Buch, Englisch, 328 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 557 g
Reihe: Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World
Feminine Images of God from the Bible to the Early Kabbalah
Buch, Englisch, 328 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 557 g
Reihe: Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World
ISBN: 978-0-691-11980-9
Verlag: Princeton University Press
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.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Fachgebiete
- Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien Heilige & Traditionstexte: Torah, Talmud, Mischna, Halacha
- Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Sonstige Religionen Sonstige Religionen: Spiritualität, Mystik
- Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie
- Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien Jüdische Spiritualität & Mystik (Kabbala, Chassidismus)
- Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie
- Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien Judentum und Weltreligionen, Weltethos
- Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Christentum/Christliche Theologie Allgemein Christentum und Weltreligionen, Weltethos
- Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Systematische Theologie
Weitere Infos & Material
List of Figures xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Abbreviations xv
Introduction 1
PART I. FROM THE BIBLE TO THE BAHIR
Chapter 1. Lady Wisdom 19
Job: Wisdom Cannot Be Found 19
Proverbs: Wisdom as God's Little Daughter and His Embodiment on Earth 23
Jesus Sirach: Wisdom as God's Torah 29
Wisdom of Solomon: Wisdom as the Medium of Divine Energy and God's Beloved Spouse 33
Chapter 2. Philo's Wisdom 39
God and His Wisdom 40
Wisdom and Logos 41
Wisdom's Gender 45
God's Daughter 48
Divine and Human Wisdom 50
Summary-and Once Again Gender 54
Chapter 3. The Gnostic Drama 58
The Creation Myth According to the Apocryphon of John 60
Barbelo 61
The Self-Generated/Christ 64
Sophia and Her Offspring 65
Sophia's Descent 68
Sophia and Barbelo 69
The Valentinian Creation Myth According to Irenaeus 73
Passionate Sophia 74
Sophia and Achamoth, Upper and Lower Wisdom 76
Chapter 4. The Rabbinic Shekhinah 79
Wisdom 79
God the Only Creator 81
Israel, God's Spouse, Daughter, Sister, and Mother 83
Shekhinah 86
Personification of the Shekhinah 93
Chapter 5. The Shekhinah of the Philosophers 103
Saadia Gaon 104
Judah ben Barzillai of Barcelona 107
Judah ha-Levi 110
Moses Maimonides 113
Chapter 6. The Shekhinah in the Bahir 118
The Ten Sefirot 120
Sexual Symbolism 123
The Position of the Shekhinah in the Sefirotic System 125
Mediatrix between Heaven and Earth 128
PART II. THE QUEST FOR ORIGINS
Chapter 7. Gnosis 137
Chapter 8. Christianity 147
Eastern Church 148
Western Church 152
Peter Damian 153
Herman of Tournay 155
Bernard of Clairvaux 157
Godfrey of Admont 162
Hildegard of Bingen 163
Peter of Blois 169
Mary and the Shekhinah 169
Chapter 9. Counter-Evidence: Mary and the Jews 173
Anti-Jewish Legends and Images 173
The Jews Disturb Mary's Funeral 173
The Image of Mary in the Latrine 191
The Jewish Boy in the Furnace 197
Jewish Polemics against Mary 209
Rabbinical Evidence and Toledot Yeshu 209
The Apocalypse of Zerubbavel 212
Chapter 10. How Much "Origins," Or: The Anxiety of Influence 217
Mythical Origin 218
Femininity 224
Influence 229
History 235
Notes 245
Bibliography 289
Index 301
