The Legacy of Henry Corbin: Theopoetics - Corbin & Gaston Bachelard

"...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.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Theopoetics - Corbin & Gaston Bachelard

David L. Miller has written a wonderful short essay in which he discusses, among other things, the relation between Corbin and Gaston Bachelard. I urge everyone with an interest in Corbin to read "The Body is No Body," in Boesel, Chris, and Catherine Keller. Apophatic Bodies: Negative Theology, Incarnation, and Relationality. New York: Fordham University Press, 2009. This chapter, and indeed perhaps much of this volume, is important reading for those with an interest in Corbin and contemporary theology.

1 comment:

CallidFebruary 4, 2010 at 6:17 PM
Glad to see your theopoetics post. Much appreciated. If you are interested in that content, you might also be interested in the work I do over on http://theopoetics.net . It is all based on the idea that our expression of the Divine can change our experience of the Divine.

All Good Things,

Callid Keefe-Perry
ReplyDelete
Replies