The History of Christian Kabbalah

Jewish texts, mystical names of God, and a bold new argument: Pietro Galatino transforms Christian Kabbalah into a tool of doctrinal renewal. Set against the debates over Hebrew learning and the authority of Jewish tradition, this episode explores Galatino’s Opus de Arcanis Catholicae Veritatis as a work poised between polemic, philology, and reform. From the Reuchlin controversy to his use of Tal...

As Europe descends into crisis, one cardinal gathers scribes, converts, and mystics to read the signs of history in the letters of God's name. This episode follows Egidio da Viterbo as he brings Christian Kabbalah into the heart of Roman Church reform. From his study of Hebrew and Jewish mystical texts to the circle of scribes, converts, and scholars gathered around him, it shows how Egidio re...

Johannes Reuchlin defends Jewish books, reinterprets the divine name, and turns Christian Kabbalah into a system. This episode follows Johannes Reuchlin as he turns Christian Kabbalah from an inspired idea into a theological system. From his encounter with Pico and his public defense of Jewish books to his two major works, On the Wonder-Working Word  and On the Art of Kabbalah , it shows how Reuch...

A young philosopher sets out to unify all human knowledge, triggering admiration, outrage, and the birth of Christian Kabbalah. This episode follows Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s audacious attempt to bring all forms of wisdom into a single vision of truth. From his project of concord ( concordia ) and his encounter with Jewish thought to the translations of Flavius Mithridates and the famous nin...

From sunburst emblems to marginal notes to speculative mathematics, Christian thinkers began engaging with Jewish mysticism long before Pico. This episode explores their early, surprising moves. This episode traces the scattered beginnings of the Christian engagement with Kabbalah before it became a broader intellectual movement. From Bernardine of Siena’s radiant emblem of the name of Jesus to Pi...

As Christian scholars were already pursuing their own Kabbalistic projects, Jewish mysticism continued to evolve in dramatic ways. We trace those transformations and the new forms Kabbalah assumed in the early modern world. As the final part of a three-part introduction, this episode explores the profound transformations of Kabbalah in the early modern period. Focusing on the mythic and cosmologic...

Before Christian scholars ever opened a kabbalistic manuscript, the tradition had already taken on dazzling new forms, from the literary mysticism of Catalonia to the ecstatic techniques of Abraham Abulafia and the poetic cosmos of the Zohar. As the second part of a three-part introduction, this episode traces the emergence of medieval Kabbalah as a diverse and fully articulated tradition. From th...

What did Christian thinkers discover in Jewish mysticism? From cosmic diagrams to the balance of mercy and judgment, we explore the ideas that captivated early Christian readers, and the centuries of Jewish thought that stood behind them. As the first part of a three-part introduction, this episode sketches the emergence of key themes of Jewish mysticism, from early cosmological speculation and le...