{"title":"Gershom Scholem and Christian Kabbalah: A Reappraisal","authors":"Saverio Campanini","doi":"10.1163/18750214-tat00002","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper tries to shed light on the value and limitations of the label ‘Christian Kabbalah’ for our knowledge of the historical phenomenon it describes. It works out how Christian scholars approached Kabbalah for a variety of reasons, be they instrumental, polemicizing or glorifying approaches, or for further motives. In addition, the article examines how the basic lines of the field of research around the Kabbalah in general were established and which impulses emanated from Gershom Scholem in particular. It concludes with an examination of Scholem’s religious philosophy with regard to his own research interest in the Kabbalah, which goes, in Scholem’s words, beyond historiography in some cases. Scholem described academic research on Kabbalah as ‘ironic’ and this irony affects his own ambivalent attitude towards the Christian Kabbalists of the Renaissance and the early modern epoch.</p>","PeriodicalId":40667,"journal":{"name":"Zutot","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Zutot","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18750214-tat00002","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This paper tries to shed light on the value and limitations of the label ‘Christian Kabbalah’ for our knowledge of the historical phenomenon it describes. It works out how Christian scholars approached Kabbalah for a variety of reasons, be they instrumental, polemicizing or glorifying approaches, or for further motives. In addition, the article examines how the basic lines of the field of research around the Kabbalah in general were established and which impulses emanated from Gershom Scholem in particular. It concludes with an examination of Scholem’s religious philosophy with regard to his own research interest in the Kabbalah, which goes, in Scholem’s words, beyond historiography in some cases. Scholem described academic research on Kabbalah as ‘ironic’ and this irony affects his own ambivalent attitude towards the Christian Kabbalists of the Renaissance and the early modern epoch.
期刊介绍:
Zutot: Perspectives on Jewish Culture aims to fill a gap that has become more and more conspicuous among the wealth of scholarly periodicals in the field of Jewish Studies. Whereas existing journals provide space to medium and large sized articles, they neglect the small but poignant contributions, which may be as important as the extended, detailed study. The Zutot serves as a platform for small but incisive contributions, and provides them with a distinct context. The substance of these contributions is derived from larger perspectives and, though not always presented in an exhaustive way, will have an impact on contemporary discussions. The Zutot covers Jewish culture in its broadest sense, i.e. encompassing various academic disciplines—literature, languages and linguistics, philosophy, art, sociology, politics and history—and reflects binary oppositions such as religious and secular, high and low, written and oral, male and female culture.