"...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.

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Friday, February 10, 2017

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.



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



Posted by Tom Cheetham at 11:02 AM

1 comment:

  1. FabrizioTorriMarch 25, 2017 at 10:18 AM

    I am italian and in my youth, I read nearly all of Evola's opus. I am convinced that his so called "Tradition" is actually steeped in nihilism (and in the idea that "man", as a demiurge god, has the right to do as he please or like. To give order to chaos, in his opinion). Of course Guenon's vison was very different but at the end I believe that both of them are unlikely companions for Corbin (as you explain very well in your "the world turned inside out"). Maybe I'm wrong, but the "transmitted knowledge" of the french sheik is too fixed in a sclerotic way. For example his interpretation of Daoism strikes me as untrue. Do you know, or do you think there are any, religious groups that are working in a "din" in consonance with Corbin's vision? I mean...are the insights of Henry Corbin totally personal (and if so, to be meditated alone)or they can be found in some actual religious way?. Real-life Ismailism, with the super-rich Aga Khan as Imam, doesn't appear to me the same thing of corbin's ismaili philosophers.

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