Kabbalistic self-help: the microcosm in practice
Medieval and early modern Jewish works of self-improvement share a set of conventions identifying them as a genre. They all imagine the ideal self as a microcosm for a divinized cosmos, and they instruct their readers to conform to the ideal by means of ritual cognition, affect, ritual practice, and...
| Published in: | Journal of the American Academy of Religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
[2016]
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| In: |
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Year: 2016, Volume: 84, Issue: 3, Pages: 665-689 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Judaism
/ Kaballah
/ Self-optimization
/ Psychotherapy
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| RelBib Classification: | AE Psychology of religion AZ New religious movements BH Judaism |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | Medieval and early modern Jewish works of self-improvement share a set of conventions identifying them as a genre. They all imagine the ideal self as a microcosm for a divinized cosmos, and they instruct their readers to conform to the ideal by means of ritual cognition, affect, ritual practice, and social action based in Jewish law. They also assume existence within a community so that material care for others was crucial to ideal selfhood. Contemporary kabbalistic self-help retains the microcosmic model, but some of its authors substitute psychotherapeutic and economic discourse for religious discourse, minimizing requirements for social action, maximizing the power of affect and ritual cognition, and valuing the attainment of personal desire. Other authors, however, use psychological discourse to emphasize the importance of social justice. Thus contemporary writers of kabbalistic self-help adapt and reformulate this earlier genre to different ends, depending on their use of religious, psychotherapeutic, and economic discourse. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4585 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: American Academy of Religion, Journal of the American Academy of Religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/lfv069 |