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On Corbin & Interreligious Dialogue

Some reflections on existence and imagination in relation to interreligious dialogue and intercultural philosophy of religion

(available from the publisher here)

Jesper Garsdal

VIA University College, Department of Teacher Education, Aarhus, Denmark

Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations (2012), 23:3, 257-266

ABSTRACT: This article discusses notions of philosophical grammar, existence, imagination and reason in light of religious plurality in modernity and intercultural philosophy of religion. More specifically the first part of the article presents a model that aims to combine a central modern human experience – that there is a plurality of religious and non-religious ‘nonreducible’ ontologies and existential interpretations of them – with an awareness of the possibility of non-reductionist dialogical existential inter-subjectivity, specifically in relation to ontology, philosophy and religion. The second part of the article discusses briefly the definition of modernity as a global condition, and argues that the plurality of worldviews and a Kantian inspired focus on the individual’s courage to use his or her own reason should be seen as central aspects of worldviews in modernity, but without the need necessarily to follow Kant’s ‘universalistic’ approach to individuality. The third part of the article presents some views on ‘existence’ and ‘essence’ and how these notions are related
in various ways to notions of imagination in some parts of the Muslim philosophical tradition. The fourth part of the article returns to the issue of how to conceive of what it means to be individual and the relation between the individual, communal reality and ontology.

(Thanks to Daniel Proulx for this.)

The New Eye

The New Eye – Visionary Art and Tradition

by Erik Davis

(references to Corbun & mundus imaginalis)

(thanks to Felix King for this)

Rexroth & Corbin

Suchness

In the theosophy of light,
The logical universal
Ceases to be anything more
Than the dead body of an angel.
What is substance? Our substance
Is whatever we feed our angel.
The perfect incense for worship
Is camphor, whose flames leave no ashes.

from Love is an Art of Time (1974)
in The Complete Poems of Kenneth Rexroth, 702


"In [Suhrawardi’s] theosophy of Light, the entire Platonic theory of Ideas is interpreted in terms of Zoroastrian angelology.… What Aristotelianism considers as the concept of a species, the logical universal, ceases to be anything more than the dead body of an Angel." - Corbin, Creative Imagination, 22. In English, 1969.

Rexroth Reading with music from Rexroth & Barecelona by the Bay

Ideas, with Paul Kennedy: The Red Book

The Red Book - Two Part Radio Program
(2 Hours)

Blake & the Visionary Recital

Peter O'Leary discusses William Blake and Henry Corbin in 

BLAKE 

at The Cultural Society

William Blake - 

photo of a life mask made in 1823

Joanna Kane from Somnambulists

"The recovery of occulted meaning"

Regular readers will recall this earlier post on Corbin, Robert Duncan and H.D. I strongly recommend the interview with Michael Boughn, co-editor of The HD Book on, Cross-Cultural Poetics Episode 234, that can be had via mp3 here.

Suhrawardi, Walbridge, Azal

THE DEVOTIONAL AND OCCULT WORKS OF SUHRAWARDĪ THE ILLUMINATIONIST

by John Walbridge

some commentary & critique by N. Wahid Azal

L'Herne - Henry Corbin

Publiés à L'Herne :

Cahier Henry Corbin

Le Paradoxe du Monothéisme (Essais)

Le Livre des sept Statues (Essais)

L'Imam Caché (Essais)


ici!

En Islam Iranien

Henry Corbin présente en 1973 son entreprise monumentale, En islam iranien, aujourd'hui disponible en quatre tomes au format poche, dans la collection Tel de Gallimard.

Thanks again to Aymeric Chaïb

Martha Nussbaum on Religious Intolerance

The New Religious Intolerance

Overcoming the Politics of Fear in an Anxious Age

Martha C. Nussbaum

from the publisher: "What impulse prompted some newspapers to attribute the murder of 77 Norwegians to Islamic extremists, until it became evident that a right-wing Norwegian terrorist was the perpetrator? Why did Switzerland, a country of four minarets, vote to ban those structures? How did a proposed Muslim cultural center in lower Manhattan ignite a fevered political debate across the United States? In The New Religious Intolerance, Martha C. Nussbaum surveys such developments and identifies the fear behind these reactions. Drawing inspiration from philosophy, history, and literature, she suggests a route past this limiting response and toward a more equitable, imaginative, and free society.

Fear, Nussbaum writes, is “more narcissistic than other emotions.” Legitimate anxieties become distorted and displaced, driving laws and policies biased against those different from us. Overcoming intolerance requires consistent application of universal principles of respect for conscience. Just as important, it requires greater understanding. Nussbaum challenges us to embrace freedom of religious observance for all, extending to others what we demand for ourselves. She encourages us to expand our capacity for empathetic imagination by cultivating our curiosity, seeking friendship across religious lines, and establishing a consistent ethic of decency and civility. With this greater understanding and respect, Nussbaum argues, we can rise above the politics of fear and toward a more open and inclusive future."

Hear an interview with Nussbaum here.

Catharisme et manichéisme par Henry Corbin

Henry Corbin évoque le catharisme et le manichéisme, notamment à travers l'hérésiographie islamique et en rapport avec le soufisme, dans cet extrait d'une radiodiffusion d'avril 1962.


Thanks to Aymeric Chaïb for this.

Bulletin IISMM Juin 2012

Bulletin Juin IISMM

Rare Audio of Gershom Scholem

"In this 1975 lecture at Boston College the preeminent scholar in Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem speaks of the Kabbalistic doctrine of the tselem, the astral body. The word “tselem” first appears in Genesis 1:26 when God creates man and says “let us make man in our image (tselem) and in our likeness.” In Hebrew “tselem” means “plastic image” and describes the individual essence of each human being. It constitutes an independent entity mediating between body and spirit. In mystical experience, the tselem could manifest as the perception of one’s own double, which revealed the deepest spiritual essence within man. Professor Scholem retraces the historical development of the doctrine of the tselem in Jewish mysticism and tells us how it is related to the principle of individuation in man."

& some useful commentary here.