News from Egil Asprem

From HETERODOXOLOGY:

Problem of Disenchantment in paperback

Soon with a new cover – and nicer price tag.

Today I have signed a contract for the paperback version of my second book, The Problem of Disenchantment: Scientific Naturalism and Esoteric Discourse, 1900–1939. With a list price of $240, the hardback (Brill, 2014) hasn’t exactly been a coffee table book. (Content-wise it probably still isn’t.) The paperback will appear with SUNY Press (who also published my first book, Arguing with Angels), and hopefully we can cut the price close to 1/10th of the existing edition. Publication date still to follow.

Why should one eagerly await this book? If you don’t trust the blurb, there have been a few reviews that tell you why. There has also been a roundtable discussion, and even some controversy. That can’t hurt, right?

Corbin in Bulgarian

With ABWA's collaboration

'The Absent Imam' published in Bulgarian

February 26, 2017 - 1:24 PMhttp://www.abna.cc/7wHc

• News Code : 814210
• Source : ABNA24 Exclusive

In collaboration with Ahlul Bayt World Assembly and Islamic culture and relations, the book "Imaam Qaaeb" (The Absent Imam) was translated and published in Bulgarian language.

According to Ahlul Bayt News Agency – ABNA – with the efforts of Ahlul Bayt World Assembly’s department of international affairs and cultural consultation of Islamic republic of Iran in Bulgaria, the book "Imaam Qaaeb" (The Absent Imam) by Henry Corbin was translated and published.

Professor Wolinbolf is the translator of this book who translated it from French to Bulgarian and organized it in 10 volumes and 273 pages.

The book, which contains the studies and discoveries of a famous French Iran expert and Islamic scholar about Imam Mahdi, was cited by western researchers and scholars as a philosophical and religious work.... READ MORE

TC - I think this must be this French volume:

L’Imâm caché (comprenant les textes d’Henry Corbin publiés dans le Cahier de l’Herne, 1981-4). Paris, L’Herne, 2003.

New MA in Myth & Ecology at Schumacher College

MA Myth and Ecology – The Mundus Imaginalis

An invitation

The most powerful way to effect change in this world is to address the one that underpins it
– The Mundus Imaginalis

VISIT THE WEBSITE

I'll be teaching a one week course in September

Details TBA

Esotericism and Cognitive Science

Esotericism and Cognitive Science: 

Aries special issue published (vol. 17:1)

from The Heterodoxology Blog:

"The latest issue of Aries has just been published: A special issue on Esotericism and the Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR), edited by Markus Altena Davidsen and myself. As we explain in our editorial, “What Cognitive Scienece Offers the Study of Esotericism”, Western esotericism and CSR have developed in parallel over the past couple of decades, each, in their own ways, pushing the academic study of religion into new territory. Given that esotericism is full of psychologically rich sources (from visions and trances to hidden correspondences and esoteric hermeneutic techniques), it seems that much could be gained from bringing these two fields together. My Occult Minds project has already been taking steps in this direction. The intention behind the Aries special issue, however, is to push this agenda in a collaborative way, by publishing articles on esoteric subject matter informed by a range recent theories of cognition, together with a response article by someone in the field of CSR. We were happy to get Jesper Sørensen in this role, a central figure in the “Aarhus school” who has worked on problems that are  directly relevant to esotericism." ... READ MORE

Fascist Traditionalists in the News

Corbin has sometimes been accused of coming from the same right-wing tradition as Julius Evola. Although he did have some elitist tendencies, and his political sensibilities were entirely undeveloped and naive, the whole tenor and intention of Corbin's ecumenical and inclusive work stands in stark opposition to the fundamentalism and ethnic supremacism of the "fascist Traditionalists" who used religion as justification for their vile political intentions.

Taboo Italian Thinker Is Enigma to Many, but Not to Bannon 

By JASON HOROWITZ FEB. 10, 2017 NYTimes

ROME — Those trying to divine the roots of Stephen K. Bannon's dark and at times apocalyptic worldview have repeatedly combed over a speech that Mr. Bannon, President Trump's ideological guru, made in 2014 to a Vatican conference, where he expounded on Islam, populism and capitalism.
But for all the examination of those remarks, a passing reference by Mr. Bannon to an esoteric Italian philosopher has gone little noticed, except perhaps by scholars and followers of the deeply
taboo, Nazi-affiliated thinker, Julius Evola. "The fact that Bannon even knows Evola is significant," said Mark Sedgwick, a leading scholar of Traditionalists at Aarhus University in Denmark.... READ MORE

Sedgwick has a relevant post on Corbin etc HERE

Imaginal Love

If a butterfly in Brazil can change the weather of the Americas and by extension the world (and even if it cannot), the great hope animating this fine book is that the sheer beauty of thought can transform the beleaguered weather of our human conditon. Such courage is exemplary and inspiring. And real. In addition, the reader of Imaginal Love will get a clear picture of the profound and productive, yet complex, relation between Hillman and Corbin and gain an appreciation for the latter’s influence on the more purely artistic milieux of the later 20th century North American scene. Beautifully written, Cheetham's book gives us a taste for the sacramental value of metaphor and therefore transformation: a splendid reading experience. - Todd Lawson, Professor Emeritus of Islamic Studies, University of Toronto

On amazon