Kabbalah & Christianity

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Kabbalah is often synonymous with “Jewish mysticism.” Stemming from Catalonia and Castile in the thirteenth century, its literature encompasses a speculative and hortatory domain of divine knowledge in the rabbinic tradition that has served as a major source of Jewish theology throughout the ensuing centuries. The course will explore the complex relationship of this medieval curriculum of rabbinic wisdom to the Church—among the richest case studies in the creative-yet-tortured confluence of Judaism and Christianity. Students will study the disputational context in which kabbalah first saw the light of history and especially the polemical representations of Christianity it produced. They will also investigate aspects of the discourse that would appear to approximate contemporary Christian teachings and practices. These include putatively para-Christological elements, penitential discourse, concern with poverty and social ethics, apparent parallels to Marian devotion, and more. Students will also examine apologetical readings of kabbalah by Christian authors during the early modern period and Jewish reactions thereto.