Cheetham (lecture): The Legacy of Henry Corbin
The Prophetic Tradition & The Battle for the Soul of the World: The Legacy of Henry Corbin
Lecture: Friday, May 13, 2011, 7 to 9 p.m.
Good Shepherd Center, Room 202, 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N., Seattle
$15 members, $25 nonmembers
Henry Corbin (1903-1978) was one of the most important figures in modern religious thought and spiritual practice. He was a profound and uniquely creative Protestant theologian and a prodigious and important scholar of Sufism and Islamic mysticism in general, with a particular focus on the religious thought of Shi'ite Iran. His vision of the unity of the grand sweep of the religions of the Prophetic Tradition - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - is of vital importance for the contemporary world. Corbin taught in Paris and in Teheran and lectured annually at the Eranos Conferences from 1949 until his death in 1978. He was a friend and colleague of C.G. Jung and shared his view of the central importance of the active imagination in human life and his deep understanding of the significance of alchemy for religious psychology. His works have had a lasting impact on scholars of religion, visionary thinkers and artists, including the American poets Charles Olson, Robert Duncan and Robin Blaser. James Hillman places Corbin alongside Freud and Jung as a seminal figure in the development of archetypal psychology. His great book 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 spirituality and liberal theology in the contemporary world.
These lectures will introduce the life and work of Henry Corbin and provide an orientation in the basic themes of Islamic, particularly Iranian, spirituality as he understood them. We will outline his vision of the unity of the Religions of the Book and come to understand the common concerns that unite them. We will also place the major themes of Corbin's thought in the context of Jung's analytical psychology and in the archetypal psychology of James Hillman. Topics include the mundus imaginalis and the meaning of creative imagination, spiritual alchemy, divine and human love, the poetic basis of the soul, and the role of the Angel Holy Spirit in the life of the soul.
Learning Objectives for Lecture:
- Introduce the life and work of Henry Corbin in historical context.
- Identify major themes in Corbin's work.
- Identify and describe his philosophical project in the context of contemporary thought.
Tom Cheetham, Ph.D., is the author of three books on the implications of Corbin's work for contemporary spirituality: The World Turned Inside Out, Green ManEarth Angel and After Prophecy. He produced the Bibliography of Archetypal Psychology for the recent edition of James Hillman's Archetypal Psychology: A Brief Account. He has spoken at the C.G. Jung Centers in Philadelphia and Brunswick, Maine and at the 2001 Eranos Conference in Ascona, and is a Fellow of and frequent lecturer for the Temenos Academy in London. He was Associate Professor and Director of Environmental Studies at Wilson College in Pennsylvania and is an adjunct professor at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine.
The Heart of the Prophetic Tradition: www.tomcheetham.blogspot.com
The Legacy of Henry Corbin: www.henrycorbinproject.blogspot.com
This program has been approved for CEUs by the Washington Chapter National Association of Social Workers (NASW) for Li- censed Social Workers, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapists and Licensed Mental Health Counselors. Provider number is #1975-157. The cost to receive a certificate is as follows: 7 units for lecture and workshop $15; 2.0 units for the Friday lecture $10; 5 units for the Saturday workshop $10.
Good Shepard Center, Rm 202
4649 Sunnyside Avenue North