Mirror of His Beauty: Feminine Images of God from the Bible to the Early Kabbalah

(Paperback)

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In this beautifully realized study, Peter Schafer 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 Schafer'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. 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.

Reviews

Peter Schafer, Winner of the 2007 Distinguished Achievement Award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Winner of the 2002 Award for Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Religion, Association of American Publishers "This work deals with esoteric ideas that are bold and complex, but it is also culturally important, providing a wonderful antecedent for feminist theological speculation today. Schafer supports his thesis admirably, showing its importance for understanding medieval Jewish-Christian relationships and the cultural environment's influence on religion."--Library Journal "Schafer'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

Author Bio

Peter Schafer is Professor of Religion and Ronald O. Perelman Professor of Jewish Studies at Princeton University as well as University Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of the Institut fur Judaistik at Freie Universitat Berlin. His last book was "Judeophobia: Attitudes toward the Jews in the Ancient World".