The History of Christian Kabbalah

The Gospel According to Kabbalah

Thu, 28 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000

A young philosopher sets out to unify all human knowledge, triggering admiration, outrage, and the birth of Christian Kabbalah.

This episode follows Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s audacious attempt to bring all forms of wisdom into a single vision of truth. From his project of concord (concordia) and his encounter with Jewish thought to the translations of Flavius Mithridates and the famous nine hundred theses, it shows how Pico transformed Kabbalah into a Christian sacred science, one that promised to reveal the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the hidden structure of creation through Hebrew letters, names, and symbols.

Episode Homepage

Credits

Academic Research Article: Fabrizio Lelli
Podcast Adaptation & Narration: Níels Páll Eggerz & Elke Morlok
Audio Editing & Post-Production: Gregor Meinecke & Mario Adam
Music: Luigi Boccherini, Minuet, G.275 (arr. for harpsichord by Gregor Quendel)
Source: Pixabay (Pixabay License)

Funding & Support

The History of Christian Kabbalah Podcast is a project of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG, project no. 497340432).

Further Reading

Busi, Giulio. “Toward a New Evaluation of Pico’s Kabbalistic Sources.” Rinascimento: Rivista dell’istituto nazionale di studi sul rinascimento 48 (2009): 165–83.
Busi, Giulio. “Who Does Not Wonder at This Chameleon? The Kabbalistic Library of Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola.” In Hebrew to Latin, Latin to Hebrew: The Mirroring of Two Cultures in the Age of Humanism: Colloquium Held at the Warburg Institute, London, October 18–19, 2004, edited by Giulio Busi, 167–96. Berlin Studies in Judaism 1. Torino: Nino Aragno, 2006.
Copenhaver, Brian P. “Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Winter 2025, edited by Edward N. Zalta and Uri Nodelman (with an extensive bibliography).
Copenhaver, Brian P., ed. and trans. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola: 900 Conclusions. The Tatti Renaissance Library 100. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2025.
Dougherty, M. V. “Pico in English: A Bibliography.” The Works of Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola (1463–1494): With a List of Studies and Commentaries.
Idel, Moshe. “The Magical and Neoplatonic Interpretations of the Kabbalah in the Renaissance.” In Jewish Thought in the Sixteenth Century, edited by Bernard Dov Cooperman, 186–242. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983.
Lelli, Fabrizio, ed. Giovanni Pico e la Cabbalà. Studi pichiani 16. Firenze: L. S. Olschki, 2014.
Schmidt-Biggemann, Wilhelm. “Pico della Mirandola.” In Geschichte der christlichen Kabbala, 1:70–130. Clavis Pansophiae, 10:1. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 2012.
Wirszubski, Chaim. Pico Della Mirandola’s Encounter with Jewish Mysticism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989.

Christian Kabbalah Before It Was Cool

Thu, 21 May 2026 07:00:11 +0000

From sunburst emblems to marginal notes to speculative mathematics, Christian thinkers began engaging with Jewish mysticism long before Pico. This episode explores their early, surprising moves.

This episode traces the scattered beginnings of the Christian engagement with Kabbalah before it became a broader intellectual movement. From Bernardine of Siena’s radiant emblem of the name of Jesus to Pierleone da Spoleto’s annotated kabbalistic manuscripts and Nicholas of Cusa’s speculative reading of the divine name through number, it shows how names, letters, and symbols prepared the ground for Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s famous theses.

Episode Homepage

Credits

Academic Research Article: Flavia Buzzetta (Pierleone da Spoleto) & Níels Páll Eggerz
Podcast Adaptation & Narration: Níels Páll Eggerz & Elke Morlok
Audio Editing & Post-Production: Gregor Meinecke & Mario Adam
Music: Luigi Boccherini, Minuet, G.275 (arr. for harpsichord by Gregor Quendel)
Source: Pixabay (Pixabay License)

Funding & Support

The History of Christian Kabbalah Podcast is a project of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG, project no. 497340432).

Further Reading

Bacchelli, Franco. Giovanni Pico e Pier Leone da Spoleto: Tra filosofia dell’amore e tradizione cabalistica. Firenze: Olschki, 2001.
Buzzetta, Flavia. “Pierleone da Spoleto: médecin, philosophe et cabbaliste.” Accademia: Revue de la Société Marsile Ficin 11 (2018): 77–92.
Buzzetta, Flavia. “Transmission and Transformation of Kabbalistic Knowledge in Italy at the End of the Fifteenth Century.” European Journal of Jewish Studies 16, no. 1 (2021): 54–70.
Izbicki, Thomas. “Nicholas of Cusa and the Jews.” In Conflict and Reconciliation: Perspectives on Nicholas of Cusa, edited by Inigo Bocken, 119–30. Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History 126. Brill, 2004.
Michelson, Emily. “Bernardino of Siena Visualizes the Name of God.” In Speculum Sermonis: Interdisciplinary Reflections on the Medieval Sermon, edited by Georgiana Donavin, Cary Nederman, and Richard Utz, 157–79. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2004.
Schmidt-Biggemann, Wilhelm. “Grundlegungen: Der Name Gottes und der Name Jesu – Maimonides, Bernhardin von Siena, Nikolaus von Kues.” In Geschichte der christlichen Kabbala, 1:38–69. Clavis Pansophiae, 10:1. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 2012.

The Sparks and the Storms (Introduction 3/3)

Thu, 14 May 2026 08:00:04 +0000

NOTE: An incomplete version of this episode was initially uploaded and was missing the opening 3:40 minutes. The corrected file has now been uploaded. If your podcast app still shows the shorter version, please delete the download and reload the episode.

As Christian scholars were already pursuing their own Kabbalistic projects, Jewish mysticism continued to evolve in dramatic ways. We trace those transformations and the new forms Kabbalah assumed in the early modern world.

As the final part of a three-part introduction, this episode explores the profound transformations of Kabbalah in the early modern period. Focusing on the mythic and cosmological system of Lurianic Kabbalah and the explosive messianic movement surrounding Sabbatai Zevi, it traces how Jewish mysticism was reshaped in response to crisis, exile, and new historical horizons. It highlights the dynamic and often volatile forms of Kabbalah that emerged in this period, forms that would soon intersect with, challenge, and inspire Christian interpretations of the tradition.

Episode Homepage

Credits

Academic Research Article: Elke Morlok & Níels Páll Eggerz
Podcast Adaptation & Narration: Níels Páll Eggerz & Elke Morlok
Audio Editing & Post-Production: Gregor Meinecke & Mario Adam
Music: Luigi Boccherini, Minuet, G.275 (arr. for harpsichord by Gregor Quendel)
Source: Pixabay (Pixabay License)

Funding & Support

The History of Christian Kabbalah Podcast is a project of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG, project no. 497340432).

Further Reading

Maciejko, Paweł. Mixed Multitude: Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement, 1755–1816. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015.
Maciejko, Paweł, ed. Sabbatian Heresy: Writings on Mysticism, Messianism, and the Origins of Jewish Modernity. The Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2017.
Necker, Gerold. Einführung in die lurianische Kabbala. Frankfurt am Main: Verlag der Weltreligionen, 2008.
Scholem, Gershom. Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism. 3rd ed. Westminster: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2011, 244–350.
Scholem, Gershom. Sabbatai Ṣevi: The Mystical Messiah, 1626–1676. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973.

The Voices and the Veils (Introduction 2/3)

Thu, 07 May 2026 07:00:30 +0000

Before Christian scholars ever opened a kabbalistic manuscript, the tradition had already taken on dazzling new forms, from the literary mysticism of Catalonia to the ecstatic techniques of Abraham Abulafia and the poetic cosmos of the Zohar.

As the second part of a three-part introduction, this episode traces the emergence of medieval Kabbalah as a diverse and fully articulated tradition. From the speculative circles of Catalonia and Castile to the poetic theology of the Zohar and the ecstatic techniques of Abraham Abulafia, it explores the voices, texts, and practices that shaped its development. It presents the forms of Kabbalah that later Christian readers would encounter, interpret, and transform within their own intellectual and theological frameworks.

Episode Homepage

Credits

Academic Research Article: Elke Morlok & Níels Páll Eggerz
Podcast Adaptation & Narration: Níels Páll Eggerz & Elke Morlok
Audio Editing & Post-Production: Gregor Meinecke & Mario Adam
Music: Luigi Boccherini, Minuet, G.275 (arr. for harpsichord by Gregor Quendel)
Source: Pixabay (Pixabay License)

Funding & Support

The History of Christian Kabbalah Podcast is a project of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG, project no. 497340432).

Further Reading

Fishbane, Eitan P. The Art of Mystical Narrative: A Poetics of the Zohar. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Idel, Moshe. Studies in Ecstatic Kabbalah. SUNY Series in Judaica. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988.
Idel, Moshe. “Abraham Abulafia and the Emergence of Christian Kabbalah.” Zutot 22, no. 1 (2025): 15–37.
Idel, Moshe. Abraham Abulafia’s Esotericism: Secrets and Doubts. Studies and Texts in Scepticism 4. Boston: De Gruyter, 2020.
Matt, Daniel C., ed. Zohar, the Book of Enlightenment. The Classics of Western Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press, 1983.
Schmidt-Biggemann, Wilhelm. Geschichte der christlichen Kabbala. 4 vols. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 2012.
Scholem, Gershom. Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism. 3rd ed. Westminster: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2011, 156–243.

The Infinite and the Intermediaries (Introduction 1/3)

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 23:00:10 +0000

What did Christian thinkers discover in Jewish mysticism? From cosmic diagrams to the balance of mercy and judgment, we explore the ideas that captivated early Christian readers, and the centuries of Jewish thought that stood behind them.

As the first part of a three-part introduction, this episode sketches the emergence of key themes of Jewish mysticism, from early cosmological speculation and letter symbolism to the formation of kabbalistic doctrines of divine emanation. It introduces the symbolic world that later Christian readers would encounter and reinterpret within their own theological frameworks.

Episode Homepage

Credits

Academic Research Article: Elke Morlok & Níels Páll Eggerz
Podcast Adaptation & Narration: Níels Páll Eggerz & Elke Morlok
Audio Editing & Post-Production: Gregor Meinecke & Mario Adam
Music: Luigi Boccherini, Minuet, G.275 (arr. for harpsichord by Gregor Quendel)
Source: Pixabay (Pixabay License)

Funding & Support

The History of Christian Kabbalah Podcast is a project of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG, project no. 497340432).

Further Reading

Joseph Dan, Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2006)
Joseph Dan (ed.), The Early Kabbalah (Paulist Press, 1986)
Moshe Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives (Yale University Press, 1988)
Gershom Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (Knopf, 2011), 1–155
Gershom Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah (Princeton University Press, 1990)