Maimonides' Confrontation with Mysticism
Liverpool University Press eBooks September 21, 2006 Menachem Kellner 16 citations
Maimonides rejected the enchanted, occult-affinity worldview of proto-kabbalistic Judaism and created a new, disenchanted, depersonalized, elitist, and universalist religion. His attempted reformation failed, as shown by the success of the kabbalistic counter-reformation his writings provoked. The book argues that Judaism's deep structures are flexible enough to allow such dramatic reforms, yet the dynamic of religion is more complex than simply following authorities, since Maimonides could not overcome traditional proto-kabbalism.