엔네아데스 - 위키백과, Enneads

엔네아데스 - 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전

엔네아데스

위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전.

《엔네아데스》(그리스어: Ἐννεάδες)는 플로티노스가 남긴 54개의 논문을 제자 포르피리오스가 정리한 것이다. 포르피리오스는 이들 논문을 내용상 9개씩으로 정리하고 전체를 6권이 되게 편집하였다.

'엔네아데스'란 본시 '9'를 의미하는 그리스어 '엔네아스'의 복수(複數)이다. 따라서 각 권(卷)은 '엔네아스'라고 불리며 '엔네아데스'는 전체를 지칭한다. 다시 '6'이 '1'·'2'·'3'의 합이므로 전체가 제1-3권까지의 3권으로 되는 제1부와 제4-5의 2권으로 되는 제2부 및 제6권을 제3부로 하는 총3부로 구성되어 있다. 그리고 3부는 각각 플로티노스의 3원리(三原理)가 반영되도록 잘 편집되어 있다. 즉 제3부에 해당하는 제6권에는 <선한 것, 1인 것에 관하여> 등 '1자(一者)'에 관한 논문이 집록되어 있다.

아름다움[편집]

고대 후기 그리스 철학자 중 한 사람인 플로티노스에게 ‘아름다움(美)’이란 ‘선(善)’과 다르지 않았다. 다시 말해 아름다움을 추구하는 것이 존재의 자기실현으로서 의미가 있다는 것이다.

오늘날 아름다움에 대한 판단은 그 본질에 대한 논의를 망각한 채 점점 상대주의적인 것으로 굳어가고, 아예 아름다움에 대한 객관적 판단은 불가능한 것처럼 여겨지기까지 한다. 저자는 이 책을 통해 물질적인 아름다움의 기초가 되는 정신적인 아름다움에 관심을 기울이고, 나아가 그런 정신적인 모든 아름다움에 원천이 되는 아름다운인 '아름다움의 아름다움'을 알아내도록 노력해야 할 것을 제안한다.

오늘날 ‘아름다움’에 대한 판단은 실로 다양하게 이루어지고 있으며, 다양한 만큼 난해하다. 특히 인터넷 시대를 맞아 과거에 비해 더더욱 잦아지는 소위 ‘예술’과 ‘외설’의 시비 문제, 그리고 예술적 패러디와 저작권 침해의 법적 공방 등 아예 아름다움에 대한 객관적 판단은 불가능한 것처럼 여겨지기까지 한다. 원숭이의 장난이 썩 괜찮은 작품이 될 수 있다면, 도대체 예술은 무엇하러 존재하는가? 하나의 사물을 작품으로 만들어주는 게 ‘이론’이라면 예술가들은 대체 왜 존재하는가? 현대에 널리 유포된 상대주의적인 입장, 심지어 예술 자체의 순수성만을 고집해야 한다는 입장을 우리는 어느 선까지 수긍해야 할까? 더 이상 객관적인 미적 판단은 불가능한 것일까? 이 같은 맥락에서 그의 ‘아름다움에 관한 논의’는 분명 우리에게 생각할 거리를 제공한다.

'아름다운 것에 관해', '정신의 아름다움에 관해'는 ‘아름다움’을 주제로 한 그의 대표적인 작품이다. 이 두 작품을 읽어나갈 때 최소한 다음과 같은 점을 주목할 필요가 있다. 예컨대 그는 ‘아름다움’을 어떻게 정의하고 있는가? 그가 자신의 입으로 플라톤의 사상을 그대로 전달하고 해석하는 자임을 스스로 밝혔다 하더라도 미적 판단에 있어 그와 플라톤 사이에 어떤 차이가 있는가? 그는 물질적 복합체에 대한 미적 판단에는 한계가 있음을 지적한다. 플라톤과 아리스토텔레스가 채택했던 개념인 비례관계는 비록 아름다운 “형상”에 대한 다양한 표현의 하나이긴 하지만, 복합체가 아닌 정작 ‘순수한 것’, 나아가 ‘정신적인 존재’에 대한 미적 판단에는 도움이 되지 못한다는 것이다. 결국 물질적인 아름다움의 기초가 되는 정신적인 아름다움에 관심을 기울여야 바람직할 것이요, 나아가 그런 정신적인 모든 아름다움에 원천이 되는 아름다움, 곧 ‘아름다움(들)의 아름다움’을 알아내도록 노력해야 할 것이라고 제안한다.

사랑[편집]

사랑은 ‘아름다움’과 직결된 개념이다. 플라톤의 작품 『향연』의 주제가 사랑이다. 특히 ‘미의 여신’ 아프로디테의 탄생을 축하하는 연회 때, 제우스 신의 뜰 안에서 포로스와 페니아 사이에 태어난 에로스는 고대인들에게 오랫동안 사랑의 의미를 되새기고자 할 때마다 재고되었다. 그는 플라톤의 작품 『향연』과 『파이드로스』에 천착하여 다른 사상가들의 다양한 견해들을 집약하는 재치를 발휘한다. 나아가 저 천상의 ‘에로스’와 우리 곁에서 경험되는 사랑의 차이는 무엇인가? 그와 더불어 두 아프로디테의 모습은 실제 무엇을 의미하는가? 저 에로스는 신인가 아니면 정령인가? 우리에게 사랑은 무엇을 함의하는가? 하는 물음을 끊임없이 던진다. 즉 사랑은 언제든 선을 찾아 나설 만큼 선에 있어 전적으로 모자람이 없다. 그런 점에서 에로스가 포로스와 페니아 사이에서 태어났다고 말하는 것이고, 그런 한에서 부족함, 추구하는 노력, 로고스에 대한 기억이 영혼 안에 자리함으로써 영혼이 선을 지향하는 능력을 낳았다고 할 때, 이것이 바로 사랑이라는 것이다.

===

Enneads

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Not to be confused with the Eheads, Ennead or the Aeneid.

For other uses, see Ennead (disambiguation).

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The Enneads (Greek: Ἐννεάδες), fully The Six Enneads, is the collection of writings of Plotinus, edited and compiled by his student Porphyry (c. AD 270). Plotinus was a student of Ammonius Saccas and they were founders of Neoplatonism. His work, through Augustine of Hippo, the Cappadocian Fathers, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and several subsequent Christian and Muslim thinkers, has greatly influenced Western and Near-Eastern thought.

Contents

• 1Contents
• 2Citing the Enneads
• 3Table of contents
  • 3.1First Ennead
  • 3.2Second Ennead
  • 3.3Third Ennead
  • 3.4Fourth Ennead
  • 3.5Fifth Ennead
  • 3.6Sixth Ennead
  • 3.7Plotinus's Original Chronological Order
• 4Note on the Plotiniana Arabica or Arabic Plotinus
• 5Bibliography
• 6See also
• 7References
• 8External links

Contents[edit]

Porphyry edited the writings of Plotinus in fifty-four treatises, which vary greatly in length and number of chapters, mostly because he split original texts and joined others together to match this very number. Then, he proceeded to set the fifty-four treatises in groups of nine (Greek. ennea) or Enneads. He also collected The Enneads into three volumes. The first volume contained the first three Enneads (I, II, III), the second volume has the Fourth (IV) and the Fifth (V) Enneads, and the last volume was devoted to the remaining Enneads. After correcting and naming each treatise, Porphyry wrote a biography of his master, Life of Plotinus, intended to be an Introduction to the Enneads.

Porphyry's edition does not follow the chronological order in which Enneads were written (see Chronological Listing below), but responds to a plan of study which leads the learner from subjects related to his own affairs to subjects concerning the uttermost principles of the universe.

Although not exclusively, Porphyry writes in chapters 24-26 of the Life of Plotinus that the First Ennead deals with human or ethical topics, the Second and Third Enneads are mostly devoted to cosmological subjects or physical reality. The Fourth concerns the Soul, the Fifth knowledge and intelligible reality, and finally the Sixth covers Being and what is above it, the One or first principle of all.

Citing the Enneads[edit]

Since the publishing of a modern critical edition of the Greek text by Paul Henry and Hans-Rudolf Schwyzer (Plotini Opera. 3 volumes. Paris-Bruxelles, 1951–1973; H-S¹ or editio major text) and the revised one (Plotini Opera. 3 volumes. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964–1984; referred to as the H-S² or editio minor text) there is an academic convention of citing the Enneads by first mentioning the number of Ennead (usually in Romans from I to VI), the number of treatise within each Ennead (in arabics from 1 to 9), the number of chapter (in arabics also), and the line(s) in one of the mentioned editions. These numbers are divided by periods, commas, or blank spaces.

E.g. For Fourth Ennead (IV), treatise number seven (7), chapter two (2), lines one to five (1-5), we write:

• IV.7.2.1-5

E.g. The following three mean Third Ennead (III), treatise number five (5), chapter nine (9), line eight (8):

• III, 5, 9, 8
• 3,5,9,8
• III 5 9 8

It is important to remark that some translations or editions do not include the line numbers according to P. Henry and H.-R. Schwyzer's edition. In addition to this, the chronological order of the treatises is numbered between brackets or parentheses, and given below.

E.g. For the previously given:

• IV.7 (2).2.1-5 since treatise IV.7 was the second written by Plotinus.
• III, 5 [50], 9, 8 since III.5 was the fiftieth written by Plotinus.

Table of contents[edit]

The names of treatises may differ according to translation. The numbers in square brackets before the individual works refer to the chronological order they were written according to Porphyry's Life of Plotinus.

First Ennead[edit]

• I.1 [53] - "What is the Living Being and What is Man?"
• I.2 [19] - "On Virtue"
• I.3 [20] - "On Dialectic [The Upward Way]."
• I.4 [46] - "On True Happiness (Well Being)"
• I.5 [36] - "On Whether Happiness (Well Being) Increases with Time."
• I.6 [1] - "On Beauty"
• I.7 [54] - "On the Primal Good and Secondary Forms of Good [Otherwise, 'On Happiness']"
• I.8 [51] - "On the Nature and Source of Evil"
• I.9 [16] - "On Dismissal"

Second Ennead[edit]

• II.1 [40] - "On Heaven"
• II.2 [14] - "On the Movement of Heaven"
• II.3 [52] - "Whether the Stars are Causes"
• II.4 [12] - "On Matter"
• II.5 [25] - "On Potentiality and Actuality"
• II.6 [17] - "On Quality or on Substance"
• II.7 [37] - "On Complete Transfusion"
• II.8 [35] - "On Sight or on how Distant Objects Appear Small"
• II.9 [33] - "Against Those That Affirm The Creator of the Kosmos and The Kosmos Itself to be Evil" [generally quoted as "Against the Gnostics"]

Third Ennead[edit]

• III.1 [3] - "On Fate"
• III.2 [47] - "On Providence (1)."
• III.3 [48] - "On Providence (2)."
• III.4 [15] - "On our Allotted Guardian Spirit"
• III.5 [50] - "On Love"
• III.6 [26] - "On the Impassivity of the Unembodied"
• III.7 [45] - "On Eternity and Time"
• III.8 [30] - "On Nature, Contemplation and the One"
• III.9 [13] - "Detached Considerations"

Fourth Ennead[edit]

• IV.1 [21] - "On the Essence of the Soul (1)"
• IV.2 [4] - "On the Essence of the Soul (2)"
• IV.3 [27] - "On Problems of the Soul (1)"
• IV.4 [28] - "On Problems of the Soul (2)"
• IV.5 [29] - "On Problems of the Soul (3)” [Also known as, "On Sight"].
• IV.6 [41] - "On Sense-Perception and Memory"
• IV.7 [2] - "On the Immortality of the Soul"
• IV.8 [6] - "On the Soul's Descent into Body"
• IV.9 [8] - "Are All Souls One"

Fifth Ennead[edit]

• V.1 [10] - "On the Three Primary Hypostases"
• V.2 [11] - "On the Origin and Order of the Beings following after the First"
• V.3 [49] - "On the Knowing Hypostases and That Which is Beyond"
• V.4 [7] - "How That Which is After the First comes from the First, and on the One."
• V.5 [32] - "That the Intellectual Beings are not Outside the Intellect, and on the Good"
• V.6 [24] - "On the Fact that That Which is Beyond Being Does not Think, and on What is the Primary and the Secondary Thinking Principle"
• V.7 [18] - "On whether There are Ideas of Particular Beings"
• V.8 [31] - "On the Intellectual Beauty"
• V.9 [5] - "On Intellect, the Forms, and Being"

Sixth Ennead[edit]

• VI.1 [42] - "On the Kinds of Being (1)"
• VI.2 [43] - "On the Kinds of Being (2)"
• VI.3 [44] - "On the Kinds of Being (3)"
• VI.4 [22] - "On the Presence of Being, One and the Same, Everywhere as a Whole (1)"
• VI.5 [23] - "On the Presence of Being, One and the Same, Everywhere as a Whole (2)"
• VI.6 [34] - "On Numbers"
• VI.7 [38] - "How the Multiplicity of Forms Came Into Being: and on the Good"
• VI.8 [39] - "On Free Will and the Will of the One"
• VI.9 [9] - "On the Good, or the One"

Plotinus's Original Chronological Order[edit]

The chronological listing is given by Porphyry (Life of Plotinus 4–6). The first 21 treatises (through IV.1) had already been written when Porphyry met Plotinus, so they were not necessarily written in the order shown.

• I.6, IV.7, III.1, IV.2, V.9, IV.8, V.4, IV.9, VI.9
• V.1, V.2, II.4, III.9, II.2, III.4, I.9, II.6, V.7
• I.2, I.3, IV.1, VI.4, VI.5, V.6, II.5, III.6, IV.3
• IV.4, IV.5, III.8, V.8, V.5, II.9, VI.6, II.8, I.5
• II.7, VI.7, VI.8, II.1, IV.6, VI.1, VI.2, VI.3, III.7
• I.4, III.2, III.3, V.3, III.5, I.8, II.3, I.1, I.7

In table format, the chronological order of Porphyry corresponding each of the Ennead treatises is:^[1]

Chronological order	Ennead treatise
1	1.6
2	4.7
3	3.1
4	4.2
5	5.9
6	4.8
7	5.4
8	4.9
9	6.9
10	5.1
11	5.2
12	2.4
13	3.9
14	2.2
15	3.4
16	1.9
17	2.6
18	5.7
19	1.2
20	1.3
21	4.1
22	6.4
23	6.5
24	5.6
25	2.5
26	3.6
27	4.3
28	4.4
29	4.5
30	3.8
31	5.8
32	5.5
33	2.9
34	6.6
35	2.8
36	1.5
37	2.7
38	6.7
39	6.8
40	2.1
41	4.6
42	6.1
43	6.2
44	6.3
45	3.7
46	1.4
47	3.2
48	3.3
49	5.3
50	3.5
51	1.8
52	2.3
53	1.1
54	1.7

Note on the Plotiniana Arabica or Arabic Plotinus[edit]

After the fall of Western Roman Empire and during the period of the Byzantine Empire, the authorship of some Plotinus' texts became clouded. Many passages of Enneads IV-VI, now known as Plotiniana Arabica, circulated among Islamic scholars (as Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi and Avicenna) under the name The Theology of Aristotle or quoted as "Sayings of an old [wise] man". The writings had a significant effect on Islamic philosophy, due to Islamic interest in Aristotle. A Latin version of the so-called Theology appeared in Europe in 1519. (Cf. O'Meara, An Introduction to the Enneads. Oxford: 1995, 111ff.)

Bibliography[edit]

Critical editions of the Greek text

• Bréhier, Émile, Plotin: Ennéades (with French translation), Collection Budé, 1924–1938.
• Henry, Paul, and Hans-Rudolf Schwyzer. Plotini Opera. (Editio maior in 3 vols. including English translation of Plotiniana Arabica or The Theology of Aristotle) Bruxelles and Paris: Museum Lessianum, 1951–1973.
• Henry, Paul, and Hans-Rudolf Schwyzer. Plotini Opera. (Editio minor in 3 vols.) Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964–1982.

Complete English translations

• Taylor, Thomas, Collected Writings of Plotinus, Frome, Prometheus Trust, 1994. ISBN 1-898910-02-2 (contains approximately half of the Enneads)
• Guthrie, Kenneth Sylvan, Plotinos, Complete Works in 4 vols., Comparative Literature Press, 1918.
• Plotinus. The Enneads (translated by Stephen MacKenna), London, Medici Society, 1917–1930 (an online version is available at Sacred Texts); 2nd edition, B. S. Page (ed.), 1956.
• Armstrong, A. H., Plotinus. Enneads (with Greek text), Loeb Classical Library, 7 vol., 1966–1988.
• Gerson, Lloyd P. (ed.); George Boys-Stones, John M. Dillon, Lloyd P. Gerson, R.A. King, Andrew Smith and James Wilberding (trs.). The Enneads. Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Commentaries

• The Enneads of Plotinus Series. Edited by John M. Dillon and Andrew Smith. Parmenides Publishing. 2012–Ongoing.
• Atkinson, Michael. Plotinus' Ennead V.1: On the Three Principal Hypostases Oxford: OUP, 1983.
• Bussanich, John. The One and Its Relation to Intellect (Translation and commentary of selected treatises). Leiden: Brill, 1988.
• Fleet, Barrie. Plotinus Ennead III.6. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.
• Kalligas, Paul. The Enneads of Plotinus: A Commentary (Volume 1: Enneads I–III). Princeton University Press, 2014.

Lexicons and bibliographies

• Sleeman, J. H. and Pollet, G. Lexikon Plotinianum. Leiden: Brill, 1980.
• Dufour, R. Plotinus. A Bibliography: 1950-2000. Leiden: Brill, 2002.
• Radice. R. and Bombacigno, R. Lexicon II: Plotinus. (Includes a CD containing the entire Greek text) Milan: Biblia, 2004.

See also[edit]

• Allegorical interpretations of Plato
• Henosis
• Henology

References[edit]

1. ^ Gerson, Lloyd P., ed. (2018). The Enneads. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-00177-0. OCLC 993492241.

External links[edit]

•  Works related to Enneads at Wikisource
• The Six Enneads (complete Stephen MacKenna and B. S. Page translation) in PDF, HTML, Microsoft Word, Plain Text, Theological Markup Language (XML), and 'Palm Doc' versions.
• The Six Enneads – Mackenna and Page translation divided into six sections in HTML.
• The Enneads, Greek text page scans of Kirchhoff's edition.
• The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Plotinus
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Plotinus
• Plotinian Bibliography 2001- by Richard Dufour (French and English versions), continues his research presented in Plotinus: a Bibliography 1950-2000, referred above.
• Links to Enneads, treatises, and chapters in English, Greek, and French for quick reference.
• Ἐννεάδες – The Henry and Schwyzer 1951 edition (Greek text) at Bibliotheca Augustiana.
•  Enneads public domain audiobook at LibriVox
• Enneads – Alternate version of the LibriVox audiobook with Sections following the Translator Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie's Chronological Organization of the Books.

Paths To The Heart: Sufism and the Christian East - Cutsinger, James S.

Paths To The Heart: Sufism and the Christian East - Kindle edition by Cutsinger, James S.. Religion & Spirituality Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

https://archive.org/details/pathstoheartsufi0000unse

Paths To The Heart: Sufism and the Christian East 

Kindle Edition
by James S. Cutsinger (Author) 

Publication date 2002

Topics 

Orthodox Eastern Church -- Relations -- Islam, Islam -- Relations -- Orthodox Eastern Church, Islam -- Relations -- Christianity, Christianity and other religions -- Islam

===

Description

This book is a collection of essays concerning the mystical and contemplative dimensions of Eastern Christianity and Islam presented at the October 2001 conference on Hesychasm and Sufism at the University of South Carolina. Contributions from internationally recognized spiritual leaders and scholars include Kallistos Ware; Seyyed Hossien Nasr; John Chryssavgis; Reza Shah-Kazemi; Huston Smith; Williams Chittick and more.

Despite the long and well-known history of conflict between Christians and Muslims, their mystical traditions especially in the Christian East and in Sufism, have shared for centuries many of the same spiritual methods and goals. One thinks, for example, of the profound similarities between the practices of the Jesus Prayer among the Hesychast masters of the Philokalia and the Sufi practices of dhikr or invocation.

These commonalities suggest the possibility for a deeper kind of religious dialogue than is customary in our day, a dialogue which seeks to foster what Frithjof Schuon has called inward or "esoteric" ecumenism, and which, while respecting the integrity of traditional dogmas and rites, "calls into play the wisdom which can discern the one sole Truth under the veil of different forms."

The purpose of this book, the first major publication of its kind, is to promote precisely this more inward kind of ecumenical perspective. These essays point to a spiritual heart in which the deeper meaning of Christian and Muslim beliefs and practices come alive, and where spiritual pilgrims may discover, beyond the level of seemingly contradictory forms, an inner commonality with those who follow other paths.

===

Table of Contents for Paths to the Heart

Foreword

Dimensions of the Heart

How Do We Enter the Heart?

Kallistos Ware

St Seraphim of Sarov in Sufic Perspective

Gray Henry

The Heart of the Faithful is the Throne ofthe All-Merciful

Seyyed Hossein Nasr

The Path of Remembrance

On the Cosmology of Dhikr

William C. Chittick

Presence, Participation, Performance: TheRemembrance of God in the Early Hesychast Fathers

Vincent Rossi

Paths of Continuity: Contemporary Witnesses ofthe Hesychast Experience

John Chryssavgis

Toward an Esoteric Ecumenism

The Metaphysics of Interfaith Dialogue:Sufi Perspectives on the Universality of theQuranic Message

Reza Shah-Kazemi

A Unity with Distinctions: Parallels in theThought of St Gregory Palamas and Ibn Arabi

Peter Samsel

Hesychia: An Orthodox Opening to EsotericEcumenism

James S. Cutsinger

Conclusions

The Long Way Home

Huston Smith

Panel Discussion

Contributors

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Excerpts from Paths to the Heart

Excerpted from Chapter 1:

How Do We Enter the Heart?

by Kallistos Ware, Bishop of Diokleia

Within the heart is an unfathomable depth.

—The Macarian Homilies

Le Point Vierge

     In the experience of almost everyone there have surely been certain texts—passages in poetry or prose—which, once heard or read, have never been forgotten. For most of us, these decisive texts are probably few in number; but, rare though they may be, they have permanently altered our lives, and they have helped to make us what we are. One such text, so far as my own life journey is concerned, is a paragraph on le point vierge, “the virgin point”, in Thomas Merton’s Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (definitely my firm favorite among his many books):

At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us. It is so to speak his name written in us, as our poverty, as our indigence, as our dependence, as our sonship. It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely. . . . I have no program for this seeing. It is only given. But the gate of heaven is everywhere.(1)

     Here Thomas Merton is seeking to elucidate the moment of disclosure which came to him on 18 March 1958, and which he recorded in his journal on the following day: “Yesterday, in Louisville, at the corner of 4th and Walnut, suddenly realized that I loved all the people and that none of them were or could be totally alien to me. As if waking from a dream—the dream of my separateness.” (2) It is noteworthy that, when attempting later on in his Conjectures to understand what was clearly for him an experience of intense visionary insight, Merton makes use of a term, le point vierge, which he had derived from Sufi sources. He had come across this phrase in the writings of the renowned French Orientalist Louis Massignon, with whom he had been in correspondence during the year 1960. Massignon in his turn employed the phrase when expounding the mystical psychology of the tenth-century Muslim saint and martyr al-Hallâj, whose custom it was to say, “Our hearts are a virgin that God’s truth alone opens.” (3)

     Significantly al-Hallâj refers in this context to the heart. This word does not actually occur in the passage quoted above from Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, but Merton is in fact describing precisely what the Christian East has in view when it speaks in its ascetic and mystical theology about the “deep heart” (see Psalm 63:7 [64:6]). By “the virgin point” Massignon, interpreting al-Hallâj, means “the last, irreducible, secret center of the heart”, “the latent personality, the deep subconscious, the secret cell walled up [and hidden] to every creature, the ‘inviolate virgin’”, which “remains unformed” until visited by God; to discover this virgin point is to return to our origin. (4) Thus le point vierge or the innermost heart is, in the words of Dorothy C. Buck, the place “where God alone has access and human and Divine meet”; it embodies “the sacredness hidden in the depth of every human soul”. (5)

     This is exactly what is signified by the “deep heart” in the neptic(6) theology of the Orthodox Church. St Mark the Monk (? fifth century), for example, speaks of “the innermost, secret and uncontaminated chamber of the heart . . . the innermost and untroubled treasury of the heart, where the winds of evil spirits do not blow”. According to Mark the Monk, it is to this hidden temenos that Christ is alluding when he states, “The Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21), and when he talks about “the good treasure of the heart” (Luke 6:45). (7) A similar understanding of the heart is beautifully expressed by the Roman Catholic Benedictine Henri le Saux, who wrote under the name Swami Abishiktananda, when he terms it “the place of our origin . . . in which the soul is, as it were, coming from the hands of God and waking up to itself”. (8) In the words of another Roman Catholic author, the Dominican Richard Kehoe, “The ‘heart’ is the very deepest and truest self, not attained except through sacrifice, through death.” (9)

     It is immediately apparent that St Mark the Monk, al-Hallâj, and Merton share in common an all-important conviction concerning the character of this deep or innermost heart. For all three of them it is something pure, inviolate, inaccessible to evil; and specifically for this reason it can rightly be described as “the virgin point”. Thus Mark says of the “secret chamber of the heart” that it is “uncontaminated”, “untroubled”, a hidden sanctuary “where the winds of evil spirits do not blow”. For al-Hallâj it is opened by “God’s truth alone”. Likewise Merton insists that it is “untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God”. While the outer levels of the heart are a battleground between the forces of good and evil, this is not true of the innermost depth of the heart. As “the virgin point” the deep heart belongs only to God. It is pre-eminently the place of Divine immanence, the locus of God’s indwelling.

1.  Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (New York: Doubleday, 1966), p. 142.

2.  The Intimate Merton: His Life from His Journals, ed. Patrick Hart and Jonathan Montaldo (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2001), p. 124.

3.  See Sidney H. Griffith, “Merton, Massignon, and the Challenge of Islam”, in Merton and Sufism: The Untold Story: A Complete Compendium, ed. Rob Baker and Gray Henry (Louisville: Fons Vitae, 1999), pp. 63-64.

4.  Griffith, p. 65.

5.   “Mary and the Virgin Heart: A Reflection on the Writings of Louis Massignon and Hallaj”, Sufi, 24 (1994-95), p. 8; Sufi, 28 (1995-96), p. 8.

6.   “Neptic”: from the word nepsis, meaning sobriety, vigilance, spiritual insight. “Neptic theology”, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, includes the realms of both “ascetical theology” and “mystical theology”, as these are understood in the Roman Catholic tradition. For the importance of the term nepsis, note the

Greek title of The Philokalia, a classic collection of Orthodox spiritual writings from the fourth to the fifteenth centuries: “The Philokalia of the Holy Neptic [Fathers]”.

7.  Mark the Monk (alias Mark the Ascetic or Marcus Eremita), “On Baptism”, §§4, 5, 11 (Patrologia Graeca [PG] 65: 996C, 1005 BCD, 1016 D), ed. Georges-Matthieu de Durand, Sources chrétiennes 445 (Paris: Cerf, 1999), pp. 322, 342-43, 368.

8.  Abishiktananda, Prayer (London: SPCK, 1972), p. 54.

9.   “The Scriptures as Word of God”, in The Eastern Churches Quarterly, VII, Supplementary Issue on “Tradition and Scripture” (1947), p. 78.

===

4.7 out of 5 stars 15 ratings

Part of: Perennial Philosophy (47 books)

Despite the long and well-known history of conflict between Christians and Muslims, their mystical traditions especially in the Christian East and in Sufism, have shared for centuries many of the same spiritual methods and goals. 

The purpose of this book, the first major publication of its kind, is to promote precisely this more inward kind of ecumenical perspective. 

These essays point to a spiritual heart in which the deeper meaning of Christian and Muslim beliefs and practices come alive, and 

where spiritual pilgrims may discover, beyond the level of seemingly contradictory forms, an inner commonality with those who follow other paths.

289 pages

Editorial Reviews

Review
... opens the way for a deep healing of the wounds of ignorance that have arisen ... between ... two great traditions. -- Alan Godlas, Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Georgia

Professor Cutsinger is to be congratulated for having organized such a memorable interchange of opinions. -- Martin Lings, formerly Keeper of Oriental Manuscripts in the British Museum and author of Mohammed: His Life According to the Earliest Sources

The essays in Paths ... evidence a rare combination of intellectual rigor, breadth of spirit, and deep personal faith. -- Scott C. Alexander, Director of Catholic-Muslim Studies, Catholic Theological Union

This book is a spiritual treasure to be read and to be lived. -- Albert J. Raboteau, Henry W. Putnam Professor of Religion, Princeton University

[An] informative study of the common threads and traits shared between the traditions of the Christian East and Islamic Sufism. -- The Midwest Book Review --This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author James S. Cutsinger

A widely recognized authority on the Sophia Perennis and the Perennialist school of comparative religious thought, Professor Cutsinger is best known for his work on the German philosopher Frithjof Schuon. He serves as secretary to the Foundation for Traditional Studies, and he is currently editing the Collected Works of Frithjof Schuon. In addition he is editing an anthology of Christian Mystical writings entitled "Not of this World," as part of World Wisdom's "Treasures of the World's Religion's" series.

The recipient of numerous teaching awards, he was honored in 1999 as a Michael J. Mungo University Teacher of the Year. He offers courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levles in Religious Studies, and he is a frequent contributor to USC's Honors College, where he has taken the lead in developing a series of courses in the study of Great Books.

Professor Cutsinger is a nationally known advocate of Socratic Teaching based on the classics. His consulting work has included curriculum development and design, contributions to great books seminars for professionals, and workshops in discussion-based pedagogy. He has also served as director of three National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminars.

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004FN1LW4
Publisher ‏ : ‎ World Wisdom (August 1, 2010)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 1, 2010
Print length ‏ : ‎ 289 pages
4.7 out of 5 stars 15 ratings

Customer reviews


Michael
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful bookReviewed in the United States on February 22, 2013
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Any Traditionalist would be insane not to pick up this book. Even though I don't belong to either tradition discussed, the parallels are beyond a shadow of a doubt. It's also a great conversation starter between someone who is Orthodox and another who is Muslim. Often Muslims are demonized in the West, and I hope this helps to shed some of that.

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GEORGE W ENGELHARD
5.0 out of 5 stars meditative prayersReviewed in the United States on September 27, 2018
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Loved the meditative prayers at the end of Huston Smith's contribution!!!

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Sarah B
5.0 out of 5 stars Five StarsReviewed in the United States on June 25, 2016
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A heavenly gift... Replete with meaning.

2 people found this helpful

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Ishraqi
5.0 out of 5 stars A Spiritual Harmony Among TraditionsReviewed in the United States on April 27, 2008

Reading "Paths of the Heart" was a true learning experience. 

In an age of strained relations between Christians and Muslims (and a time in which widespread ignorance of each others Traditions exist) this book could prove immensely helpful. If you know anything about Eastern Orthodoxy in the English speaking world you have probably heard of Bishop Kallistos Ware. Bishop Ware presents an excellent chapter on the Jesus Prayer and the way of entering the heart. The same can be said of Seyyed Hossein Nasr - That is, if you are at all knowledge regarding Islam in America you have probably read one of his books or at least heard of him before. Nasr's chapter on the Mercy of God alone is worth the price of the book.

If anyone is interested in previewing a chapter of this book before they purchase it I would recommend checking out James Cutsingers web page. On his page you can find the chapter " Hesychia, an Orthodox Opening to Esoteric Ecumenism" - [wont let me put the web address just Google " James Cutsinger, Hesychia, an Orthodox... "]

https://www.cutsinger.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/hesychia_an_orthodox_opening.pdf

https://sejinlifeforce.blogspot.com/2023/06/hesychia-orthodox-opening-to-esoteric.html

To comment on a previous review: 

Yes, Hesychasm is not recognized as "mainstream Christianity" in most Western denominations 

but it is perfectly mainstream among Orthodox Christians (including those living in the west). It's also compatible with the teachings of many of the great Catholic Mystics and Saints. 

Read "The Invocation of the Name of Jesus As Practiced in the Western Church" by Rama Coomaraswamy for evidence of this.

20 people found this helpful


John M. Cathey
5.0 out of 5 stars As an individual who takes great interest in all the topics in this bookReviewed in the United States on June 15, 2017

As an individual who takes great interest in all the topics in this book, I found the book enlightening on several grounds. For one, the collection focuses not only on what is shared and common to both the Eastern Christian Hesychast path and Sufism, but the authors feel comfortable enough to be honest about their Tradition's perspective(s), including where these two represented do not agree. As well, the collection does not shy away from the depth of its topics; there is no cutting corners; this is a full course meal.

Coming to the text with a background in Western Christianity and years of studying Sufism as well, I left the text with a new enthusiasm and interest in the Eastern Christian world. Just to read about the lofty states of some Eastern Christian saints was a grace.

4 people found this helpful

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matt
5.0 out of 5 stars Seeking the "virgin point"Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2002

A perusal of current media in print, radio and television reinforces the observation that we are living in a time when the cultures of the Middle East are portrayed as ideologically opposed to the West. At the core of our alleged differences is the role of Islamic fundamentalism with its hegemonic determination to dominate cultures both in the Middle East and abroad. Such views are not new. The "clash of civilizations" theory of Samuel Huntington had already proposed and popularized this understanding in the mid-1990s. At a time when this perspective is gaining momentum, it is helpful to seek a corrective to a myopic understanding of Islam that often accompanies Huntington's theory; namely, that Islam is nothing more than Wahhabism. Moreover, a historical reexamination of Christianity's own understanding of God can be beneficial for "Westerners" who tend to understand their own religious heritage typically through modern Protestant lenses, which often leads to the positing of false dichotomies between Islam and Christianity, seeing them as mutually exclusive with no common ground. By reconsidering the mystical theologies of each religion it can be shown that a fundamental convergence occurs in the mystical thought and experience of each tradition. In particular, this inner commonality can form the basis of a deeper conversation between Christians and Muslims than has been typical in our day, aiding in a clearer mutual understanding of the similarities that exist between the fundamental religious traditions of our cultures. To this end, Paths To The Heart is an excellent beginning.

As Thomas Merton said in his Conjectures:
"Le point vierge is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see the billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely...I have no program for this seeing. It is only given. But the gate of heaven is everywhere."
May we seek the gate of heaven everywhere.

40 people found this helpful

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baphomette de medici
5.0 out of 5 stars the best and most essential of the two mystic traditionsReviewed in the United States on August 11, 2008

aside from gnosticism and the essences (and the more buddhistic/mazdaian silk road forms of a less patriarchical 'christianity' and already dyed heavily with the wisdom of the pre-islamic sufis!), this book distills some wisdom of the two best aspects of islam and christianity...if anything, hesychasm and certain sufi practices/paths truly transcend these worn out labels (of christianity and islam...).

if you follow the more fundamentalist viewpoint...very contracting/centrifugal, not open and expansive/centripetal, don't
raise a fuss at the ecumenical gesture this book (re)presents.

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======
Paths to the Heart: Sufism and the Christian East

by James S. Cutsinger (Editor)

4.29 · Rating details · 31 ratings · 4 reviews
With wisdom that rings well with the heart, this volume answers the questions What do the mystical traditions of the Christian East and Sufism have in common? and Is there a dialogue that can promote a deep and lasting bond between Christianity and Islam? Amongst others, the contributors include Gray Henry, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Huston Smith.

Jan 31, 2013Gwen rated it really liked it
Shelves: islam-related, relgion
I picked this one up to see if there was a way to reconcile my Sufi path with my grandfather's Russian Orthodox path. This book does a pretty good job of bridging the gap. Some of the passages are much stronger than others. The first two and the one from Houston Smith were my personal favorites. I'm giving this one a four because it has quite a bit of good information in it, but at the same time I don't think this book will change anyone's mind one way or the other. In the introduction it's said that the point of the book, and the conference that it came from, was to bridge the gap between the religions. I just didn't get that sense from reading it. I'm not really sure why I feel that way though. (less)
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Jan 31, 2021Mark David Vinzens rated it it was amazing
Shelves: sufi
This book is a jewel of divine wisdom.
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Feb 28, 2019Quan Rjpt rated it it was amazing
A collection of articles from traditional authors. my favorite has to be Chittick. Always enjoy anything written by him.
flagLike · comment · see review…

ABOUT JAMES S. CUTSINGER

James S. Cutsinger

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James S. Cutsinger (Ph.D., Harvard) is Professor of Theology and Religious Thought at the University of South Carolina.

The recipient of a number of teaching awards, including most recently USC’s Michael J. Mungo Distinguished Professor of the Year for 2011, Professor Cutsinger offers courses in Religious Studies at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and directs a series of great books semi ...more



BOOKS BY JAMES S. CUTSINGER








QUOTES FROM PATHS TO THE HEAR...

“The heart is the center of the human microcosm, at once the center
of the physical body, the vital energies, the emotions, and the soul,
as well as the meeting place between the human and the celestial
realms where the spirit resides. How remarkable is this reality of the heart, that mysterious center which from the point of view of our earthly existence seems so small, and yet as the Prophet has said it is the Throne (al-‘arsh) of God the All-Merciful (ar-Rahmân), the Throne that encompasses the whole universe. Or as he uttered in another saying, “My Heaven containeth Me not, nor My Earth, but the heart of My faithful servant doth contain Me.”

It is the heart, the realm of interiority, to which Christ referred
when he said, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Lk 17:21), and it is the heart which the founders of all religions and the sacred scriptures advise man to keep pure as a condition for his salvation and deliverance. We need only recall the words of the Gospel, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt 5:8)

[…]

In Christianity the Desert Fathers articulated the spiritual, mystical, and symbolic meanings of the reality of the heart, and these teachings led to a long tradition in the Eastern Orthodox Church known as Hesychasm, culminating with St Gregory Palamas, which is focused on the “prayer of the heart” and which includes the exposition of the significance of the heart and the elaboration of the mysticism and theology of the heart. In Catholicism another development took place, in which the heart of the faithful became in a sense replaced by the heart of Christ, and a new spirituality developed on the basis of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Reference to His bleeding heart became common in the writings of such figures as St Bernard of Clairvaux and St Catherine of Sienna. The Christian doctrines of the heart, based as they are on the Bible, present certain universal theses to be seen also in Judaism, the most important of which is the association of the heart with the inner soul of man and the center of the human state. In Jewish mysticism the spirituality of the heart was further developed, and some Jewish mystics emphasized the idea of the “broken or contrite heart” (levnichbar) and wrote that to reach the Divine Majesty one had to “tear one’s heart” and that the “broken heart” mentioned in the Psalms sufficed. To make clear the universality of the spiritual significance of the heart across religious boundaries, while also emphasizing the development of the “theology of the heart” and methods of “prayer of the heart” particular to each tradition, one may recall that the name of Horus, the Egyptian god, meant the “heart of the world”. In Sanskrit the term for heart, hridaya, means also the center of the world, since, by virtue of the analogy between the macrocosm and the microcosm, the center of man is also the center of the universe. Furthermore, in Sanskrit the term shraddha, meaning faith, also signifies knowledge of the heart, and the same is true in Arabic, where the word îmân means faith when used for man and knowledge when used for God, as in the Divine Name al-Mu’min. As for the Far Eastern tradition, in Chinese the term xin means both heart and mind or consciousness. – Seyyed Hossein Nasr (Chapter 3: The Heart of the Faithful is the Throne of the All-Merciful)”

“The heart is the center of the human microcosm, at once the center of the physical body, the vital energies, the emotions, and the soul, as well as the meeting place between the human and the celestial realms where the spirit resides. How remarkable is this reality of the heart, that mysterious center which from the point of view of our earthly existence seems so small, and yet as the Prophet has said it is the Throne (al-‘arsh) of God the All-Merciful (ar-Rahmân), the Throne that encompasses the whole universe. Or as he uttered in another saying, “My Heaven containeth Me not, nor My Earth, but the heart of My faithful servant doth contain Me.” It is the heart, the realm of interiority, to which Christ referred when he said, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Lk 17:21), and it is the heart which the founders of all religions and the sacred scriptures advise man to keep pure as a condition for his salvation and deliverance. We need only recall the words of the Gospel, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt 5:8)

[…]

In Christianity the Desert Fathers articulated the spiritual, mystical, and symbolic meanings of the reality of the heart, and these teachings led to a long tradition in the Eastern Orthodox Church known as Hesychasm, culminating with St Gregory Palamas, which is focused on the “prayer of the heart” and which includes the exposition of the significance of the heart and the elaboration of the mysticism and theology of the heart. In Catholicism another development took place, in which the heart of the faithful became in a sense replaced by the heart of Christ, and a new spirituality developed on the basis of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Reference to His bleeding heart became common in the writings of such figures as St Bernard of Clairvaux and St Catherine of Sienna. The Christian doctrines of the heart, based as they are on the Bible, present certain universal theses to be seen also in Judaism, the most important of which is the association of the heart with the inner soul of man and the center of the human state. In Jewish mysticism the spirituality of the heart was further developed, and some Jewish mystics emphasized the idea of the “broken or contrite heart” (levnichbar) and wrote that to reach the Divine Majesty one had to “tear one’s heart” and that the “broken heart” mentioned in the Psalms sufficed. To make clear the universality of the spiritual significance of the heart across religious boundaries, while also emphasizing the development of the “theology of the heart” and methods of “prayer of the heart” particular to each tradition, one may recall that the name of Horus, the Egyptian god, meant the “heart of the world”. In Sanskrit the term for heart, hridaya, means also the center of the world, since, by virtue of the analogy between the macrocosm and the microcosm, the center of man is also the center of the universe. Furthermore, in Sanskrit the term shraddha, meaning faith, also signifies knowledge of the heart, and the same is true in Arabic, where the word îmân means faith when used for man and knowledge when used for God, as in the Divine Name al-Mu’min. As for the Far Eastern tradition, in Chinese the term xin means both heart and mind or consciousness. – Seyyed Hossein Nasr (Chapter 3: The Heart of the Faithful is the Throne of the All-Merciful)”

===

   
The Long Way Home

Ye Shall Know the Truth: Christianity and the Perennial Philosophy eBook : Azevedo, Mateus Soares de, Azevedo, Mateus Soares de: Amazon.com.au: Kindle Store

Ye Shall Know the Truth: Christianity and the Perennial Philosophy eBook : Azevedo, Mateus Soares de, Azevedo, Mateus Soares de: Amazon.com.au: Kindle Store

D. Kovacs

5.0 out of 5 stars Dig into this book, and you might find gold!

Reviewed in the United States on 30 May 2020

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Including “The Power of the Name” by Kallistos Ware and “The Virgin” by James Cutsinger in this book of Traditionalist essays was a master stroke. Add “The Abolition of Man” by C.S. Lewis, and you have more than enough food for thought. There are also some astonishing essays addressing the top-down destruction of the traditional Catholic faith in the last 50 years, which are enough to strike horror in any Orthodox heart. A worthwhile effort!

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Stephen M

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on 10 February 2017

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Very excellent compilations of essays.

Highly recommended.

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R-Naught

1.0 out of 5 stars I thought this book was supposed to relate to the perennial philosophy?

Reviewed in the United States on 9 July 2006

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I finally had to give up on this book after suffering through the first 100 pages. The book is a collection of articles supposedly linking certain tenets of Christianity to the perennial philosophy. Having read the perennial philosophy and having studied the eastern religions for several years, my expectations were high. I read the first few articles and just could not see their connections to the perennial philosophy. I also found the articles themselves to be of extremely limited usefulness on their own merits. If you are trying to find a glimmer of hope in the Christian world view, as I was, by seeking a connection to the perennial philosophy, particularly as it relates to the eastern practices, look elsewhere.

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===

Dec 28, 2012J. rated it liked it

Shelves: societal, christianity, philosophy, occult-esoterica

This book is a mixed bag, there a moments when I think even a orthodox Catholic might be able to agree and then there are points when reading this book that one gets the sense that an orthodox Catholic would either call this New Age Mumbo-Jumbo posing as intelligent, as soon as certain authors tried to make certain Saints and even Jesus and the Blessed Mother into pagan myths re-embodied I saw where this was going and so my review for this book is mixed because of that, although to be sure this book is subtitled, "Christianity and the Perennial Philosophy" not how Christianity is the Perennial Philosophy, so rather than trying to, "draw all men unto Christ." (cf. John 12:32)

The book seems to tell all men to stay where they are and not bother leaving since they are all part of the same thing anyway, this book sorely goes past the fact that either Jesus Christ is God or He is Not, and if He is, no other religion - no matter how much The Spirit may have informed it - can compare to the One He Founded, and some contributors in this book would agree, but even then they attack the Post-Vatican II Catholic Church, and so show themselves to be a mixed and odd bunch, ergo my mixed review.

If you do read this, and are orthodox you will need a discerning eye to know what is agreeable and what is not. (less)

Philosophy of Science in the Light of the Perennial Wisdom - Kindle edition by Bina, Mahmoud, Ziarani, Alireza K.. Religion & Spirituality Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

Philosophy of Science in the Light of the Perennial Wisdom - Kindle edition by Bina, Mahmoud, Ziarani, Alireza K.. Religion & Spirituality Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

Philosophy of Science in the Light of the Perennial Wisdom by [Mahmoud Bina, Alireza K. Ziarani]

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Backed by its technological achievements, modern science appears as the de facto source of truth to the majority of our contemporaries. Its sole reliance on reason and empirical data gives it an air of objectivity that has conferred upon it an almost unquestioning authority. Against the backdrop of this pervasive scientism, Philosophy of Science in the Light of the Perennial Wisdom is a daring attempt to offer an intellectual critique of modern science in its foundation by rigorously examining the intrinsic limitations of rational thought and empirical investigation. Unique of its kind, this book offers a refreshing look at the traditional doctrines of epistemology and metaphysics as an antidote to the subjective as well as objective errors of modern science, which is thus revealed as no more than a belief system that falls radically short of offering a full knowledge of reality; this, in contrast to the perennial wisdom of the world’s great religions that for millennia have offered humankind not only keys to true knowledge, but also the means of attaining it, which precisely constitutes man’s reason for being.

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Editorial Reviews

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“Here is a refreshingly direct and crisp critique of the limitations of modern science and the pretensions of scientism. This precious book may serve as a genuine guide for the perplexed in clearing the ground for a rediscovery of sacred science and perennial wisdom.” -- Patrick Laude, Professor of Theology, School of Foreign Service in Qatar, Georgetown University

“This book is a critical comparison of the tenets of modern science with traditional teachings about science. . . . Conceptual clarity, didactical presentation, and fearless and irrefutable deductions make for an enjoyable, challenging, and most satisfying reading. A thought-provoking, enriching MUST for anybody seeking knowledge.” -- Andrea Vasella, Professor Emeritus of Organic Chemistry, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich

“This book is a must-read for science and engineering students and scholars. With an extensive knowledge and experience in science and philosophy, the authors of this intellectually stimulating book situate modern science in its broader context, offering essential keys to total and plenary knowledge.” -- Maryam Rahnemoonfar, Associate Professor of Information Systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

“A foundational work on the philosophy of science from the perspective of the perennial philosophy, this is a truly comprehensive analysis of the relationship between science and religion with clear answers to fundamental questions. I highly recommend it to all students and scholars.” -- Shantia Yarahmadian, Associate Professor of Mathematics, Mississippi State University --This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author

Mahmoud Bina was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1938. He received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Göttingen, Germany, in 1969, and subsequently a master's degree in mathematics from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1973. He taught a wide range of courses in mathematics as well as philosophy of science at Isfahan University of Technology, Iran, from 1977 until his retirement in 2006. Dr. Bina and his wife live in Isfahan, Iran.

Alireza K. Ziarani was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1972. He studied mathematics at McGill University, Canada, and later engineering at the University of Toronto, Canada, where he received a Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering in 2002. A tenured faculty member at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York, he taught courses in engineering and science before leaving for the private sector in 2009. He currently resides with his wife in Bloomington, Indiana.

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08QLXGLYC

Publisher ‏ : ‎ World Wisdom (November 1, 2020)

Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 1, 2020

Language ‏ : ‎ English

File size ‏ : ‎ 1394 KB

Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled

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X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled

Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Print length ‏ : ‎ 130 pages

Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1936597683

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Best Sellers Rank: #179,071 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)

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Mas Kh

5.0 out of 5 stars Your Library is Incomplete Without this Book

Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2020

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This is one of those must-have books for just about everyone. Having only read the introduction - received the book less than two hours ago - I have a clearer understanding of what "truth" is and how reason must assume certain self-evident truths without which reason cannot proceed or it ends in a vicious circle of doubt.

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Samuel Bendeck Sotillos

5.0 out of 5 stars Discerning Modern Science from Sacred Science

Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2021

This book under review is a precious and remarkable work, which merits wide attention. It is unique in situating modern science in the light of the universal and timeless wisdom of the world’s religions and what can be gleaned from them. It offers the integral principles to return science to its origins in metaphysics so that the human being as the microcosm can rejoin with the macrocosm, opening science to truths of higher realities as known in all times and places as sacred science.

-Paradigm Explorer, No. 134 (2020)

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The Cambridge Companion To Sufism | PDF | Sufism | Rumi

The Cambridge Companion To Sufism | PDF | Sufism | Rumi

The Cambridge Companion To Sufism

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The Cambridge Companion to Sufism

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The Cambridge Companion to Sufism (Cambridge Companions to Religion)

by Lloyd Ridgeon (Editor)

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Sufism, the mystical or aesthetic doctrine in Islam, has occupied a very specific place in the Islamic tradition, with its own history, literature and devotional practices. Its development began in the seventh century, almost immediately after the early conquests, and spread throughout the Islamic world. The Cambridge Companion to Sufism traces its evolution from the formative period to the present, addressing specific themes along the way within the context of the times. In section discussing the early period, the devotional practices of the earliest Sufis are considered. The section on the medieval period, when Sufism was at its height, examines Sufi doctrines, different forms of mysticism and the antinomian expressions of Sufism. The section on the modern period explains the controversies that surrounded Sufism, the changes that took place in the colonial period and how Sufism transformed into a transnational movement in the twentieth century. This inimitable volume sheds light on a multifaceted and alternative aspect of Islamic history and religion.

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Editorial Reviews

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"… this volume offers a beautiful doorway to Sufism."

J. Hammer, Choice

'The volume’s contributors distinguish themselves by their expertise. The uniformity of transcription and citation should also be applauded, given how difficult such uniformity is to achieve in an anthology. As mentioned, the volume addresses itself to an academic readership. Of help to the academic reader are comprehensive footnotes, mostly referring to an abundance of secondary works, and the further references at the end of the articles, except chapters 5 and 12. Also helpful are an index of names of individuals, a list of technical terms and names of groups, and a register of English terms and place names. Thus the volume may be absolutely recommended to anyone with a basic knowledge of Sufism who wants to delve more deeply into particular issues.' Angelika Brodersen, Die Welt des Islams

Book Description

This book traces the evolution of Sufism from the formative period to the present.

About the Author

Lloyd Ridgeon is Reader in Islamic Studies at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. His previous publications include Javanmardi: A Sufi Code of Honour (2011) and Morals and Mysticism in Persian Sufism (2010).

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Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cambridge University Press (December 8, 2014)

Language ‏ : ‎ English

Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages

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Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars

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Top review from the United States

Lee Collins

1.0 out of 5 stars Unscholarly whitewash

Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2015

I bought this book because I had read a lot of conflicting views on Sufism and I wanted to get to the bottom of it all. Unfortunately, “The Cambridge Companion to Sufism” was a big disappointment.

Sufism is described as a religious or God-centred way of life whose ultimate goal is an experience of communion with the divine. The main problem with it is that its true origins and intentions are shrouded in mystery much of which is deliberate. Part 1 of the book, “The Early Period”, seemed promising enough. The first essay tries to unravel the origins of Sufism going back to the early days of Islam. The author mentions the many similarities between this tradition within Islam and Christian versions of it. Could this imply Sufi dependence on pre-Islamic traditions?

This possibility is supported by what the author refers to as the “puzzle” of Christian asceticism being taken up by Islamic currents at an early stage while it took centuries for Islam to develop anything that would parallel Christian mysticism, i.e., the practices leading to the experience of communion with the divine that Islamic Sufism claims to be its ultimate goal. Unfortunately, neither this author (Christopher Melchert) nor those of the following chapters devote much time to this line of inquiry. 

The book ignores the findings of Margaret Smith in “The Way of the Mystics: The Early Christian Mystics and the Rise of the Sufis” (http://www.amazon.com/way-mystics-early-Christian-Sufis/dp/B001Q27838/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1448371218&sr=1-1&keywords=margaret+smith%2C+way+of+the+mystics)

which have shown that Islamic Sufism has its roots in Christian traditions that had come into being through a fusion of Christianity and Neoplatonism in the early centuries of the current era. These traditions had spread throughout the Middle East and beyond by the time of prophet Mohammad and Smith shows how they were gradually adopted by the Muslims who came into contact with them.

Smith’s findings show how Arab Muslims first imitated Christian monks and hermits by adopting a life of renunciation, seclusion and asceticism and only later took to other practices such as prayer and contemplation leading to mysticism proper. These findings explain the “puzzle” mentioned above and might contribute a lot to solving the problem of Sufi origins. While Christian philosophy and mysticism arose naturally in the Classical world where these traditions were at home, Islamic philosophy and mysticism were not a natural growth within Islam.

The evidence shows that Sufism belonged to the wisdom traditions of the Hellenistic world which went back to the time of the Ancient Greek philosophers who were known as "sophoi", wise ones. Some Muslim scholars, e.g., al-Biruni believed that the Arabic word “Sufi” comes from Greek “Sophia”, wisdom, and Vilayat Khan, a modern teacher of Sufism, said that Sufism originated in the Ancient Greek Mystery traditions. Such views seem much more credible than those trying to trace Sufism to the Koran. In any case, it is hard to see how the teachings of Sufis like Suhrawardi could be based on mainstream Islam. It was precisely due to its non-Islamic origins that Sufism was often rejected and suppressed in countries dominated by Islam.

The attitude of official Islam to Sufism meant that the latter could only have survived in two basic forms: an authentic one existing largely underground and available only to selected initiates (Christianity itself often subsisted in this form in Muslim-occupied areas) and an Islamicized one that was “Sufism” only in name and was used by official Islam for proselytizing purposes. Sufi “orders” often used Sufism to lend a veneer of cultural and spiritual respectability to Islam and to facilitate the latter’s advance among developed non-Muslim populations, e.g., in Persia and India. See Moinuddin Chisti, Badi-ud-Din Shah-i-Madar, etc. Especially after the collapse of the Abbasid Caliphate in the 13th century Sufism played a key role in the spread of Islam (Rafic Zakaria, "The Struggle Within Islam", 1988).

While Sufis living under Muslim occupation had obvious good reason to claim an Islamic origin, those living in non-Muslim countries had no such reason. Simply put, this means that Sufis teaching in non-Muslim (Western) countries who claim links to Islam, Mohammad and the Koran cannot be authentic and must have a hidden agenda which is to convert their followers to Islam by stealth.

Part 3 of the book, “Sufism in the Modern Age”, is no better. Page 266 says that “some Western Sufis converted to an orthodox form of Islam, while others maintained interest only in its esoteric aspect, thereby reproducing the early Orientalist divide between Sufism and Islam”. In the author’s view accepting Sufism while rejecting Islam is “Orientalist” (i.e., artificial, unjustified and undesirable or “racist” and “criminal”). There is no in-depth critical assessment of modern sponsors of Sufism and of what admittedly has become a self-promoting Sufi industry dominated by commercial and other materialistic concerns. Promoters of Sufism in the West are only briefly and uncritically reviewed and dubious characters like Idries Shah (who have long been exposed as fraudsters) get away scot-free.

There is a strange silence on Sufism’s links to missionary, militant or terroristic Islam (groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, Jamaat-e Islami, Hizb ut-Tahrir) that is inconsistent with the high standards of scholarship readers might expect from a book bearing the name of an institution like Cambridge and the authors obviously follow a prescribed pattern of unscholarly, politically correct writing.

Itzchak Weismann of the Jewish-Arab Center at the University of Haifa rebukes Western societies for looking on Muslim immigrant communities as “nothing but an outgrowth of the Islamic Other” and Pnina Werbner, a far-left social anthropologist at Keele University, concludes by focusing on Sufi “transnationalism”, “multiculturalism”, “inclusiveness” and the “redistributive economy” of Sufi cults involving voluntary labour and monetary donations.

“The Cambridge Companion to Sufism” comes very close to rebranding Sufism as the academia-approved religion of the future: communism with an Islamo-mystical twist. I am reminded of newspaper reports on British universities receiving large sums from repressive Islamic regimes in exchange for promoting a whitewashed image of all things Islamic among a progressively ignorant and gullible public. With universities like that, no wonder our education system has gone to the dogs.

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Top reviews from other countries

Mr B

3.0 out of 5 stars Cambridge companion to Sufism

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 19, 2014

Verified Purchase

When I ordered this it was not scheduled for publication until January 2015, and I it was ordered on the expectation that it would be of the same standard as my Companion to Plato, and Companion to Plotinus. I have not looked back to see if a publishers 'brief' was evident, but in this case it seems to be 'to bring it up to date;' something which would be difficult in itself because of the variety of perceptions as to what Sufis are and what Sufism accordingly, is. The essays are in three sections: the early period; the medieaval period; and, not surprisingly, the modern period (my paraphrasing). What I found in the first four essays was a dominance of references. The minute I see Brill, as the publisher of one source of information, I think forget it, even one of Professor Lewisohn's books was £68. I accept that academics will have the onus to write for other academics, but there is a large untapped body of the interested, which Schimmel and Chittick seem to have sussed out a long time ago.Indries Shah and Coleman Berks certainly, I would put in a totaly different kind of category. I am fully aware of the pressure on young academics to show they have done their reading, but I do feel that the whole of this practice - which starts at undergraduate level, needs to be readdressed. Both Hadot and Bloom have made the same point that students are encouraged to replicate the thoughts of their professors, at university level. So we have claims for originality, which means little is we are to accept that 'there is nothing new under the sun', or the culture of producing obscurity, and this applies as much modern philosophy as it does to something described alternatively as esoteric or theurgic. One of the appeals, it seems to me, of modern Islamic evangelicalism, is that it offers a discipline which is easier to take on board because it is imposed from the 'outside'. I remember reading a report of a talk by Helmut Kalminski - who I have a lot of respect for, being asked the question: 'Does one have to become Muslim to become a Sufi?' And the question was hedged.Reading the last two chapters, which while very interesting, seemed to be a natural development from Helminski's non-answer, to no. As a medievalist at heart, I was saddened. I ran a workshop on Rumi for a year, and stopped because I was personally getting more interested in what Rumi was teaching through his poetry, than the poetry itself; but the students were more interested in the poetry. I met some American-Iranians in the summer, but who only said, 'know a lot about our culture,' and that was it; not why I was interested; replicating the same perspective. Surely the whole point of what Gurdjieff and the Study Society were seeking, was not something as an orientalised Keats or Wordsworth, but something fundamental, and very practical. I am also not impressed by those who take the feminist approach, and simply regurgitate the same style as their male counterpoints. There are an awful lot of names mentioned or referred to in this Companion, and unfortunately some of it reads like an informed Wickopidea entry. I would rather read about those from Bistami and Junaid to Rumi and San'ai, and what they taught, than some so-called claimed modern Sufi. Rumi said: 'Words stop at the abyss.' , but then, I do not know what brief the editor was given.

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Natta Kuiski

Mar 19, 2020Natta Kuiski rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition

Shelves: sufism

A collection of chapters written by different contributors -- all Western-trained academics, as far as I can tell -- about different aspects of Sufism. It is split into three sections:

 the earliest days, the medieval period, and modern Sufism.

 I especially enjoyed the chapters by Christopher Melchert ("Origins and Early Sufism"), Ahmet Karamustafa ("Antinomian Sufis"), Beverly Mack ("Nana Asma'u: Nineteenth-Century West African Sufi") and Knut Vikør ("Sufism and Colonialism"). Mack's and Vikør's chapters particularly grabbed my attention; I've really got to follow this up by reading more about Nana Asma'u specifically and West African Islam generally. (less)

The way of the mystics: The early Christian mystics and the rise of the Sufis: Smith, Margaret: Amazon.com: Books

The way of the mystics: The early Christian mystics and the rise of the Sufis: Smith, Margaret: Amazon.com: Books

The way of the mystics: The early Christian mystics and the rise of the Sufis Hardcover – January 1, 1978
by Margaret Smith (Author)

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Includes bibliographical references: (p. 258-263) and index 

1. The meaning and nature of mysticism -- 

2. Early Christian asceticism -- 

3. Asceticism and the monastic life among women -- 

4. Early mysticism in the Near East -- 

5. Early mysticism in the Middle East -- 

6. Christianity and Islam at the beginning of the Islamic era -- 

7. Asceticism and mysticism in orthodox Islam -- 

8. The rise of Sufism and the early ascetic ideal -- 

9. The mystical doctrines of early Sufism -- 

10. Some early Sufi mystics -- 

11. Conclusion