From Metaphysics to Midrash
Subtitle: Myth, History, and the Interpretation of Scripture in Lurianic Kabbala (Indiana Studies in Biblical Literature)
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: June 2008
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 360
ISBN-13: 9780253350886
Subjects: Jewish studies; Judaism; Religion; Religion - Judaism; Biblical Studies - Old Testament; Judaism - Kabbalah & Mysticism; Biblical Criticism & Interpretation - Old Testament; Judaism - Sacred Writings; Cabala; History; Metaphysics; Other (Philosophy)
Description: "In From Metaphysics to Midrash, Shaul Magid explores the exegetical tradition of Isaac Luria and his followers within the historical context of sixteenth-century Safed, a unique community that brought practitioners of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam into close contact with one another. Luria's Scripture became a theater in which kabbalists redrew boundaries of difference in areas of ethnicity, gender, and the human relation to the divine. Magid investigates how cultural influences altered scriptural exegesis of Lurianic Kabbala in its philosophical, hermeneutical, and historical perspectives. He suggests that Luria and his followers were far from cloistered. They used their considerable skills to weigh in on important matters of the day, offering, at times, some surprising solutions to perennial theological problems."--BOOK JACKET.