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Zusatztext "Schäfer's book is clearly written and forcefully presents an interesting and plausible thesis for the presence, survival and re-emergence of the feminine in the Jewish divine from antiquity to the middle ages." ---Tal Ilan, Journal of Jewish Studies Informationen zum Autor Peter Schäfer Klappentext 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. Zusammenfassung Investigates the origins of a female manifestation of God in Jewish mysticism. Examining Judaic history from the biblical Wisdom tradition to the Middle Ages, this work finds some precedents for the Kabbalah's feminine divinity. Inhaltsverzeichnis 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...
