Academic researches of a Kabbalah: Some methodological problems

Abstract

The discussion about demarcation of objects of research between theology and other humanities rightfully comes down to the question of the possible existence of “religious science” about religion. Especially fruitful for solving this general task may be the study of academic research of such mystical and esoteric trends in Judaism, such as kabbalah, and the study not so much of the current state of this research, but the study of the very process of their origin, process of recognition of their subject as a “serious” and legitimate object of science, and process of formation of key approaches to this object. The availability of academic research of kabbalah is connected with the solution of some methodological problems, in particular, with the need for a stricter demarcation of the Jewish kabbalistic tradition and the socalled “Christian cabala” which can have completely different historical and cultural origins and has only an external similarity to Jewish kabbalah. The special value is kept also by problems regarding the origin of kabbalah, reconstruction of its literary and theurgic sources, comparative comparisons of kabbalistic spirituality to similar practices in eastern religions. The article considers the concepts of the origin of kabbalah by Gershom Sholem and Moshe Idel, attention is paid to the fruitfulness of the comparative program of research of kabbalah and eastern spirituality as well as the applied use of kabbalistic ideas in modern literary criticism.