Mateus Soares de Azevedo

Mateus Soares de Azevedo (born 24 January 1959) is a Brazilian writer. He has published books, essays and articles on the perennial philosophy and the mystical and esoteric themes within Christianity and Islam.

Life

Mateus Soares de Azevedo was born in Belo Horizonte in 1959 and spent his early childhood there. In São Paulo – where he now lives – he studied modern languages at the University of São Paulo, and journalism at the Pontifical Catholic University of that same city. He also studied international relations at George Washington University, USA, and obtained a master's in history of religions from the University of São Paulo.

His profession as a writer, journalist, editor and translator

He also published many essays on those subjects in Brazilian newspapers and magazines including O Estado de S. Paulo, Folha de S.Paulo and O Globo. Some of them have been translated into English, French, Spanish, and Italian, and published in spirituality- and ideas-oriented publications including Sophia (USA), Sacred Web (Canada), (Switzerland) and Ultreia (France). He is also the translator into Portuguese of Frithjof Schuon, a Swiss metaphysician of the perennialist school, of Martin Lings, William Stoddart, C.S. Lewis and others.

Men of a Single Book: Fundamentalism in Islam, Christianity and Modern Thought was described in the magazine Parabola as an analysis of what Azevedo calls "secular fundamentalism", in which he includes "Marxism, Freudian psychoanalysis, Jungian analytical psychology and science fundamentalism"; these, according to Azevedo, have significantly shaped the contemporary mindset. The book also discusses religious militant fundamentalism, as well as anti-religious fundamentalism, characterized by atheist writers such as Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris.

Publications Selected books Alchemy of Love: Sexuality & the Spiritual Life, Sophia Perennis, 2020, Men of a Single Book: Fundamentalism in Islam, Christianity and Modern Thought, World Wisdom, 2010, (pt) Ordens Sufis no Islã: Iniciação às confrarias esotéricas muçulmanas no Irã xiita e no mundo sunita, Polar, 2020, (pt) O Livro dos Mestres, Ibrasa, 2016, (pt) A Inteligência da Fé: Cristianismo, Islã e Judaísmo, Record/Nova Era, 2006,

Selected articles and essays "Short answer to three militant atheists" "Frithjof Schuon & Sri Ramana Maharshi: a survey of the spiritual masters of the 20th Century" (pt) "A Ideologia do Estado Islâmico" (pt) "Outros Islãs" (pt) "Francisco 1 e a mitologia do concílio Vaticano 2" (pt) "Vaticano 2° se encerra com um dos seus ideólogos" (pt) "O Sermão da Montanha segundo a Filosofia Perene"

Selected translations into Portuguese Cartas do diabo ao seu aprendiz, C. S. Lewis. Para Compreender o Islão, Frithjof Schuon. A Arte Sagrada de Shakespeare, Martin Lings. O Sufismo, William Stoddart.