{"id":388,"date":"2013-06-27T01:47:52","date_gmt":"2013-06-27T00:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www2.amiscorbin.com\/eyes-of-flesh-and-eyes-of-fire\/"},"modified":"2015-07-09T21:53:02","modified_gmt":"2015-07-09T19:53:02","slug":"eyes-of-flesh-and-eyes-of-fire","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.amiscorbin.com\/en\/bibliographie\/eyes-of-flesh-and-eyes-of-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Eyes of Flesh and Eyes of Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; line-height: normal; text-align: center;\" align=\"center\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><b><span style=\"font-size: 16pt;\">Eyes of Flesh and Eyes of Fire<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: center; line-height: 24px;\" align=\"center\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16.5pt; line-height: 33px; letter-spacing: -1pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16pt; line-height: 31px; letter-spacing: -1pt;\">Science and Gnosis<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: center; line-height: 14px;\" align=\"center\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span class=\"GramE\"><i><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.4pt;\">by<\/span><\/i><\/span><i><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.4pt;\">\u00a0Henry Corbin<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: center; line-height: 14px;\" align=\"center\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><i><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.4pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: center; line-height: 14px;\" align=\"center\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><i><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.4pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: center; line-height: 14px;\" align=\"center\"><i style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.4pt;\">Opening\u00a0<span class=\"GramE\">address,<\/span>\u00a0June 1978, at the\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\">Universit\u00e9<\/span>\u00a0St. Jean\u00a0de<sub>\u00a0<\/sub>Jerus<\/span><\/i><i style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.3pt;\">alem, translated from Cahier No. 5 de L\u2019U.S.J.J.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0.75in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><i><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.25pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in -1.2in 0.0001pt 95pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 1pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><i><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.25pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0Taking the words \u201cOrient\u201d and \u201cOccident\u201d not in their geographic\u00a0<\/span>or ethnic sense, but in the spiritual and metaphysical sense given them\u00a0<span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.25pt;\">by tradition, we have spoken before of the contrast between the\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05pt;\">\u201cpilgrims of the Orient and the vagabonds of the Occident.\u201d Now it is\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.2pt;\">a question of knowing how to attempt the pilgrimage toward the\u00a0<\/span>Orient and extricate ourselves from vagabondage. First of all, the way\u00a0<span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.05pt;\">must be discovered. With what eyes must we look in order to discover\u00a0<\/span>this way and set out on it?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.2pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0Let us begin by recalling that in the biblical visions, Angels are\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.15pt;\">recognized by their eyes of fire (cf. Daniel 10:6, Apoc. 19:12, etc.).\u00a0<\/span>When we contrast the eyes of the soul with the eyes of the flesh, it is these eyes of fire that are referred to.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.1pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0The point of this year\u2019s theme is to mark, by the contrast between\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.25pt;\">the look of the eyes of flesh and the look of the eyes of fire, the contrast\u00a0<\/span>between the way present-day \u201cscience\u201d looks at beings and things and\u00a0<span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.3pt;\">the way they are looked at by what is traditionally designated as\u00a0<\/span>gnosis.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0In order to justify our extension of the concept of gnosis, let me\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.2pt;\">remind you that ever since the Congress of Messina (April 1966)\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.05pt;\">scholars have agreed to differentiate the use of the word \u201c<span class=\"SpellE\">gnosticism<\/span>\u201d\u00a0<\/span>from that of the word \u201cgnosis.\u201d It is understood that the\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\"><span class=\"GramE\">gnosticism<\/span><\/span>\u00a0of<span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.2pt;\">the first centuries of our era only constitutes one chapter in the whole of gnosis (there is a Jewish gnosis, a Christian gnosis, an Islamic gnosis, a\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.25pt;\">Buddhist gnosis, etc.). Therefore, we do not propose to take a position\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.15pt;\">concerning the problems raised about\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\"><span class=\"GramE\">gnosticism<\/span><\/span>\u00a0by historians of\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.05pt;\">religion and historians of dogma\u2014and still less to take these discussions\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05pt;\">up again. It is one thing for a historian to propose hypotheses on the<\/span>\u00a0origins of gnosis; it is another to ask ourselves the theoretical and\u00a0<span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.1pt;\">practical significance of gnosis for us today, because gnosis is not a\u00a0<\/span>phenomenon tied to the historical conditions of the second century,\u00a0<span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.05pt;\">but a religious phenomenon perpetuating itself from century to cen<\/span>tury.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.25pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0It is essentially a question of acknowledging the generally accepted definition of the word gnosis as designating a certain type or mode of\u00a0<\/span>knowledge, correlated with the phenomenon of the world to which\u00a0<span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.1pt;\">this type of knowledge corresponds, and of making use of this as a\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.15pt;\">criterion in order to bring judgment to bear on the concept of \u201cscience\u201d\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.35pt;\">in the form that dominates our epoch. In other words, it is essentially a\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.2pt;\">question of determining with what eyes this \u201cscience\u201d (in all its\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.2pt;\">domains) looks at the world, and with what eyes gnosis looks at it. The\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.1pt;\">point is that the phenomenon of the world, or rather the phenomenon\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.15pt;\">of worlds, varies decisively according to the way it is looked at. The\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.35pt;\">phenomenon of the world cannot be constituted in the same way when\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.1pt;\">looked at with the eyes of flesh and the eyes of fire.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.2pt;\">\u00a0Let it be understood that gnosis is characterized as the\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\">salvational<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05pt;\">redemptive,\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\">soteriological<\/span>\u00a0knowledge because it has the virtue of\u00a0<\/span>bringing about the inner transformation of man. The world which is\u00a0<span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.1pt;\">the object of this knowledge implies in its very plan the role and<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.1pt;\">function of this knowledge itself. The dramatic aspect of the cosmogony in which the human soul is itself a protagonist is in fact the very\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.05pt;\">drama of gnosis: the fall from the world of Light, the exile and the\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.25pt;\">struggle in the world of blindness and ignorance, the triumphant final<\/span>redemption.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.15pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0That is why one is astounded when present-day historians, or\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.35pt;\">philosophers, reputedly serious in other domains, adopt a conception of\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.3pt;\">gnosis, perhaps from second- or third-hand sources, which in fact is the\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.15pt;\">exact opposite of gnosis. We have heard the idea expressed that\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.05pt;\">ideology is to modern science what gnosis is to religious faith. This\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.1pt;\">analogy of the relationship is completely false, first of all because the\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.2pt;\">result of the secularization of religious faith is not modern science but\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.15pt;\">rather ideology itself. This has nothing to do with gnosis, which has\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.35pt;\">avoided just this secularization. Gnosis is not a matter of dogma but of\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.15pt;\">symbol. People have even gone so far as to turn a now dead ideologist\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.25pt;\">and political leader into something of a\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\">gnostic<\/span>, under the pretext that if\u00a0<\/span>the believer knows that he believes, the ideologist believes that he\u00a0<span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.3pt;\">knows. More sophistry: the word \u201cbelieve\u201d is not used in the same way\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.45pt;\">each time, and we can be sure that the ideologist does not\u00a0<i>believe\u00a0<\/i>that he\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.1pt;\">knows, he\u00a0<i>knows\u00a0<\/i>that he knows.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.1pt;\">\u00a0It is these catastrophic confusions that lead people to say, for\u00a0<\/span>example, that gnosis claims to give a \u201cpositive knowledge\u201d of the\u00a0<span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05pt;\">mysteries, and that this knowledge contradicts faith. Far from it! Gnosis and its theosophy have nothing in common with what is understood these days by \u201cpositive knowledge.\u201d But an irritating\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.1pt;\">symptom of these impertinent confusions is the use today, without\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05pt;\">rhyme or reason, of the word \u201cManichaeism\u201d when it is simply a\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.15pt;\">matter of duality and dualism, as if all dualism was merely a secular<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.2pt;\">ization of Manichaeism when in fact neither Manichaean religion nor\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.1pt;\">gnosis has anything to do with it. It is all taking place as if ignorance\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.2pt;\">and an anti-<span class=\"SpellE\">gnostic<\/span>\u00a0feeling, tacit and unexplained, were striving to go\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.05pt;\">beyond the limits of absurdity.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.25pt;\">\u00a0Since we are going to speak of gnosis in this period of study, these\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.1pt;\">warnings are necessary at the outset. It appears to me that all these pseudo-criticisms misinterpret, simply and absolutely, the meaning of\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.15pt;\">the word gnosis. They identify it merely with\u00a0<i>knowing\u00a0<\/i>and they<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.3pt;\">oppose it to\u00a0<i>believing.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.2pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0Now, in point of fact, as we have just said, in contrast to all other\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.15pt;\">learning or knowledge, gnosis is\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\">salvational<\/span>\u00a0knowledge. To speak of gnosis as theoretical knowledge is a contradiction in terms. It must\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.05pt;\">therefore be admitted that in contrast to all other theoretical learning<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.2pt;\">or knowledge, gnosis is knowledge that changes and transforms the\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.25pt;\">knowing subject. This, I know, is just what cannot be admitted by an\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.3pt;\">agnostic\u00a0<\/span><\/i><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.3pt;\">science, let alone a philosophy or a theology which can only, in\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.25pt;\">some sense, speak of gnosis in the third person. But when one speaks of it in that way, one is no longer speaking of gnosis, and all the criticism\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.1pt;\">misses the mark.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.15pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0It is therefore necessary, before continuing, to expose these confu<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.2pt;\">sions and their sources.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.25pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0A first source of confusion stems from the fact that critics of gnosis\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.1pt;\">have at their disposal only two categories,\u00a0<i>believing\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0<i>knowing,\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0<\/span>they identify gnosis with knowing alone. It is thus completely over<span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05pt;\">looked that between believing and knowing there is a third mediating\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.3pt;\">term, everything connoted by the term inner vision, itself corre<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05pt;\">sponding to this intermediary and mediatory world forgotten by the\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.1pt;\">official philosophy and theology of our times: the\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\"><i>mundus<\/i><\/span><i>\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\">imaginalis<\/span>,\u00a0<\/i><\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.15pt;\">the\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\"><i>imaginal<\/i><\/span><i>\u00a0<\/i>world. Islamic gnosis offers here the necessary triadic\u00a0<\/span>scheme: there is intellective knowledge\u00a0<i>(<\/i>\u2019<span class=\"SpellE\"><i>agl<\/i><\/span><span class=\"GramE\"><i>) ,<\/i><\/span><i>\u00a0<\/i>there is knowledge of\u00a0<span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.45pt;\">traditional ideas which are objects of faith\u00a0<i>(<span class=\"SpellE\">nagl<\/span>) ,\u00a0<\/i>and there is\u00a0<\/span>knowledge as inner vision, intuitive revelation\u00a0<i>(<span class=\"SpellE\">kashf<\/span>).\u00a0<\/i>Gnosis is inner vision. Its mode of exposition is narrative; it is a\u00a0<i>recital.\u00a0<\/i>Inasmuch as it\u00a0<span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.35pt;\">sees, it\u00a0<i>knows.\u00a0<\/i>But inasmuch as what it sees does not arise from\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05pt;\">\u201cpositive\u201d empirical, historical data, it\u00a0<i>believes.\u00a0<\/i>It is Wisdom and it is\u00a0<\/span>faith. It is\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\"><i>Pistis<\/i><\/span><i>\u00a0Sophia.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.1pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0Another source of confusion is the lack of discrimination between\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.15pt;\">the\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\">gnostic<\/span>\u00a0schools of the second century, between a\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\">Valentinus<\/span>\u00a0and a\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"SpellE\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.1pt;\">Marcion<\/span><\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.1pt;\">.\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\">Valentinus<\/span>\u00a0never professed the metaphysical\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\">antisemitism<\/span>\u00a0of\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"SpellE\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.15pt;\">Marcion<\/span><\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.15pt;\">\u00a0as regards the God of the Old Testament.\u00a0<span class=\"GramE\">Quite the contrary.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.25pt;\">Moreover, there is an original Jewish gnosis found in the\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\">Judaeo<\/span>-<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05pt;\">Christian literature called pseudo-Clementine, in a book such as the\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.1pt;\">Hebrew\u00a0<i>Third Enoch,\u00a0<\/i>the main document of the mystical theology of\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05pt;\">the\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\"><i>Merkabah<\/i><\/span><i>.\u00a0<\/i>Some scholars even tend to give gnosis a Judaic origin.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05pt;\">\u00a0Finally, let us expose\u00a0<span class=\"GramE\">another confusion<\/span>: the cosmology of gnosis is\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.15pt;\">in no way a nihilism, a sort of \u201c<span class=\"SpellE\">decreation<\/span>\u201d of the creative act. How\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05pt;\">could it be, since the aim of gnosis is cosmic salvation, the restoration of things to the state which preceded the cosmic drama? The<span class=\"SpellE\">gnostic<\/span>\u00a0is\u00a0<\/span>a stranger, a prisoner in this world, to be sure, but as such his mission is to aid in the liberation of other prisoners. And this mission will not be\u00a0<span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.2pt;\">done without a great many efforts.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.1pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0Now that these warnings have been formulated, we are free to put\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.2pt;\">into perspective a present-day phenomenon that strongly undercuts the impertinent criticisms of gnosis. It is significant that a certain\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.45pt;\">number of scholars, observing in good faith that rationalism is<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05pt;\">powerless to provide a rational explanation of the world and of man,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.05pt;\">tend to turn back to a vision of the world that draws from traditional\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.25pt;\">cosmologies. They speak of a \u201ccosmic consciousness\u201d because\u00a0<span class=\"GramE\">an\u00a0<span style=\"letter-spacing: 0pt;\">Intelligence<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0must be at work in order to explain the phenomenon, and<span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.1pt;\">they invoke the words gnosis and new gnosis.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.15pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0At this point, we at the\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\">Universit\u00e9<\/span>\u00a0Saint Jean de Jerusalem must\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.2pt;\">consider a serious question or, more exactly, a twofold hypothesis.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.05pt;\">Will there really be a renewal of gnosis, bearing witness to the fact that\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.15pt;\">gnosis cannot remain indefinitely absent and that its banishment was a\u00a0<\/span>catastrophe? If so, we are ready to bring reinforcements. But has this\u00a0<span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.1pt;\">renewal sufficient backbone\u00a0<span class=\"GramE\">for the<\/span>\u00a0word \u201cgnosis\u201d not to be usurped\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.15pt;\">nor the authenticity of the concept imperiled? If this were unfortu<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05pt;\">nately to occur, our task would be to speak out against the peril.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.25pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0As a first step, we must begin by putting to profitable use the schema\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.1pt;\">common to all forms of gnosis, in order to rigorously define on the one\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.2pt;\">hand the\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\"><i>situs<\/i><\/span><i>\u00a0<\/i>of agnostic science and on the other the\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\"><i>situs<\/i><\/span><i>\u00a0<\/i>of a science\u00a0<\/span>aspiring to a new gnosis.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.1pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0We can illustrate this\u00a0<i>status\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\">quaestionis<\/span>\u00a0<\/i>from many different per<\/span>spectives.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0For example, we still have to restore the true face of the science of\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\">Newton<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05pt;\">. People have made of him one of the great founders of the\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.15pt;\">mechanistic conception of the universe, of the science with eyes of\u00a0<\/span>flesh, while three-fourths of his work, mystical and alchemical, springs\u00a0<span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.1pt;\">from the knowledge with eyes of fire.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.3pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0Considering Jacob Boehme and like figures, it is a question of\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.2pt;\">determining what alchemy would signify as spiritual science if it had\u00a0<\/span>at its disposal the resources of modern laboratories and observatories.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.1pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0We have still to explicate the\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\">gnostic<\/span>\u00a0view of the world of vision<\/span>aries with \u201ceyes of fire,\u201d such as William Blake, Wordsworth, Goethe, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.2pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0By the same token, we have still to judge if what we have heard of\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05pt;\">a so-called\u00a0Princeton\u00a0gnosis truly tends toward a gnosis with \u201ceyes of\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.2pt;\">fire\u201d or whether on the contrary it is attempting to the fatal com<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.1pt;\">promise with a gnosis with \u201ceyes of flesh.\u201d On the other hand, a man like Nicholas Berdyaev could rightly be considered a \u201cmodern\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\">gnos<span style=\"letter-spacing: 0pt;\">tic<\/span><\/span><\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.25pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0We have finally, or rather most of all, in order to stay within the\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.3pt;\">line of our fundamental calling, to uncover for the first time the\u00a0<\/span>convergence of\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\">cosmogonical<\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\">soteriological<\/span>\u00a0visions in the type of\u00a0<span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05pt;\">gnosis common to the three\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\">Abrahamic<\/span>\u00a0branches.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0Of course, it is impossible to examine all these aspects at one time. Our program this year proposes a few of them to lay the groundwork for future developments.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\">\u00a0\u00a0Finally, it should be clearly apparent to everyone why we have\u00a0<span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.2pt;\">associated the concept of gnosis with the look of eyes of fire. Inasmuch\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.3pt;\">as the look of gnosis is a visionary look and not the look of theoretical knowledge, it is wedded to the look of the prophets, spokesmen of the\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.25pt;\">Invisible. To open \u201cthe eyes of fire\u201d is to go beyond all false and vain\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05pt;\">opposition between believing and knowing, between thinking and\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.15pt;\">being, between knowledge and love, between the God of the prophets and the God of the philosophers.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 12pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 24px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.15pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\">gnostics<\/span>\u00a0of Islam,\u00a0<span class=\"GramE\">in\u00a0\u00a0agreement<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.2pt;\">with the Jewish\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\">Kabbalists<\/span>, have particularly insisted on\u00a0\u00a0the idea of a \u201c<\/span>prophetic philosophy.\u201d It is a prophetic philosophy that our world\u00a0<span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05pt;\">needs. It is to this above all that we must be called. Such was the\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.1pt;\">meaning of the passage written by the philosopher Theodore\u00a0<span class=\"SpellE\">Roszak<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.15pt;\">that I have quoted elsewhere. It has the force of a program: \u201cPerhaps I\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.1pt;\">am implying,\u201d he wrote, \u201cthat the resurrection (of gnosis) figures\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: -0.1pt;\">among the most urgent projects of our epoch.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eyes of Flesh and Eyes of Fire \u00a0Science and Gnosis by\u00a0Henry Corbin \u00a0 \u00a0 Opening\u00a0address,\u00a0June 1978, at the\u00a0Universit\u00e9\u00a0St. Jean\u00a0de\u00a0Jerusalem, translated from Cahier No. 5 de L\u2019U.S.J.J.<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":67,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-388","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Eyes of Flesh and Eyes of Fire &#8211; 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