The beginning of the world in Renaissance Jewish thought : : Ma'aseh bereshit in Italian Jewish philosophy and kabbalah, 1492-1535 / / by Brian Ogren.

• Author: Ogren, Brian.
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden ;, Boston : : Brill.; c2016.
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Series: Supplements to The Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 27.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (210 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

In The Beginning of the World in Renaissance Jewish Thought , Brian Ogren offers a deep analysis of late fifteenth century Italian Jewish thought concerning the creation of the world and the beginning of time. Ogren’s book is the very first to seriously juxtapose the thought of the great Jewish thinker Yohanan Alemanno, Alemanno’s famed Christian interlocutor, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, the important Iberian exegete active in Italy, Isaac Abravanel, and Abravanel’s renowned philosopher son Judah, known as Leone Ebreo. By bringing these thinkers together, this book presents a new understanding of early modern uses of Jewish texts and hermeneutics. Ogren successfully demonstrates that the syntheses of philosophy and Kabbalah carried out by these four intellectuals in their quests to understand the beginning itself marked a new beginning in Western thought, characterized by simultaneous continuity and rupture.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Introduction: In the Beginning -- 1 On the Wisdom of Language—Yohanan Alemanno on the Word of God and the Simulacrum of Creation -- 2 On the Wisdom of Christ—Giovanni Pico della Mirandola on the Truth of the Son and the Creation of the World -- 3 On the Wisdom of Angels—Isaac Abravanel on the Separate Intellects, Bodies, and the Garments of Creation -- 4 On the Wisdom of Beauty—Leone Ebreo on Art and Creation -- 5 Hylomorphic Time—Yohanan Alemanno on Form, Matter, and the Days of Creation -- 6 Edifices and Days—Giovanni Pico della Mirandola on Formation, Teshuvah, and the Return to Christ -- 7 Ex-Nihilo Creation—Isaac Abravanel on the Formation of the World, Evil, and Peace -- 8 Chaos and Divine Spirit—Leone Ebreo on Greek Mythology, Jewish Lore, and the Gendered Creation of the Universe -- Concluding Remarks: On Sources and Influences in Relation to “The Beginning” -- Bibliography -- Index.