Knowledge of God and the Development of Early Kabbalah

Knowledge of God and the Development of Early Kabbalah PDF Author: Jonathan Dauber
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004234268
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Get Book Here

Book Description
In Knowledge of God and the Development of Early Kabbalah, Jonathan Dauber offers a fresh consideration of the emergence of Kabbalah against the backdrop of a re-evaluation of the relationship between Kabbalistic and philosophic discourse.

Knowledge of God and the Development of Early Kabbalah

Knowledge of God and the Development of Early Kabbalah PDF Author: Jonathan Dauber
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004234268
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Get Book Here

Book Description
In Knowledge of God and the Development of Early Kabbalah, Jonathan Dauber offers a fresh consideration of the emergence of Kabbalah against the backdrop of a re-evaluation of the relationship between Kabbalistic and philosophic discourse.

Knowledge of God and the Development of Early Kabbalah

Knowledge of God and the Development of Early Kabbalah PDF Author: Jonathan Dauber
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004234276
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 285

Get Book Here

Book Description
In Knowledge of God and the Development of Early Kabbalah, Jonathan Dauber offers a fresh consideration of the emergence of Kabbalah against the backdrop of a re-evaluation of the relationship between Kabbalistic and philosophic discourse.

Mirror of His Beauty

Mirror of His Beauty PDF Author: Peter Schäfer
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691119805
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this beautifully realized study, Peter Schäfer investigates the origins of a female manifestation of God in Jewish mysticism. The search itself is a fascinating exploration of the idea of a feminine divinity. And Schäfer's surprising but persuasive conclusions yield deeper understanding of the complex but frequently intimate relationship between Christianity and Judaism--and of the development of religious concepts more generally. Toward the end of the twelfth century, a small book titled the Bahir (Light) appeared in Provence. The first document of Judaism's emerging kabbalistic movement, it introduced a completely new view of God, one that included a divine potency that was essentially female. This female divinity was portrayed both as a mediator between Jews and God and as part of the Godhead itself. Examining Judaic history from the biblical Wisdom tradition to the Middle Ages, Schäfer finds some precedents for the Kabbalah's feminine divinity. But he cannot account for her forceful appearance in twelfth-century southern France without reference to the immediate Christian environment, particularly the flourishing veneration of the Virgin Mary. Indeed, twelfth-century Jews and Christians were simultaneously rediscovering the feminine as an aspect of the Godhead after having abandoned it in favor of either an abstract, disembodied God or an exclusively male one. In proposing that the medieval cult of Mary--rather than eastern Gnosticism--is the appropriate framework for understanding the feminine elements in Jewish mysticism, Mirror of His Beauty represents a sea change in Kabbalah and Jewish-Christian cultural studies. It shifts our attention from the Byzantine East to the Latin Christian West. And in contrast to histories that treat the development of Judaism and Christianity in isolation, it leads us to a fuller understanding of Jews and Christians living in proximity, aware of each other.

The Early Kabbalah

The Early Kabbalah PDF Author: Joseph Dan
Publisher: Paulist Press
ISBN: 9780809127696
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Get Book Here

Book Description
Here are previously unavailable texts, including The Book Bahir and the writings of the Iyyum circle, that were written during the first one hundred years of this movement that was to become the most important current in Jewish mysticism. This movement began in the late 12th century among Rabbinic Judaism in southern Europe.

A History of Kabbalah

A History of Kabbalah PDF Author: Jonathan Garb
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108882978
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 525

Get Book Here

Book Description
Jonathan Garb's A History of Kabbalah: From the Early Modern Period to the Present Day is a lucid and sophisticated account of the multifaceted nature of Jewish mysticism, focusing on its development from the spiritual revolution that took place in Safed in the sixteenth century until the present. Opening the secrets of the kabbalah to a wider audience, Garb judiciously argued that how important the mystical and esoteric tradition has been in Jewish history and in the cultural and intellectual life of Europe more generally. One of the more methodologically innovative aspects of Garb's book is his contention that kabbalah became a major factor in the religious life of Jews in the modern age due to print and others forms of rapid communication, a process that has magnified significantly in recent years due to the digital revolution. Informative and provocative, A History of Kabbalah will surely be of interest to a wide readership.

Secrecy and Esoteric Writing in Kabbalistic Literature

Secrecy and Esoteric Writing in Kabbalistic Literature PDF Author: Jonathan Dauber
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 1512822760
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

Get Book Here

Book Description
Secrecy and Esoteric Writing in Kabbalistic Literature examines the strategies of esoteric writing that Kabbalists have used to conceal secrets in their writings, such that casual readers will only understand the surface meaning of their texts while those with greater insight will grasp the internal meaning. In addition to a broad description of esoteric writing throughout the long literary history of Kabbalah, this work analyzes kabbalistic secrecy in light of contemporary theories of secrecy. It also presents case studies of esoteric writing in the work of four of the first kabbalistic authors—Abraham ben David, Isaac the Blind, Ezra ben Solomon, and Asher ben David—and thereby helps recast our understanding of the earliest stages of kabbalistic literary history. The book will interest scholars in Jewish mysticism and Jewish philosophy, as well as those working in medieval Jewish history. Throughout, Jonathan V. Dauber has endeavored to write an accessible work that does not require extensive prior knowledge of kabbalistic thought. Accordingly, it finds points of contact between scholars of various religious traditions.

The Art of Mystical Narrative

The Art of Mystical Narrative PDF Author: Eitan P. Fishbane
Publisher:
ISBN: 0199948631
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 535

Get Book Here

Book Description
In the study of Judaism, the Zohar has captivated the minds of interpreters for over seven centuries, and continues to entrance readers in the modern day. Yet despite these centuries of study, very little attention has been devoted to the literary dimensions of the text. The Art of Mystical Narrative argues that the Zohar story must be understood first and foremost as a work of the fictional imagination.

Yearbook of the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies. 2016

Yearbook of the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies. 2016 PDF Author: Giuseppe Veltri
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110501724
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 198

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Yearbook mirrors the annual activities of staff and visiting fellows of the Maimonides Centre and reports on symposia, workshops, and lectures taking place at the Centre. Although aimed at a wider audience, the yearbook also contains academic articles and book reviews on scepticism in Judaism and scepticism in general. Staff, visiting fellows, and other international scholars are invited to contribute.

A Companion to the Song of Songs in the History of Spirituality

A Companion to the Song of Songs in the History of Spirituality PDF Author: Timothy Robinson
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004209506
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 433

Get Book Here

Book Description
A survey of the history of one of the most important biblical texts in the history of Christian spirituality while exploring original pathways for research.

Kabbalistic Revolution

Kabbalistic Revolution PDF Author: Hartley Lachter
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813573890
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 275

Get Book Here

Book Description
The set of Jewish mystical teachings known as Kabbalah are often imagined as timeless texts, teachings that have been passed down through the millennia. Yet, as this groundbreaking new study shows, Kabbalah flourished in a specific time and place, emerging in response to the social prejudices that Jews faced. Hartley Lachter, a scholar of religion studies, transports us to medieval Spain, a place where anti-Semitic propaganda was on the rise and Jewish political power was on the wane. Kabbalistic Revolution proposes that, given this context, Kabbalah must be understood as a radically empowering political discourse. While the era’s Christian preachers claimed that Jews were blind to the true meaning of scripture and had been abandoned by God, the Kabbalists countered with a doctrine that granted Jews a uniquely privileged relationship with God. Lachter demonstrates how Kabbalah envisioned this increasingly marginalized group at the center of the universe, their mystical practices serving to maintain the harmony of the divine world. For students of Jewish mysticism, Kabbalistic Revolution provides a new approach to the development of medieval Kabbalah. Yet the book’s central questions should appeal to anyone with an interest in the relationships between religious discourses, political struggles, and ethnic pride.