Bøker av Joseph Dan

Undoubtedly one of the most fascinating areas of Judaic research, Jewish manuscripts, has experienced a remarkable renaissance. What the field has largely lacked, however, is professional publications to bring together researchers who, albeit in different specialist areas (history, philosophy, Kabbalah, bibliography, art history, comparative manuscript studies, paleography and codicology), all deal variously with Hebrew manuscripts. This desideratum of Judaic scholarship appears all the more reasonable when we look at the situation of the classical philologies which have a long tradition of specialist publications devoted exclusively to the study of Latin and Greek manuscripts.The authors of the collected eight articles show the perspectives and the possibilities of such a discourse based on Jewish manuscripts within Judaic Studies; moreover numerous tie-ins with disciplines relating to general Medieval and early modern history and culture can be developed.

The main point delivered by this book is that Jews living in Germany during the Middle Ages developped a dynamic and variegated culture which should be recognized as a constituent of European and German medieval religiosity. The esoterics, mystics and pietists who produced works like those analyzed in this volume derived their inspiration from the traditional Jewish texts, but were also part of the world they lived in, despite the seclusions enforced by the religious prejudices of the time. The esoterical-mystical phenomena described were to a very large extent an original development in central-European Jewry, and constitute one of their most important contributions to Jewish culture as a whole. In some cases, a spiritual atmosphere reminiscent of early Protestant sects, which were to appear in the same regions three centuries later, can be discerned. Some of these texts influenced the Christian kabbalists of the sixteenth century, like Johannes Reuchlin and others. This is a major spiritual phenomenon which has been completely neglected until now, and it is hoped that this volume will contribute to a new appreciation of this aspect of European creativity in the Middle Ages.

A tale of seven hundred years of diverse Jewish theological creativity. This book integrates extreme, radical, and heretical schools of thought.

This title is part of a series of reference books on the subjects of Jewish mystical thoughts and practice.

An English-language reference book on the subjects of Jewish mystical thoughts and practice.

Each article is preceded by a statement that indicates the original source, a brief biographical sketch of the author placing the article within the framework of his life-work, and the name of the translator/adaptor.

This title is part of a series of reference books on the subjects of Jewish mystical thoughts and practice.