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Green Man, Earth Angel: The Prophetic Tradition and the Battle for the Soul of the World

Argues for a renewed vision of the cosmos based on the centrality of the human encounter with the sacred.

Green Man, Earth Angel explores the central role of imagination for understanding the place of humans in the cosmos. Tom Cheetham suggests that lives can only be completely whole if human beings come to recognize that the human and natural worlds are part of a vast living network and that the material and spiritual worlds are deeply interconnected. Central to this reimagining is an examination of the place of language in human life and art and in the worldview that the prophetic religions — Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — presuppose. If human language is experienced only as a subset of a vastly more-than-human whole, then it is not only humans who speak, but also God and the world with all its creatures. If humans' internal poetry and creative imaginations are part of a greater conversation, then language can have the vital power to transform the human soul, and the soul of the world itself.

“Cheetham’s approach, style, and manner is scholarly-poetic for he calls on the reader to imagine his work with him, to be a traveler in tandem to his developing thesis, and to imagine it for oneself.” —Spring 74: Alchemy

“... Cheetham[’s] vision is one of wholeness, of learning to speak, think, and feel again, and to bring together the ‘shattered fragments of a life into some wounded yet living whole.’” —Journal of Analytical Psychology

“... a passionate cry for the reclamation of the imaginal realm denied by the dualistic cosmologies of the Abrahamic religions — Judaism, Christianity, and Islam... Green Man, Earth Angel is a very engaging read. Cheetham... brings... much-needed attention to the ground-breaking work of Henry Corbin in the field of Sufism and provides throughout... a learned and cogent exposition of Islamic esoteric thought in the work of Ibn 'Arabi.” —Esoterica

"This book speaks trenchantly to themes that I have returned to time and again in my writings and throws new light on them. It is a very important addition to the ongoing discussion of where we are in human history." —Huston Smith

"Tom Cheetham has written a remarkable book that has the power of shifting our way of imagining the world... Cheetham is one of the most courageous thinkers I have ever read... I hope... you enter into a study of a work that certainly does not belong to the world of throwaway books. This book requires slow reading, for as you read these living words you are undergoing a transformation. At the end of reading, the world will not be the same." —from the Foreword by Robert Sardello

"Cheetham gives a very good overview of the many problems of scientific rationalism as they connect to monotheism and Christian teleological thinking. In contrast, he offers a new interpretation of ecology that is aesthetic and soulful, based on the writings of Henry Corbin." —Lee Irwin, author of Awakening to Spirit: On Life, Illumination, and Being

Tom Cheetham has taught human ecology and is the author of The World Turned Inside Out: Henry Corbin and Islamic Mysticism.

  • Format
  • paperback
  • Pages
  • 182
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9780791462706
  • Genres
  • philosophy, spirituality, islam, psychology, religion
  • Release date
  • 2004