The work explores a wide range of topics including myth, exegesis, ascent traditions, and cosmology. Although the main focus is on western Gnostic traditions and Merkabah mysticism, the book also includes relevant material from Mandaeism and from later stages of Jewish mysticism such as German Pietism and Kabbalah.
Not only is this volume the first to survey and evaluate the history of scholarship on this complex subject, but it also creates new pathways for future studies by illuminating the crucial methodological and topical issues in the field.
The work explores a wide range of topics including myth, exegesis, ascent traditions, and cosmology. Although the main focus is on western Gnostic traditions and Merkabah mysticism, the book also includes relevant material from Mandaeism and from later stages of Jewish mysticism such as German Pietism and Kabbalah.
Not only is this volume the first to survey and evaluate the history of scholarship on this complex subject, but it also creates new pathways for future studies by illuminating the crucial methodological and topical issues in the field.
This volume is especially helpful to those interested in the connections between late antique mythologies and in particular the many parallels between Jewish mysticism and Mandaeism.
This volume is especially helpful to those interested in the connections between late antique mythologies and in particular the many parallels between Jewish mysticism and Mandaeism.