The Erotic Imaginary of Divine Realization in Kabbalistic and Tantric Metaphysics
| Abstract | In this paper I consider the way in which divinity is realized through an imaginary locus in the mystical thought of Jewish kabbalah and Hindu tantra. It demonstrates a reflective consciousness by the adept or master in understanding the place of God’s being, as a supernal and mundane reality. For the comparative assessment of these two distinctive approaches I shall use as a point of departure the interpretative strategies employed by Elliot Wolfson in his detailed work on Jewish mysticism. He argues that there is an androcentric bias embedded in the speculative outlook of medieval kabbalah, as he reads the texts through a psychoanalytic lens. In a similar way, I will argue that there is an androcentric bias to the speculations presented in medieval Shaiva tantra, in particular that division known as the Trika. Overall, my aim is to suggest some functional and perhaps structural similarities to the characterization of divinity in these two traditions, through brief analyses of the erotic understanding of the nature of the Godhead. | |||||||||
| Keywords | Philosophy and Religious Studies Studies in Eastern Religious Traditions | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,679 |
| External links |
  Try with proxy. |
| Through your library | Only published papers are available at libraries |
Similar books and articlesPaul C. Martin, The Feminine in the Making of God: Highlighting the Sensible Topography of Divinity.
Elliot R. Wolfson (2006). Venturing Beyond: Law and Morality in Kabbalistic Mysticism. Oxford University Press.
Karen Guberman (1986). "To Walk in All His Ways": Towards a Kabbalistic Sexual Ethic. Journal of Religious Ethics 14 (1):61 - 80.
Steven T. Katz (1992). Ethics and Mysticism in Eastern Mystical Traditions. Religious Studies 28 (2):253 - 267.
Tomis Kapitan (1991). Agency and Omniscience. Religious Studies 27 (1):105-120.
Lalan Prasad Singh (2010). Buddhist Tantra: A Philosophical Reflection and Religious Investigation. Concept Pub. Co..
Ronald P. Endicott (2012). Resolving Arguments by Different Conceptual Traditions of Realization. Philosophical Studies 159 (1):41-59.
Roger Friedland (2002). Money, Sex, and God: The Erotic Logic of Religious Nationalism. Sociological Theory 20 (3):381-425.
Daniel Davies (2011). Method and Metaphysics in Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed. Oxford University Press.
Janusz Salamon (2010). Light Out of Plenitude: Towards an Epistemology of Mystical Inclusivism. European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 2 (2):141 - 175.
Elliot R. Wolfson (2010). Secrecy, Modesty, and the Feminine : Kabbalistic Traces in the Thought of Levinas. In Kevin Hart & Michael Alan Signer (eds.), The Exorbitant: Emmanuel Levinas Between Jews and Christians. Fordham University Press.
Martin Zwick (2009). The Diagram of the Supreme Pole and the Kabbalistic Tree. Religion East and West (9):89-109.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2010-09-24Total downloads23 ( #53,853 of 549,087 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,317 of 549,087 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
