"...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

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Coming in Spring 2015



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IMAGINAL LOVE
The Meanings of Imagination
in Henry Corbin and James Hillman

by
Tom Cheetham

Spring Publications
Spring 2015

The final volume in the Henry Corbin Quintet

Cheetham’s book is a jewel that returns us to the “wild energies of creation” through his lucid and passionate dedication to the necessity of imagination for soul. His book offers the essence of these thinkers as alchemical transformers of being in the anima mundi. Imaginal Love returns psyche to cosmos: as organ of imag(e)inging where we embody the angels. - Susan Rowland Ph.D. Pacifica Graduate Institute. Author of Jung as a Writer (Routledge, 2005) and The Ecocritical Psyche: Literature, Evolution, Complexity and Jung, (Routledge, 2012) 

Tom Cheetham shows the heights that independent scholars outside academia can achieve. His prior work has virtually defined independent scholarship on Henry Corbin. In Imaginal Love, he has turned his gifts to "the meanings of imagination in James Hillman and Henry Corbin." The result is a powerful contribution to our understanding of the full meaning of imaginal love -- and the central role of such love in human life. - Michael Lerner, President, Commonweal.

I will not forget this book. It has subtly but, I suspect, permanently shifted the way I look at reality, the way I listen to language. - Cynthia Bourgeault, retreat leader and writer, author of The Wisdom Way of KnowingThe Holy Trinity and the Law of Three, and Mystical Hope.


Monday, June 23, 2014

Exclusionary Philosophy


This great little essay is worth noting by all readers of this blog. 


It reminds me of Castoriadis' attempt (not unrelated I think) to include the imagination in philosophy:

"[P]hilosophers almost always start by saying: “I want to see what being is, what reality is. Now, here is a table; what does this table show to me as characteristic of a real being?” No philosopher ever started by saying: “I want to see what being is, what reality is. Now, here is my memory of my dream of last night; what does this show me as characteristic of a real being?” No philosopher ever starts by saying “Let the Requiem of Mozart be a paradigm of being”, and seeing in the physical world a deficient mode of being..."

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:


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).

Monday, June 9, 2014

Mohammed Rustom on Philosophical Sufism



At History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps HERE.
A very nice resource!