pluralism and the Perenial Philosophy (San Raphael, CA, Sophia Perennis, 2008)

Refereed Articles

• 'In Search of Secret Tibet', Esoterica, 2000 (electronic journal) State University of Michigan.
• 'Jules Monchanin, Henri Le Saux/Abhishiktananda and the Hindu-Christian Encounter', Australian Religion Studies Review, 17:2.
• 'Debating Orientalism', Australian Religion Studies Review, 18:2, 2005.
• 'The Comparative Study of Eastern and Western Metahpysics: A Perennialist Perspective' Sophia (Melbourne), 2007

Book Chapters

• 'Globalization and the Convergence of Religions' in C.M. Cusack & P.R. Oldmeadow (eds), The End of Religion? Religion in an Age of Globalization, Sydney University, 2001.
• 'Melodies de l’au-dela: Perspective schuonienne sur la religion des aborigènes d’Australie' in P.Laude (ed), Dossier H Frithjof Schuon, Paris: Connaissance des religions, 2002. (English translation)
• 'The Firmament Sheweth His Handiwork: Reawakening a Religious Sense of the Natural Order', in Barry McDonald (ed), Seeing God Everywhere: Essays on Nature and the Sacred, Bloomington: World Wisdom, 2003.
• 'The Heart of the Religio Perennis: Frithjof Schuon on Esotericism', in Edward Crangle (ed), Esotericism and the Control of Knowledge, Sydney University, 2004.

Editorial Positions

• Editorial Board, Australian Religion Studies Review (Sydney)
• Editorial Board, The Eye of the Heart (E-Journal, Bendigo)
• Editorial Advisor, Metro: Film/Television/Radio/Multimedia (Melbourne)
• Editorial Consultant, World Wisdom Publishers, Bloomington, Indiana

Biography
Harry Oldmeadow was born in Melbourne in 1947. His parents were Christian missionaries in India, where he spent nine years of his childhood and developed an early interest in the civilisations of the East. He studied history, politics and literature at the Australian National University, and after further studies at the University of Sydney he worked as a history tutor at La Trobe University in Melbourne. In 1971 a Commonwealth Overseas Research Scholarship led to further studies at Oxford University, followed by extensive travel in Europe and North Africa. In 1981 he completed a dissertation on Frithjof Schuon and the Traditionalist movement for a MA in Religious Studies at the University of Sydney. This study was awarded the University of Sydney Medal for excellence in research, and was eventually published by the Sri Lanka Institute of Traditional Studies as Traditionalism: Religion in the light of the Perennial Philosophy (Colombo, 2000). Under the auspices of this Institute, in 1990 Harry delivered the Inaugural Ananda Coomaraswamy Memorial Lecture, in Colombo, on ‘The Religious Tradition of the Australian Aborigines’. In 1995 he completed a doctorate in Cinema Studies at La Trobe University. He was the joint-recipient of the 2004 La Trobe University Bendigo Research Award for Journeys East, a work acclaimed by Huston Smith as ‘the most comprehensive, engaging, and responsible treatment of the advent of Asian thought to the West that has ever been written’.
Over the last decade Harry has published extensively in such journals as Sacred Web (Vancouver), Sophia: Journal of Traditional Studies (Washington DC), Asian Philosophy (Nottingham, UK), Vincit Omnia Veritas (e-journal), Australian Religion Studies Review (Sydney) and Sophia: Journal of Philosophy of Religion, Metaphysical Theology and Ethics (Melbourne). Late in 2001, he was a key speaker at a large inter-faith gathering in Sydney, organised by the Australian Centre for Sufism; the theme of the meeting was the need for inter-religious understanding in the wake of September 11. In 2006 he was one of the principal speakers at a conference on ‘Tradition and Modernity’, in Edmonton, Canada.
Harry lives with his wife on a small property in Mandurang, just south of Bendigo. His interests and addictions include reading, travel (especially to India and Nepal), bushwalking, photography and the Collingwood Football Club.