"...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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Thursday, October 17, 2019

A Corbin Drama!!! This is big news.


This
Splinters of a Careless Alphabet
A staged reading of a new play by Roxanne Varzi

Sunday, November 10
2:00pm
Winifred Smith Hall
University of California, Irvine


On the eve of a major protest what can French philosophy possibly have to do with the Iranian Revolution?

The setting is a chance encounter on a snowy Tehran night between an Iranian student and a French philosopher. Ali, a newlywed graduate student at Tehran University goes to return a book at the University and ends up in the office of French philosopher Henri Corbin. Unable to pass up on the opportunity to speak with Corbin, Ali spends the evening discussing Mystical Islam while his new wife, Leili is out protesting. He hears gunshots and runs out into the crowd to look for her.
We regard the 1979 Iranian Revolution as an Islamic movement, few know that a French philosopher may have had an influence on the Revolution. Splinters of a Careless Alphabet brings philosophy, history and religion to life through three students and a prominent Western philosopher on the eve of the Iranian Revolution when they are forced to come to terms with the choices they made that night and the resulting effects on their faith, relationships and ultimately the future of the country.


Splinters of a Careless Alphabet has been read at the American Anthropological Association’s Visual Anthropology Festival in San Jose in 2018, at University of California Irvine’s graduate student Anthropology in Transit and at The Hopscotch Reading Room in Berlin, Germany. 

This is the first staged reading and will follow a workshop of the play by professional actors under the direction of Elina Dos Santos, Co-Artistic Director of the Rogue Machine Theatre, and Resident Director of the Pacific Resident Theatre, both in Los Angeles, CA. 

Roxanne Varzi is a writer, artist, filmmaker and professor of Anthropology at University of California, Irvine. She was born in Iran to an American mother and Iranian father and migrated to the U.S shortly after the Iranian Revolution in 1979.






Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Journée Corbin 30 nov 2019



Journée Corbin 30 nov 2019


Daniel Gastambide, président de l'AAHSC
Marc Gastambide, trésorier
Pierre Lory, secrétaire général
- 9h30-10h30 André VAUCHEZ (Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres),«La militia Christi dans la spiritualité de l’Occident médiéval (XIIe-XIIIe siècles)»

-10h30-11h30 Christian JAMBET (EPHE), « Le Jihâd majeur selon Mullâ Sadrâ »

-11h30-12h30 Martin AURELL (Universitéde Poitiers), « Contester la croisade au
nom de l’Évangile aux XIIeet XIIIe siècles »


14h15-15h00 Daniel PROULX « Recherches historiques autour de la notion de combat chez Henry Corbin »

15h00-16h00 Sepideh PARSAPAJOUH (CNRS), « La passion des martyrs de
guerre en Iran chiite contemporain - Un regard anthropologique »

16h00-17h00 Kabira NAÏT RAÏSS (UC Louvain) : « Frontière militaire et eschatologie chez les premiers ascètes combattants de l’islam »

Samedi 30 novembre 2019de 9h30 à 17h30 à l’amphithéâtre de l’INHA, 
2 rue Vivienne, 75002 Paris