Maimonides' Confrontation with Mysticism

Download or read book Maimonides' Confrontation with Mysticism written by Menachem Kellner and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2006-09-21 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maimonides’ vision of Judaism was deeply elitist, but at the same time profoundly universalistic. He was highly critical of the regnant Jewish culture of his day, which he perceived as so heavily influenced by ancient Jewish mysticism as to be debased. While focusing on that critique, Menachem Kellner skilfully and accessibly demonstrates how Maimonides used philosophy to purify a corrupted and paganized religion, and to present distinctions fundamental to Judaism as institutional, sociological, and historical, rather than ontological. In Maimonides’ hands, metaphysical distinctions are translated into moral challenges.