The Legacy of Henry Corbin: William Chittick at academy.edu

"...the Imagination (or love, or sympathy, or any other sentiment) induces knowledge, and knowledge of an 'object' which is proper to it..."

Henry Corbin (1903-1978) was a scholar, philosopher and theologian. He was a champion of the transformative power of the Imagination and of the transcendent reality of the individual in a world threatened by totalitarianisms of all kinds. One of the 20th century’s most prolific scholars of Islamic mysticism, Corbin was Professor of Islam & Islamic Philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris and at the University of Teheran. He was a major figure at the Eranos Conferences in Switzerland. He introduced the concept of the mundus imaginalis into contemporary thought. His work has provided a foundation for archetypal psychology as developed by James Hillman and influenced countless poets and artists worldwide. But Corbin’s central project was to provide a framework for understanding the unity of the religions of the Book: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. His great work Alone with the Alone: Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn ‘Arabi is a classic initiatory text of visionary spirituality that transcends the tragic divisions among the three great monotheisms. Corbin’s life was devoted to the struggle to free the religious imagination from fundamentalisms of every kind. His work marks a watershed in our understanding of the religions of the West and makes a profound contribution to the study of the place of the imagination in human life.

Monday, June 23, 2014

William Chittick at academy.edu

This from Mohammed Rustom:

Here is a link to Professor Chittick's academia.edu page. It gives full access to all of his articles published to date. Most of them are up there now, and few dozen more will be added in upcoming weeks. There are also some translations of his articles available here, as well as several of his interviews:

http://sunysb.academia.edu/WilliamCChittick

If you do not have an academia.edu account, you'll need to create one (free of charge) in order to download the articles (although without an account you can still view most of them). Having an academia.edu account also gives access to the works of many other scholars in Islamic Studies (and various other disciplines).