Learning Outcomes
On completion of the course, students will be able to:
- explain various forms of Jewish magic and mysticism from late antiquity to modernity with a focus on the Middle Ages and the early modern period
- explain the most important Kabbalistic works and the Kabbalah‘s relationship to earlier rabbinic sources
- reflect on the role of Kabbalah in Jewish religious practice and theology
- analyse and discuss influencing factors that Jewish Kabbalah has had on Christian Kabbalah, esotericism, and later New Age and alternative religiosity
- put Chassidism and later Jewish charismatics in their different historical contexts
- apply and discuss the term “mysticism“, and reflect on and evaluate its applicability in Jewish religious phenomena
- compare and draw conclusions about the academic perspectives that alternated in the study of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism during the 20th century.
Course Content
In the course Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism and Chassidism are studied in a religious-historical perspective and placed in a larger rabbinic Jewish context. The course places particular emphasis on Kabbalah and its development within, and influence on, Jewish theology, interpretation, and practice. It also deals with how Kabbalah is spread outside a Jewish context to Christian and esoteric theological movements. Research on Jewish mysticism from the 1940s to the present is covered, as are primary Jewish sources.
Assessment
Continuous assessment of prepared and active participation in seminars, and a final written report.
Forms of Study
Lectures and obligatory seminars. The language of instruction is English.
Grades
The Swedish grades U–VG.
Prerequisites
- 90 credits at First Cycle in Humanities and/or Social Sciences
Other Information
For online courses, students have to be able to communicate with sound and image using a computer or equivalent.