"...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.

Search The Legacy of Henry Corbin: Over 800 Posts

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Eranos: An Alternative Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century



Hakl, Hans Thomas.
Sheffield: Equinox, 2013

"This is the most balanced and well-informed history of the Eranos Conferences where, once a year, some of the most provocative thinkers of the world gathered to discuss the most pressing issues of the times: religious symbolism, the nature of spirit, art and creativity, utopia, language, norms in a changing world, pluralism ... Eranos represents an important counterpart to the dominant spiritual and intellectual history of the twentieth century precisely because it encouraged thinking and living at the radical edge." David L. Miller, Syracuse University

Gemistos Plethon



Platonism in Late Byzantium, between Hellenism and Orthodoxy

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Advance Notice of an Important Publication



ERANOS—ITS MAGICAL PAST AND ALLURING FUTURE: 
THE SPIRIT OF A WONDROUS PLACE
Spring: A Journal of Archetype and Culture, Vol. 92

Publication Date: Winter 2014

Editor-in-Chief, Nancy Cater, J.D., Ph.D. 
Guest Editor: Riccardo Bernardini, Scientific Secretary, Eranos Foundation

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

On Platonic Theology


The Rebirth of Platonic Theology: Proceedings of the Conference Held at the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies (Villa I Tatti) and the Istitutio Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento (Florence, 26-27 April 2007) for J. B. Michael Allen, ed. James Hankins and Fabrizio Meroi (Firenze: Olschki, 2013)



The Rebirth of Platonic Theology: Proceedings of the Conference Held at the Harvard University Center for I... by Tom Cheetham

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Conférences publiques 2014
"Liberté et contrainte dans les sociétés musulmanes"


Christian Jambet, directeur d’études, EPHE
La liberté spirituelle en islam et l’interprétation de “Pas de contrainte en  religion”

Mardi 7 janvier 2014
18h-20h

Amphithéâtre François Furet, 105 bd Raspail, 75006 Paris (M° Saint-Placide ou Notre-Dame-des-champs)
Entrée libre

Dans l’esprit et la lettre des théologies majoritaires en islam, la liberté de l’homme est inséparable de la Loi et du décret divin. On montrera que les formes de la liberté consistent non à s’abstraire de l’ordre divin intégral, mais à se rendre, en quelque façon, semblable à Celui qui l’instaure, par une démarche intérieure et spirituelle. On prendra l’exemple de l’interprétation de la phrase fameuse, présente dans le Coran (2, 256), “Pas de contrainte en religion”, par le grand philosophe Mullâ Sadrâ, et l’on s’interrogera sur le sens, pour le destin de l’islam, de la distinction entre une liberté intérieure, perfection de l’âme, et une liberté extérieure à la Loi, jugée illicite ou illusoire.

Modérateur : Bernard Heyberger, directeur d’études EHESS, directeur de l’IISMM-EHESS