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OverviewThe thirteenth-century Jewish mystical classic Sefer ha-Zohar (The Book of Splendor), commonly known as the Zohar, took shape against a backdrop of rising anti-Judaism in Spain. Mystical Resistance reveals that in addition to the Zohar's role as a theological masterpiece, its kabbalistic teachings offer passionate and knowledgeable critiques of Christian majority culture. During the Zohar's development, Christian friars implemented new missionizing strategies, forced Jewish attendance at religious disputations, and seized and censored Jewish books. In response, the kabbalists who composed the Zohar crafted strategically subversive narratives aimed at diminishing Christian authority.Hidden between the lines of its fascinating stories, the Zohar makes daring assertions that challenge themes important to medieval Christianity, including Christ's Passion and ascension, the mendicant friars' new missionizing strategies, and Gothic art's claims of Christian dominion. These assertions rely on an intimate and complex knowledge of Christianity gleaned from rabbinic sources, polemic literature, public Church art, and encounters between Christians and Jews. Much of the kabbalists' subversive discourse reflects language employed by writers under oppressive political regimes, treading a delicate line between public and private, power and powerlessness, subservience and defiance.By placing the Zohar in its thirteenth-century context, Haskell opens this text as a rich and fruitful source of Jewish cultural testimony produced at the epicenter of sweeping changes in the relationship between medieval Western Europe's Christian majority and its Jewish minority. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Ellen Davina HaskellPublisher: Oxford University Press Inc Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc Dimensions: Width: 16.30cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 23.90cm Weight: 0.518kg ISBN: 9780190600433ISBN 10: 0190600438 Pages: 256 Publication Date: 15 September 2016 Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Tertiary & Higher Education , Professional & Vocational Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: To order  Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us. Table of ContentsReviewsHaskell's revelation of arguments against Christian claims throughout the Zohar transforms our understanding of this central work of medieval Jewish mysticism and illuminates Jewish resistance to a persecuting society. This original and provocative book persuasively demonstrates that coerced sermons and disputes, attacks on Jewish books and beliefs, and the triumphalist religious art and architecture of thirteenth-century Spain fomented an anti-Christian polemic, hidden in plain sight in the Zohar's pages. -Judith R. Baskin, Philip H. Knight Professor of Humanities and Associate Dean for Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences, University of Oregon An innovative contribution to the study of the Zohar and the construction of religious otherness in medieval Europe. Haskell ranges deftly through a varied landscape of sources and methodological lenses-from careful readings of zoharic sources to a cultural history of Jewish-Christian polemics and the aesthetics of medieval Christian architecture and sculpture. This approach presents a fresh and compelling contribution, studying the Zohar through the lens of resistance literature-the dynamic interplay of power, powerlessness, and creativity in religious culture. Haskell makes strong use of theoretical literature related to the 'hidden transcripts' of reaction and resistance to political subordination, examining this phenomenon through the Zohar's use of coded phrases and myths. --Eitan P. Fishbane, Associate Professor of Jewish Thought, The Jewish Theological Seminary Haskell's revelation of arguments against Christian claims throughout the Zohar transforms our understanding of this central work of medieval Jewish mysticism and illuminates Jewish resistance to a persecuting society. This original and provocative book persuasively demonstrates that coerced sermons and disputes, attacks on Jewish books and beliefs, and the triumphalist religious art and architecture of thirteenth-century Spain fomented an anti-Christian polemic, hidden in plain sight in the Zohar's pages. -Judith R. Baskin, Philip H. Knight Professor of Humanities and Associate Dean for Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences, University of Oregon An innovative contribution to the study of the Zohar and the construction of religious otherness in medieval Europe. Haskell ranges deftly through a varied landscape of sources and methodological lenses-from careful readings of zoharic sources to a cultural history of Jewish-Christian polemics and the aesthetics of medieval Christian architecture and sculpture. This approach presents a fresh and compelling contribution, studying the Zohar through the lens of resistance literature-the dynamic interplay of power, powerlessness, and creativity in religious culture. Haskell makes strong use of theoretical literature related to the 'hidden transcripts' of reaction and resistance to political subordination, examining this phenomenon through the Zohar's use of coded phrases and myths. --Eitan P. Fishbane, Associate Professor of Jewish Thought, The Jewish Theological Seminary This concise volume illustrates with help of a good selection of texts from the Zohar how Jewish mysticism was engaged in the theological-political 'discourse' of its time...Haskell s clear use of primary sources and pertinent references to essential secondary literature both from Jewish studies and other academic fields such as philosophy, gender studies, and art history makes this volume an efficient introduction to a number of relevant topics in Jewish mysticism and surely is a commendable basis for further studies. --H-Net Reviews [T]his monograph adds to our knowledge of the role played by the kabbalists and brings new methodological perspectives to bear in the area of medieval Jewish-Christian relations. --Reading Religion Author InformationEllen D. Haskell is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Director of Jewish Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. 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