World Turned Inside Out: Henry Corbin And Islamic Mysticism

by Tom Cheetham

The first book in English to synthesize the remarkable work of Henry Corbin, the great French philosopher, Christian theologian, and scholar of Islamic mysticism. Corbin, a colleague of Jung's at Eranos, was one of the seminal influences on the development of archetypal psychology, especially through the idea of the "imaginal world." His work bridges the gap between the philosophy and theology of the West and the mysticism of Islam and provides a radical and unified vision of the 3 great monotheistic religions based upon the Creative Imagination. This book will be of special interest to those seeking to understand Islamic spirituality and the relation between spirituality and ecology and will also inform current interpretations of the politics of terrorism.

Genres: Philosophy, Religion, Islam, Mysticism, Spirituality

210 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2003

About the author

https://tomcheetham.com/biography/

Reviews

[Marcas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Clever, but this is naive and a case of 'Orientalism in reverse', as one Thesis available in PDF online makes clear. I read this before becoming a de-facto Christian and bought into Corbin's project that Christianity was lacking politically against Islam and even that it inevitably led to Nihilism. However, now to be honest I find the claims against and misunderstanding of Christianity astounding; this is from a scholar with such a good reputation.
I've seen this crudity with Alan Watts as well unfortunately.

One would be safer reading Christian Theology to see what it's about (and its relationship to Nihilism, Islam, etc).
One could, if they are being serious, try Schmemann, Evgeny Lampert, Milbank, Stanilaoe, Eugene Webb, DB Hart, Khaled Anatolios, V Lossky, Bishop Barron, David Tracy, Florovsky, Cyril O' Regan, W Desmond, Torrance, RW Jenson, Zizioulas or many others.
There's really no point in attacking straw men of Christianity and attacking heretical forms of 'Christianity', which Corbin does in the book. Taking down Tillich's frequently heretical views and a kind of simplistic Descartian 'Christianity' doesn't mean much.

For historical surveys on Christianity you can see DB Hart again, Warren Carroll, Justo Gonzalez, Jaroslav Pelikan or countless other knowledgeable scholars and then you can compare and contrast more fairly.
'Mystical' Islam needs to be contextualised within the matrix of history as well and Corbin ignores many essential points.

[kit · Rating 5 out of 5]

there's so much material in here. i'm don't align with some of the precepts of corbin's work—as presented in this text—but there's a significant amount of material to play with and position against other narratives that work for me. cheetham does a great job here of introducing core concepts, and leaving breadcrumb trails for further research.

[Nichejamb Inn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Teases a depth of thought and wisdom buried in the impassable oeuvre of Henry Corbin but fails to penetrate the surface. Certain excerpts resonated deeply with me and spoke of a spiritual promise to this philosopher theologian's presentation of Iranian cosmology, but the final chapters are incoherent paeans to Ideas whose only Significance is the capital Letter with which they are invoked.

[Mauro]

http://tomcheetham.blogspot.com/2009/...