Affiliates & Network

Mystic, philosopher, poet, sage, Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi (1165–1240) was one of the world’s great spiritual teachers. Ibn Arabi was born in Murcia in Arab al-Andalus, and his writings had an immense impact throughout the Islamic world and beyond. The universal ideas underlying his thought are of immediate relevance today.

Given the tremendous amount of interest in non-Western philosophy today, teachers, students, and the general public are beginning to come away with a clearer picture of what “philosophy” means in various civilizations and to large sectors of humanity beyond the Anglo-American and European worlds. This new series in global philosophy seeks to further this interest by highlighting the epistemic diversity and profound insights of Africana, Buddhist, Confucian, Hindu, Islamic, Jain, Jewish, Latin American, Mesoamerican, Native American, Russian, and Taoist philosophy. To accomplish its goals, the series will focus on publishing accessible and lively books on these philosophical traditions and scholarly translations of their key works.

Seyyed Hossein Nasr is one of the most important Islamic thinkers of our time, and quite possibly one of the most influential philosophers of the present era, East or West. The highest honor a philosopher can receive is to be nominated by his peers for inclusion in the series of The Library of Living Philosophers, which began with The Philosophy of John Dewey, includes the philosophies of Alfred North Whitehead, Einstein and others and whose recent entry is "The Philosophy of Seyyed Hossein Nasr". And the highest honor a theologian can receive is to be invited to deliver the Gifford Lectures in Glasgow, Scotland. Seyyed Hossein Nasr is the only non-western philosopher ever to have received both of these honors. The Gifford Lectures always eventuates in a book, and the one that contains Nasr’s lectures is "Knowledge and the Sacred", one of the most important books of the twentieth century.

Fons Vitae, a non-profit, academic press, publishes interfaith scholarly works focused primarily on world spirituality. A peer-reviewed publishing house, Fons Vitae is distinguished for its significant English translations of key Arabic and Persian works, especially in the field of Sufism. Its award-winning books and DVDs are used throughout the world in university classrooms and by the general public, including in its prison outreach. Fons Vitae seeks to broaden understanding and admiration of all the world’s sacred traditions by sponsoring lecture series and educational programs, as well as by participating in interfaith congresses worldwide.