Henry Corbin and Islamic Mysticism
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THE WORLD TURNED INSIDE OUT Henry Corbin and Islamic Mysticism "A deep reading of Tom Cheetham's The World Turned Inside Out could have the effect of turning the reader inside out! Not only will a person discover in this book a thorough understanding of the remarkable and important vision of Henry Corbin, the great French scholar of Iranian Islam. The reader will also be engaged by a politically useful understand- ing of the religion of Islam generally, of mystical and negative theology, of monotheism, of the philosophy of imagination, of language and the textures of textuality, and of the nature of reading and thinking. Among other things, a careful reading of this book can inform current interpretations of the politics of terrorism, its wars and the wars against it. In short, there exists here a shaking of the foundations of human perspectives that comes to nothing short of a radical revisioning of all attempts to make sense of the life and meaning of being in the world." David L. Miller Watson-Ledden Professor of Religion, Emeritus, Syracuse University Core Faculty Member, Pacifica Graduate Institute "Tom Cheetham does an absolutely splendid job of opening up Corbin's thought to the general reader. Corbin's work addresses our contemporary situation in a most direct way as this book shows, and the author has made an important contribution to both the philoso- phy of religion and the history of religions. This is an interesting, careful and important piece of work that I hope will gain the recognition that it deserves." Charles Adams Emeritus Professor of Islamic Studies, McGill University "A remarkable creative synthesis of the genius of Henry Corbin, the silent precursor of archetypal psychology. Tom Cheetham gives the gift of a metaphysics of inferiority balanc- ing pervasive, destructive, suffocating, spectator consciousness. And it is a convivial interiority, filled with spiritual presences. The soul can breathe again because it has found its homeland, the Soul of the World." Robert Sardello author of Freeing the Soul from Fear and The Power of Soul: Living the Twelve Virtues "The first book in English devoted to the great French author Henry Corbin, Tom Cheetham's The World Turned Inside Out is an excellent introduction to and survey of Corbin's work and thought. Corbin is unique among 20th century scholars of Islam in his ability to imaginatively enter the world of the Sufi gnostics and to apply their insights to the modern world. Cheetham's book provides us with a bracing and stimulating overview of this seminal author's work and its implications: this is a book for all who suspect that, to paraphrase Plato, there is more to life than that which can be grasped in one's hands." © 2003 by Thomas Cheetham. All rights reserved. This book is dedicated to the memory of First Spring Journal Books printing 2003. F. Edward Cranz Published by 1914-1998 Spring Journal, Inc.; Rosemary Park Professor of History, Emeritus 299 East Quassett Road; Woodstock, Connecticut 06281 and Printed in North America. Text printed on acid free paper.. Lester J. Reiss 1933-1999 General editor JFL. Lucretia L. Allyn Professor of Philosophy Book edited and indexed by Nancy Cater. two great teachers at Connecticut College. The cover image is of the Archangel Gabriel by Martin Schongauer (German, c. 1450-1491). The image is used by permission from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Library in Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Pending Printed in Canada Contents Introduction Acknowledgements A Brief Biography of Henry Corbin 1 Against the Times: Primordial Space, Primordial Time THE ACT OF PRESENCE Reading and certainly writing about Henry Corbin is a humbling THE GREAT REFUSAL experience in part because it requires at least modest familiarity 2 An Oriental Theosophy with so many different disciplines. 1 want to extend special thanks to PERSIA AND MAZDAISM Charles Adams, retired Head of the Department of Islamic Studies at THE AGE OF ISLAM McGill University, for reading over the manuscript and making some PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY helpful comments. I am of course responsible for any errors of fact or 3 The Modes of Knowing and the Levels of Being interpretation. I am also indebted to a small number of students with THOUGHT AND BEING whom I have had the pleasure of discussing Corbin's work and related A HERMENEUTICS OF PRESENCE issues over the last several years, both at Wilson College and at the 4 Coming Home: The Heart and Face of the Earth College of the Atlantic. Gisela Behrens of the C. G. Jung Center of BEYOND THE COSMOS Philadelphia provided generous hospitality and the opportunity to MUNDUS IMAGINALIS present parts of this work to interested audiences. Bob Doan of Unity 5 The Angel and Individuation College helped with some of the idiosyncrasies of French. Without the THE CELESTIAL TWIN AND THE METAPHYSICS OF INDIVIDUATION help of many long-suffering librarians at Wilson College, Unity Col- DISCIPLES OF KHIDR lege, and the Bangor Public Library, this book would have been impossible to write. Special thanks go to Luwanda Youngblood and 6 Ta'wil and Prophetic Philosophy Claire Smart. Not least, I am grateful to Jay Livernois for encouraging THE KEY TO THE SOUL AND THE KEY TO THE WORLD me to write this book in the first place. FALLING INTO THE WORLD THE WORD AND THE WORLD: TIME, SPACE, MATTER, AND PROPHECY Portions of Chapters 1 and 5 have appeared in earlier versions in 7 The Angelic Function of Beings Spring Journal Volumes 64 and 67. IDOLS AND ICONS THE PATHETIC GOD APOPHATIC THEOLOGY AND THE ANTIDOTE TO NIHILISM 8 A Life in Sympathy with Being Music AND MIRRORS REBUILDING THE TEMPLE Conclusion: A Voyage into the World Works Cited Index Introduction THE WORLD TURNED INSIDE OUT I Hegel said that philosophy consists in turning the world in- the attention of a different audience.3 But his work is immense and com- side out. Let us say rather that this world is here and now plex and should be approached on its own terms. Within archetypal inside out. The ta'wil and the prophetic philosophy consist in psychology a good deal of attention has been paid to the lines of affinity putting it right side out once more.1 leading back from Jung to alchemy and to the rediscovery of classical enry Corbin's work deserves to be far more widely known in mythologies in the Renaissance of Europe. Yet Corbin leads in other di- the English-speaking world. Although much remains rections. While Corbin drew comparisons in nearly all of his works with Huntranslated, many of his most important books are available in aspects of the Western Christian tradition, the territory that he opened up English. But his writings require familiarity with a greater diversity of in Islamic thought remains for most people unknown. subjects than can be reasonably expected from all but the most widely Beyond difficulties resulting from his erudition, Corbin's writings are read scholars. He was at once a Neoplatonic philosopher, a theologian often hard to penetrate in spite of a prose style that is elegant and precise. with interests in Immanuel Swedenborg and Johann Georg Hamann, Jacob One reason for this is that in Corbin's work, as Marshall Hodgson has Boehme, and Martin Heidegger, and an Orientalist specializing in Islamic said of the Qur'an, "almost every element which goes to make up its mysticism. He was a scholar of the first rank, a formidable linguist and a message is somehow present in every passage."4 Corbin's first major prolific translator, editor, and commentator. But he was more than a scholar. essays to be translated into English were already the product of his matu- He was an exponent of a kind of mystical theology that has seen its for- rity, and one can find in them most of the themes that were to dominate tunes eclipsed by the rise of materialism and rationalism, and his work has his thinking for the rest of his life. He amplified, modified, and added to significance far beyond that of most academic specialists. this complex structure of ideas with each work that he produced during a One obstacle for the reader is the fact that the "Oriental" philoso- long and prolific career. Each of his works repays detailed study for the phy in which he came to find his home is little known. Corbin's heart lay in light that it throws on all the others. Iranian Shi'ism, for many people an obscure branch of a poorly under- There is as yet no book in English that provides more than a brief stood religion. The mention of Iran or of Shi'ite Islam conjures up for too introduction to Corbin's life and work.5 This book is an attempt to provide many only visions of violence and intolerance. Yet the message that he a context in which his writings can be situated, highlight some of the ideas brings from Iran and from Islam is potentially of such psychological and and issues that are important to an understanding of his work as a whole, cultural importance as to make the effort of familiarizing ourselves with and to provide references for anyone interested in pursuing the topics his work and the traditions from which it springs more than worthwhile. further. I have quoted extensively from his writings and have tried through- Corbin is known to some as a major source, along with C. G. Jung, 3. Harold Bloom, Omens of Millennium: The Gnosis of Angels, Dreams and Resurrec- for the intellectual foundations of archetypal psychology.