- Title Pages
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Kabbalah
- 2 Abraham Abulafia and Ecstatic Kabbalah
- 3 Abraham Abulafia's Activity in Italy
- 4 Ecstatic Kabbalah as an Experiential Lore
- 5 Abraham Abulafia's Hermeneutics
- 6 Eschatological Themes and Divine Names in Abulafia's Kabbalah
- 7 Abraham Abulafia and R. Menahem ben Benjamin
- 8 R. Menahem ben Benjamin Recanati
- 9 Menahem Recanati as a Theosophical-Theurgical Kabbalist
- 10 Menahem Recanati's Hermeneutics
- 11 Ecstatic Kabbalah from the Fourteenth Through Mid-Fifteenth Centuries
- 12 The Kabbalistic-Philosophical-Magical Exchanges in Italy
- 13 Prisca Theologia
- 14 R. Yohanan ben Yitzhaq Alemanno
- 15 Jewish Mystical Thought in Lorenzo IL Magnifico's Florence
- 16 Other Mystical and Magical Literatures in Renaissance Florence
- 17 Spanish Kabbalists in Italy after the Expulsion
- 18 Two Diverging Types of Kabbalah in Late-Fifteenth-Century Italy
- 19 Jewish Kabbalah in Christian Garb
- 20 Anthropoids from the Middle Ages to Renaissance Italy
- 21 Astromagical Pneumatic Anthropoids from Medieval Spain to Renaissance Italy
- 22 The Trajectory of Eastern Kabbalah and Its Reverberations in Italy
- Concluding Remarks
- Appendix 1 The Angel Named Righteous: From R. ʾAmittai of Oria to Erfurt and Rome
- Appendix 2 The Infant Experiment: On the Search for the First Language in Italy
- Appendix 3 R. Yohanan Alemanno's Study Program
- Appendix 4 Magic Temples and Cities in the Middle Ages and Renaissance: Masʾudi, Ibn Zarza, Alemanno
- Bibliography
- Index of Manuscripts
- Index of Titles
- Index of Names
Ecstatic Kabbalah as an Experiential Lore
Ecstatic Kabbalah as an Experiential Lore
- Chapter:
- (p.52) 4 Ecstatic Kabbalah as an Experiential Lore
- Source:
- Kabbalah in Italy, 1280-1510
- Author(s):
Moshe Idel
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
This chapter describes how some modern scholars have focused their attention on theosophical-theurgical Kabbalah, a preeminently Spanish type of Kabbalah, and how they have pointed out the “casuistical” nature of Kabbalah as a whole. Part of this evaluation has to do with the marginalization of Abulafia's Kabbalah in the scholarship after the mid-1950s, despite Gershom Scholem's characterization of ecstatic Kabbalah as a major trend. This marginalization is part of a larger phenomenon that can be described as a more theological approach to Kabbalah, which was conceived of more as a speculative system than as a full-fledged form of mysticism. This trend especially affected the writings of Abulafia, some of which were dedicated to describing mystical techniques.
Keywords: modern scholars, theosophical-theurgical Kabbalah, casuistical nature, Abulafia, ecstatic Kabbalah
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- Title Pages
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Kabbalah
- 2 Abraham Abulafia and Ecstatic Kabbalah
- 3 Abraham Abulafia's Activity in Italy
- 4 Ecstatic Kabbalah as an Experiential Lore
- 5 Abraham Abulafia's Hermeneutics
- 6 Eschatological Themes and Divine Names in Abulafia's Kabbalah
- 7 Abraham Abulafia and R. Menahem ben Benjamin
- 8 R. Menahem ben Benjamin Recanati
- 9 Menahem Recanati as a Theosophical-Theurgical Kabbalist
- 10 Menahem Recanati's Hermeneutics
- 11 Ecstatic Kabbalah from the Fourteenth Through Mid-Fifteenth Centuries
- 12 The Kabbalistic-Philosophical-Magical Exchanges in Italy
- 13 Prisca Theologia
- 14 R. Yohanan ben Yitzhaq Alemanno
- 15 Jewish Mystical Thought in Lorenzo IL Magnifico's Florence
- 16 Other Mystical and Magical Literatures in Renaissance Florence
- 17 Spanish Kabbalists in Italy after the Expulsion
- 18 Two Diverging Types of Kabbalah in Late-Fifteenth-Century Italy
- 19 Jewish Kabbalah in Christian Garb
- 20 Anthropoids from the Middle Ages to Renaissance Italy
- 21 Astromagical Pneumatic Anthropoids from Medieval Spain to Renaissance Italy
- 22 The Trajectory of Eastern Kabbalah and Its Reverberations in Italy
- Concluding Remarks
- Appendix 1 The Angel Named Righteous: From R. ʾAmittai of Oria to Erfurt and Rome
- Appendix 2 The Infant Experiment: On the Search for the First Language in Italy
- Appendix 3 R. Yohanan Alemanno's Study Program
- Appendix 4 Magic Temples and Cities in the Middle Ages and Renaissance: Masʾudi, Ibn Zarza, Alemanno
- Bibliography
- Index of Manuscripts
- Index of Titles
- Index of Names
