International Conference

12 March 2018

Photo: UHH/SUB HH

Please note the programme update!

The conference focuses on the different trends and sceptical attitudes Maimonideanism took in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by examining various approaches to major religious topics such as the nature of the Torah, the commandments, the Hebrew language, the people of Israel, and the land of Israel. This comparative approach points to distinctive philosophical trends—as represented by ibn Tibbon, Shem Tov ibn Falquera, Joseph ibn Caspi, Levi ben Abraham, Isaac Albalag, Moshe Narboni, Zerahyah Hen, and Hillel of Verona—focusing on major Jewish religious topics. Among these trends, the place of Abraham Abulafia and the early writings of R. Joseph Gikatilla, who wrote some forms of commentaries on Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed stands out. The questions to be asked are whether it is possible to draw a map of radical versus conservative Maimonideanism and whether the two Kabbalists are as radical as the philosophers when dealing with the same topics.

Further Information