Algis Uzdavinys
Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts, Lithuania
Algis Uždavinys (1962–2010) was a prolific Lithuanian philosopher and scholar whose work pioneered the hermeneutic and comparative study of Egyptian theology, Greek philosophy, and Neoplatonic theurgy (to include their innate affinities with Mesopotamian religion, Indo-Tibetan metaphysics, and Islamic esotericism). Uždavinys was Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Culture, Philosophy, and Arts, Lithuania; Associate Professor at the Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts, Lithuania; Research Associate at La Trobe University, Bendigo, Australia; and member of the International Society for Neoplatonic Studies and the Lithuanian Artists’ Association. His books have been published in Lithuanian, Russian, English and French, including translations of Plotinus, Frithjof Schuon and Ananda Coomaraswamy into Russian and Lithuanian. He contributed regularly to journals such as Sacred Web, Sophia and Eye of the Heart. In addition to numerous articles, he is the author of Philosophy as a Rite of Rebirth: From Ancient Egypt to Neoplatonism (Prometheus Trust, 2008), Philosophy and Theurgy in Late Antiquity (Sophia Perennis, 2010), and Ascent to Heaven in Islamic and Jewish Mysticism (Matheson Trust, 2011). He is the editor of The Heart of Plotinus: The Essential Enneads (World Wisdom, 2009) and The Golden Chain: An Anthology of Pythagorean and Platonic Philosophy (World Wisdom, 2004).