Henry Corbin Quotes

“Our western philosophy has been the theater of what we may call the „battle for the Soul of the world.“ … Is it a matter of a battle that has finally been lost, the world having lost its soul, a defeat whose consequences weigh upon our modern visions of the world without compensation? If there has been a defeat, a defeat is still not a refutation.”
― Henry Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth

“Henry Corbin's [inner] teacher, his sheikh, was Suhrawardi: A Persian Sufi from the twelfth century who'd been put to death while still in his thirties for the things he said and did. Suhrawardi claimed he was simply continuing a spiritual lineage which he referred to as the Dawning [ishrāq]. But towards the end of what would be a short life he ran into trouble with orthodox Muslims because he insisted on tracing his lineage a long way back—far beyond even the prophet Muhammed—to the Greeks, and specifically Empedocles.”
― Peter Kingsley, A Book of Life

“And yes, given our circumstances, in this post-enlightenment era of post-trust, post-truth, post-rationality, post-honour, and post-chivalry; as meaningless non-entities in a disenchanted and mechanistic cosmos, these actions are perfectly understandable. As Henry Corbin tells us, we are engaged in a terrible “battle for the soul of the world”, and it's a battle that we may even lose.”
― H.M. Forester