The Legacy of Henry Corbin: Homage to Henry Corbin

"...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.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Homage to Henry Corbin

This blog devoted to Henry Corbin will be one year old on June 17. Today the site received its 10,000th visit (and 18,996th page view). This visitor from Sweden was referred to the page from Bosnak's All in the Mind interview on the Australian Broadcasting network, which underscores the wide range of Corbin's reach. The blog now averages between 50 & 60 visits a day. Although a large percentage of the visits are from a small number of regular visitors, and many more are from people who are searching images, it is still gratifying to think that the effort to make Corbin's work more widely known has been to some degree successful and continues to be worthwhile. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the site. I hope that more contributions and suggestions from all with an interest in Corbin's work will follow. - tc (tcheetham@gmail.com)