James Cutsinger (1953-2020)

James S. Cutsinger (1953-2020), an important follower of Frithjof Schuon and a notable Eastern Orthodox Traditionalist, died on February 19, 2020.

Cutsinger completed a PhD. in theology and comparative religious thought at Harvard in 1980, and then taught religious studies at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina, from 1980 until 2018. He was best known for his Advice to the Serious Seeker: Meditations on the Teaching of Frithjof Schuon (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997) and for his
Splendor of the true: A Frithjof Schuon reader (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2013).

Among his other books were Paths to the Heart: Sufism and the Christian East (Bloomington: World Wisdom, 2004) and Not of This World: A Treasury of Christian Mysticism (Bloomington: World Wisdom, 2003).

Call for Papers for conference on Islam and esotericism in Belgium

Call for Papers: “Islamic Esotericism in Global Contexts,” 2020 Meeting of the European Network for the Study of Islam and Esotericism (ENSIE)

24-26 September 2020, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain la-Neuve, Belgium

Deadline for submissions: 1 May, 2020

The European Network for the Study of Islam and Esotericism (ENSIE) invites you to submit proposals for its 2020 meeting. The theme for the meeting is “Islamic Esotericism in Global Contexts”. The aim is to consider the relationship between Islam and esotericism, and Islamic esotericism, in a global context, shifting the emphasis not only from Western perspectives, but also being more inclusive of the experience of Islam beyond the Arabo-Persian domains. We encourage proposals that give prominence to the agency of non-Western actors in negotiating and challenging social, political, and doctrinal “realities” as they manifest in the writings and activities of esoteric groups and systems. The chronological scope thus stretches from medieval to contemporary times. We encourage papers outlining suitable methods of investigation, re-evaluating accepted conceptual frameworks, formulating effective comparative research, and foraying into new textual frontiers.

We invite papers that engage with these aims, but proposals that do not relate to the 2020 meeting theme are also welcome.

There is no fee for attending the meeting and accommodation will be provided, but the cost of travel is the responsibility of individual participants.

Further information at http://ensie.site/conferences.html.

Against the Modern World in German

Now available: Against the Modern World in German translation, as Gegen die moderne Welt: Die geheime Geistesgeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts. Published by Matthes & Seitz, Berlin, €38.

The German translation differs from the English original in that it has a new foreword, and an extra chapter on Russia, originally written in 2006 for the Russian translation. The single chapter "Neo-Eurasianism in Russia" in the original English edition became two chapters, "Traditionalism in Russia" and "Neo-Eurasianism."

La Gnose archive

Recently discovered: the full run of Guénon's first journal, La Gnose, is available online, at http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/la_gnose/index.html.

A valuable resource.

Traditionalism and Islamic esotericism in Italy and in theory

A new issue of Correspondences has three articles of interest, all available open-access online. One deals specifically with the Ahmadiyya Idrisiyya that was established in Italy by Abd al-Wahed Pallavici, and two deal with the meaning of "esotericism" at a theoretical level.

The articles are:

• Francesco Piraino, "Esotericisation and De-esotericisation of Sufism: The Aḥmadiyya-Idrīsiyya Shādhiliyya in Italy."
• Liana Saif, "What is Islamic Esotericism?"
• Mark Sedgwick, "Islamic and Western Esotericism."