Ibn 'Arabi and Modern Thought

Reviews

This is a remarkably well informed and wide-ranging study of Ibn ‘Arabi, whose works will be known to some readers. He was one of the greatest Islamic mystical teachers whose work can speak to us across history.

With his academic background in psychology, Peter Coates initiates a dialogue between the two eras of the 13th and 21st centuries, examining epistemology and metaphysics, the use of reason, the social contexts and finally reflections on the self. Teachers of this calibre are never out of date - they speak across the centuries, and Peter Coates has done a skilful job of communicating the power of Ibn ‘Arabi’s vision.

David Lorimer, Network, the Scientific and Medical Network Review, April 2002

Peter Coates's work is the first English study to explore the relevance of Ibn Arabi's thought to contemporary theoretical concerns in the areas of philosophy, psychology, and sociology. Although Coates's formal training has been in psychology and philosophy, which he taught until his retirement at the University of Lincoln, he has been an avid reader of Ibn Arabi for the last twenty years, relying on the research of Ibn Arabi specialists. His own academic background has allowed him to investigate the pertinence of the mystic's ideas to areas that Ibn Arabi specialists would not usually be in a position to treat. By utilizing their writings, he is able to draw out some remarkable intersections between the mystic's worldview and key modern thinkers ranging from Nietzsche to Weber.

An extract from a review by Atif Khalil in the Journal of Religion and Society, Vol. 7, 2005. The full review is available at JRS review.

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