Sinful Servant of God: Orthodox Theologian and Spiritual Writer Nikolay Yevgrafovich Pestov

528 SEER, 8i, 3, 2003 Sorbian or Czech to supply their lexical needs. But, as Dr Pohontsch's statisticalanalysis shows, contributorsto the Lower Sorbian weekly were at first fairly impassive. Though they did borrow a little from Upper Sorbian, theywere only slightlyinhibitedin theiruse of Germanisms.Of the 858 Upper Sorbianborrowingsin thevocabulary,only 55 were introducedin I848- I9I5. After the FirstWorldWar there was a great surge:the number for the period I9I6-33 was 269. In 1947 Lower Sorbian was introduced to the school system,but many of the teachersin LowerSorbianschoolswere Upper Sorbs. Upper Sorbsalsocontributedto LowerSorbianpublications.Not surprisingly, this led to the greatest increase of all in the influence of Upper Sorbian: between I947 and 1959, 367 new borrowings appeared. Significantly,since the mid i970S therehas been a markeddecreasein both the adoption and use of Upper Sorbian borrowings, while Germanisms have been staging a comeback. HerfordCollege, Oxford GERALD STONE Piacentini, Marcello (ed.). Traduzionee rielaborazionenelle letterature di Polonia Ucraina e Russia, XVI-XJXIII secolo. Slavica. Collana di studi slavi, 3. Edizioni dell'Orso, Alessandria, 1999. 474 pp. Tables. Notes. Index. L7o,ooo. THIS collection of twenty-three papers, delivered at an international conference at Gargnano on Lake Garda, northern Italy in September i 996, illustrates how little the problems confronting translators and the solutions they have devised for them have changed over the centuries. Despite the internet, databases and modern translation theory, present-day translators resort to much the same techniques as their predecessors of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. As the collection's title indicates, 'target' languages include Church Slavonic, Russian, Ukrainian and Polish. Among the 'source' languages are Italian, Latin, French, English and the Greek of the Septuagint and the New Testament. Most of the contributions deal with translations of specific works; a few are more general; two explore aspects of translation theory. According to A. Borowski in the first of these papers (pp. 23-38), the Polish translators of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries postulated three ways of translating. One is word for word, literal translation, which is recommended for translating 'spiritual books'. A second is to deploy to the full the translator's ownI concepts and inventiveness with the aim of producing something like a free adaptation. A third way arose in response to the enthusiastic interest which the sixteenth-century Polish translators from the Italian took in politics. They were well aware of the gulf which separated the Italian culture of the Cinquecento from the mentality of the contemporary Polish reader. So, for such a translator, 'translation did not mean [ ...] any literal transmission of images, ideas or patterns of culture ... .1 the perfect translator should not follow mechanically the original. His task was to remodel it according to native needs and in regard to customs' (pp. 36-37). This is a striking anticipation of modern localization theory. REVIEWS 529 In the second of these papers S. I. Nikolaev (pp. 2 I 5-25) points out that in Russia at the end of the seventeenth centurya theory of translationwas being devised for use with theological works:a theory for the translationof artistic compositionshad to wait untila concept of artisticliteraturehad been evolved (p. 2 I6). The translatorsof the Posol'skiziprikaz leftno recordof theirtheoretical views, but their practice shows that they had no scruplesabout treatingtheir originalsfreely.Nikolaev concludesthatroundthe turnof the centurya Polish poem to be translatedinto Russian had firstto be adapted to an appropriate Russianliterarygenre and that the form, styleand language of the translation would be determined by the characteristics of that genre. In this period, therefore,deviationsfrom the originalsshould not be regardedas distortions; they merely reflect the translation techniques of the time (pp. 222-23). H. Rothe (pp. 109-26) deals with the transmission from one culture to another of a particular literary genre, the spiritual song (dukhovnaia pesnia). He relates how the genre came into being at the end of the Middle Ages and how during the Reformation it spread from Germany and the Czech lands into Poland, where a powerful Protestant movement was stirring among the nobility and the urban populations. Established in Poland, it passed over into Belorussia and the Ukraine, and in i 649 it accompanied the first learned monks to be summoned from Kiev...

Reviewed by: The Second Vatican Council on Other Religions by Gerald O'Collins Glenn B. Siniscalchi Gerald O'Collins, The Second Vatican Council on Other Religions. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2013. Pp. 214. $45.00. O'Collins's concern is to explain and defend Vatican II's teaching on the uniqueness of Christ and the possibility of salvation outside the Church, in order to convince those who endorse religious exclusivism. In this view, none of the formal outsiders can be saved: "Clearly many Roman Catholics and other Christians find it unsettling or even disturbing to acknowledge that God's revelation and salvation are available for 'the others'" (p. 159; cf. p. 202). One of O'Collins's presuppositions is that the meaning of biblical and conciliar texts can take on a meaning of their own after they have been originally written down. Although Vatican II did not explicitly state that the other religions are "ways of salvation" (p. viii), the texts allow for such an interpretation. He says that Vatican II "developed some teaching on other religions" (p. 1, cf. p. 149) and "offered something startlingly new" (p. 143). Instead of labeling the outsiders as "pagans," "heathens," and "infidels," the Council Fathers would rather use positive language about those outside the Catholic communion. Beginning with an exposition of the scriptures, O'Collins contends that the scripture writers give positive evaluations regarding the possible fate of the formal outsiders. By analyzing the documents of Vatican II, he also believes that the reality of divine revelation can be found outside the boundaries of Judaism and Christianity. A favorable response to revelation allows outsiders to be saved. Unless God reveals Godself outside the church, formal outsiders could never be saved. O'Collins's endorsement of Karl Rahner's theology enables him to speak freely of people's being saved through the other world religions. O'Collins's careful treatment of the biblical and conciliar texts is continuously accurate and informative. He rightly says, "Neither the thesis of total [End Page 617] discontinuity (or substitution of something completely new) nor the thesis of total continuity (or no change whatsoever) can possibly be sustained. The crucial question concerns the degree of change or discontinuity" (p. 202). By the end of the book he speaks about "considerable discontinuity" in the "official doctrine and practice of the Catholic Church" (p. 204). Such a claim cannot be denied. In terms of the way that the Church expressed doctrine, there was indeed remarkable change, but in terms of the content of teaching, the doctrine of salvation outside the Church remains unchanged. Like so many other reputable publications in the theology of religions, the reader must pay careful attention to the way in which O'Collins defines and utilizes his terms in order to exegete his text appropriately. His book will be an excellent text for graduate-level courses on interfaith relations. No matter where the reader falls on the spectrum of Catholic belief on this particular issue, this book is a serious work of theology that deserves a wide readership. [End Page 618] Glenn B. Siniscalchi Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology Saint Meinrad, IN Copyright © 2018 Journal of Ecumenical Studies

The Day the World Stopped Working

Celem niniejszego artykułu jest prezentacja aktualnego stanowiska prawosławia w sprawie możliwości święceń kapłańskich kobiet. Z problemem święceń (ordynacji) kobiet Kościoły prawosławne zetknęły się w latach 60. ubiegłego stulecia w ramach Światowej Rady Kościołów. Początkowo teologowie prawosławni postrzegali tę kwestię jako obcą dla ich świadomości eklezjalnej. Z biegiem czasu, pod wpływem kontaktów z Kościołami chrześcijańskimi na Zachodzie, prawosławie uświadomiło sobie wagę problemu i potrzebę pogłębionej refleksji na ten temat. Wyzwanie to podjęli teologowie prawosławni, zwłaszcza z Europy Zachodniej i USA. Praktyka święceń kapłańskich kobiet została negatywnie oceniona w dokumencie końcowym Międzyprawosławnej Konsultacji Teologicznej na Rodos (1988). Podobne stanowisko strona prawosławna wyraziła w dokumentach końcowych międzywyznaniowych dialogów ekumenicznych. Zawarte w tych tekstach prawosławne argumenty przeciw święceniom kobiet koncentrują się wokół tradycji poświadczonej w Piśmie Świętym, antropologii, symbolizmu liturgicznego i jedności chrześcijan. Aktualne stanowisko prawosławia w sprawie możliwości święceń kapłańskich kobiet jest więc negatywne. Można jednocześnie zauważyć pewne zróżnicowanie poglądów teologów prawosławnych w tej kwestii, co może świadczyć o tym, że debaty wokół święceń kapłańskich kobiet w prawosławiu nie można uznać za zakończoną.

The article attempts to define the most important tasks of modern Orthodox theology by analyzing the spiritual insights of the great Russian writer and philosopher F. M. Dostoevsky. The thinker wrote about the need to educate the Russian people in a Christian spirit in order for them to fulfill their worldwide mission. Russian university theology today is being formed in the conditions of worldview, ideological and religious pluralism. Differentiation of theological science and education on the basis of confessions is optimal in the current situation according to the author of the article. For Orthodox theology, the theoretical and methodological foundation should be, first of all, Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition, the richest experience of Eastern Christianity transmitted to Ancient Rus by Byzantium, patristic works and the works of a great many brilliant Orthodox theologians. Also, the spiritual and intellectual achievements of Russian religious philosophers, who, not without mistakes, strove to transfer the richest heritage of Orthodox thought into the secular language should be included. The analysis of Dostoevsky’s literary works, diaries, and notebooks, one of the most distinctive representatives of Russian metaphysics, determined the conclusion of the author of the article that for modern Orthodox theology, the most important tasks are apologetic and enlightenment. They are aimed at protecting the Christian faith from the multitude of myths that developed during the period of apostasy. In addition, these tasks are meant to cultivate knowledge about Orthodoxy and other traditional religions for Russia, both among young people and the older generations.

This study analyzes T.S Eliot's epoch-making poem ''The Waste Land'' to deeply investigate the crises of post-war modern European society manifested in the poem as spiritual degeneration, skepticism, adultery, temptation, mechanism, hypocrisy, anxiety and unfaithfulness. Qualitative method has been applied in the study to collect data and analyze them.The paper also explores the ways of salvation of the crises that are mentioned by the poet as giving, sympathizing and controlling. Moral crises occupy a great position in human civilization in the modern period where man has forgotten all his ethics, spiritual rebirth and even religion. It also examines how modern men and women lead their lives in life-in-death, how they follow their traditional routine and how modernism captures them. Again, the study brings out the moral degradation and its various aspects and argues that T.S Eliot is heavily influenced by Hinduism to find out the way of regeneration that is terribly important for the entire human race.Keywords: Sterility, Anxiety, Frustration, Mechanical Life, Hypocrisy, Salvation

The article examines the lives of saints as a source of didactic discources in the Private Chronicle (Keleynyi Letopisets) by Demetrius of Rostov. Private Chronicle, the last major work by saint Demetrius, the Metropolitan of Rostov, is a commented account of biblical history. Like all literary heritage of Demetrius of Rostov, Private Chronicle has spiritual and moral orientation. Every episode of the Holy Scripture retold in the Private Chronicle becomes the reason for lengthy didactic discourses. A large part of these discourses consists of references to lives of the saints. Examples from the lives of saints fit to the scheme which these didactic discourses are based on: at first the author gives examples from the Old Testament, then from the New Testament, then from lives of saints and at last from writings by the Church Fathers. Fragments from lives of saints included to the Private Chronicle literally coincide with The Book of Lives of Sanits (“Chet’i Minei”) by Demetrius himself, published in 1689– 1709. Boundaries of these quotation aren’t marked. At times the author simply mentions a saint’s name or briefly retells some episodes from a vita. In all cases he provides precise references to “The Book of Lives of Saints”, indicating a sheet number. On several occasions lives of saints serve as sources of quotations from works by sainted church writers (John Chrysostom, Isidore of Pelusium). In such cases not only “The Book of Lives of Saints,” but also the Moscow old- printed Prologue of 1685 is used.

MLR, 99.3, 2004 803 Convent Theatre in Early Modern Italy: Spiritual Fun and Learning for Women. By Elissa B. Weaver. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2002. xiii + 304pp. ?45. ISBN 0-521-55082-3. Elissa Weaver's pioneering study is a much-needed work that throws light on an almost completely unexplored area of literary and historical research. In a clear and enj oyable style, Weaver takes the reader through the history of Tuscan convent theatre between the mid-fifteenth and the mid-seventeenth centuries. She shows that nuns were engaged in many cultural and artistic activities, including commissioning, writ? ing, and performing theatrical representations that took place in the closed spaces of their convents. She examines the major developments in the genres of convent theatrical production?mainly sacre rappresentazioni, spiritual comedies, and some farces?and illustrates how convent theatre dealt with a variety of topics: lives of saints and virgin martyrs, episodes from the holy scriptures, stories of women who had unhappy marriages and took the vows. These stories were deemed appropri? ate and interesting for the convent audience and some female external associates. Drawing on a corpus of over fiftytexts, mostly unpublished and including anonymous and undated works, she points out the increasing interest in publishing convent plays throughout the seventeenth century. Although Weaver stresses that not all con? vent authors possessed literary talent or professional ability, we do learn about many well-known, and some less-known, nun playwrights, such as Antonia Tanini Pulci, Raffaella de Sernigi, Beatrice del Sera, Maria Clemente Ruoti, and Annalena Odoaldi. One of the most important aspects of this book is that it highlights the specificity of convent theatre and, at the same time, its relevance to and exchanges with the sur? rounding secular world. The nuns' theatrical tradition needs to be understood within the circumscribed context in which it was born: it owed its existence to the female monastic community's need for a 'feminine subculture'. Indeed, convent plays held a primary function in offeringthe nuns 'good fun [. . .] so they may improve them? selves' (p. 62) and promoting their spiritual and literary education, as well as being formidable antidotes against the boredom of cloistered life. But this literary tradi? tion was in close touch with wider society. Convent theatre followed the mainstream genres of society outside, borrowed and adapted texts, and gained inspiration from the literarycommunity beyond the cloister. Furthermore, Weaver emphasizes that the audience of convent plays included townswomen (female relatives and friends), and rarely men, who shared this theatrical culture with the nuns. In debatingthe meaning of convent theatre and its connections with early modern society, she goes as far as offering an assessment of its place in the history of theatrical writing. Indeed, she suggests that the nuns' theatrical tradition may have been an important model forthe Jesuits, in their effortto make theatre a crucial part of their educational programme for the young male members of the European elites. Weaver's research has the further merit and originality of paying attention to the history of material culture and the circumstances of the performances. Her book provides many practical details of how performances were organized: their timing (Christmas, carnival, convent celebrations), the invitations posted up in the nuns' rooms informing them of the time and place of the performances, the props and cos? tumes used, stage installations, and sometimes the areas where they performed, such as the cloister loggia, or the courtyard. One can fully appreciate how nuns managed to express their creativity and benefit from theatre, in spite ofthe obvious limitations of their physical segregation. Perhaps the only slight disappointment is the concluding chapter, on convent theatre beyond Tuscany. Here Weaver limits herself to mentioning some Italian and European examples, acknowledging that cloistered nuns propagated the theatrical tradition through the Catholic Church (i.e. their spiritual directors and confessors) 804 Reviews and their families, but without fully explaining exactly how they did this. This weak? ness apart, Spiritual Fun remains a wonderful example of how to use literature and history to understand early modern theatre, as well as the gendered dimension of the ltalian cultural tradition. University of Birmingham Silvia Evangelisti Lafigura della donna nel teatro di Eduardo...

The thesis of Anna-Maria Papadaki realizes a meeting between apophatic theology of the orthodox Church and of abstract art, and specifically the artistic creation and the theoretical writings of the artists of Russian Avant-Garde, of W. Kandinsky and P. Klee. The path of theological apophaticism and of painterly abstraction looks common, although there is a basic difference: the fathers express the experience of the vision of God, and the artists only a hope for this vision, but a creative dialogue is possible. During their effort to meet God, the artists use apophatic names and expressions, which approach apophatic theology, for example “zero” as expressed by Malevich and the “not being” of Maximus the Confessor. They also use affirmative expressions, like the beauty and the light, and they unknowingly separate absolute and relative beauty and light, (created and non-created in theological terms), concluding an apophaticism of beauty and light, through believing that absolute beauty and light can never be depicted. Through all these they accept that the Being they search is transcendental and that they can’t come to know it, but they also express the hope that they can meet with an energy or a power of it, expressing unknowingly the distinction between substance and energy in God, believing that not only the divine substance is unknown by man, but also the substance of the created beings. Although orthodox theology and abstract art were frequently accused for rejecting the material world, in reverse they counter it in a positive way, as we can see through the use of dissimilar symbols, through the effort to know the words of the beings (which the artists call formulas or enigmas), and through the consideration of the world as a fellow traveler in a common course. This body of the world is considered to be in a perpetual movement, and the relative instruction of Klee comes to meet the instruction of Maximus and of John of Damascus about the same subject. This body is been demonstrated by the model of the hierarchy of Dionysius and the spiritual triangle of Kandinsky and the artist or the saint has the responsibility of its unification, not only in a theoretical or an abstract way, but actually, with sacrifices and persecutions. All the above have a clear eschatological dimension, as expressed in the thought of Kandinsky. Another meeting is realized through the dialogue between the art of the orthodox Church, and especially the icon, and abstract art, considering not only the style, but also the ontology of the two artistic expressions. At the end, a dialogue between theology and the nihilism or atheism that potentially exists in modern art, takes place, and concludes that a creative opening to the world is possible. The conclusion of this thesis is that abstract art, an important part of civilization, frequently accused for atheism or nihilism, meets here with orthodox theology and mainly apophaticism, in a dialogue that proves that theology is so holistic that it even can contain the universality of abstract…

The View From the Tree.

The present article analyses the content on philosophical information and presents the Christian Theology and Dogmatic teaching as Science and Knowledge of Truth and Life. Orthodox theology in general and the dogmatic in particular, have as primary objective the knowledge and explanation of the revealed truths of faith, which exposes them systematically and symbolically, having the basic inside of their content sent by the Holy Scripture and Tradition, but formulated for Church in dogmas. The specific of the Orthodoxy shows us that theology is the science of the whole knowledge with a direct existential implication of the only truth about lifemaker iconically expressed by God the Holy Trinity. The theological background of knowledge is essentially that of ecclesial, as graceful ambience in which the divine revelation represents the power of the truth. That’s why Church is the guarantee and the authenticity of the free knowledge and infallible knowledge of the divine truth that it has inside.

During the years of the revolution and the Civil War S. L. Frank, G. P. Fedotov, N. S. Arseniev were professors at Saratov University, but this is not all that unites them. In emigration these religious thinkers taught at various research-training, cultural-educational and spiritual centers of Europe, both Russian and foreign. The article reveals their personal experience of referring to the Biblical Word, exegesis of biblical texts based on Orthodox theology and biblical criticism. Frank wrote about the Word that created the world and the incarnate Word. In the book Collapse of the Idols (1923) he appeals to his reader with quotations from the New Testament, expressing the eternal and absolute. In the Holy Scriptures, he finds a match for his “basic intuition” of being. He bases his book Light in the Darkness (1949) on The Gospel of John, expressing the Christian attitude towards evil and criticizing all kinds of Utopianism. Frank’s idea that a man is destined to suffer to obtain salvation is also derived by him from the New Testament. Fedotov’s programmatic proposal on biblical studies is the article Orthodoxy and Historical Criticism (1932). He posed “the question of the limits of criticism in biblical exegesis”. Fedotov goes to the “pure basis of the Holy Tradition”, combining criticism of the historical school, “dogmatic loyalty to Orthodoxy” and “warm attitude” to Western Christianity. In the book Spiritual Poems (1935) the thinker explores folk beliefs in spiritual verses considering how biblical images (the Mother of God as “suffering mother and intercessor,” Christ the Almighty) and eschatological prophecies transform in them.The spiritual experience of the apostles John and Paul, their mysticism is the central attraction of Arseniev’s exegetical interests. He reinterprets the pre-Christian concept of the Logos and comes to the Christian understanding of the Word of God: Logos of the Old Testament prepares the hearts of men for the incarnation of the Son of God.

The article analyses the church legal order as a component of the general social legal order. It is determined that the unique nature of ecclesiastical law and ecclesiastical legal order is the basis for a new reading of the problem of the relationship between the spiritual and legal principles of society. With the help of a set of modern methodological approaches, the Holy Scriptures and Holy Tradition, codes of canons and social concepts of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, works of theologians, national legislation and international legal acts, sociological data, press materials are analyzed. The ecclesiastical legal order, and the general social one, is combined with spirituality in that the sphere of the spiritual includes all the intellectual and moral forces of man, his desire for freedom and order. Comprehending the spiritual origins of law and the legal order, the authors assume that they are, above all, spiritual value. The functioning of the church legal order is an argument in opposition to those doctrinal positions that derive the legal order from the law and legality, and emphasises the appeal to the law as its real and reliable basis. Therefore, the concepts of legal order and church legal order are correlated as interrelated, but at the same time different phenomena. Legal regulation of church relations has a dual nature. It is carried out both by legal acts of the church and by the legislation of the state. Such a double dependence creates a vulnerability of the church legal order to the nature and quality of secular law. The subjective structure of the church legal order is also ambivalent. In Ukraine, as in a multi-confessional society, a separate (autonomous) church legal order is inherent in each denomination. Relationships, differences between denominations, interaction or contradictions between them in one way or another affect the state of the church legal order in society, including – the general legal order

The narratives we may call 'tales of pathos' - the tales of the Man of Law, Second Nun, Clerk, Physician, Prioress, and Monk - make greater demands on a modern reader's historical sense and imaginative sympathies than probably any other grouping in the Canterbury Tales . An understanding reading can be rewarding, however, in several ways. They introduce us to modes of thinking and feeling central to fourteenth-century experience, illuminating aspects of Chaucer's world he otherwise left unexplored. They also testify to his passionate interest in the many forms of story flooding the late medieval world. Not of least importance, several of his greatest achievements are found here. 'Tales of pathos', however, are not a genre. No two narratives are the same: they include a saint's life, a miracle of the Virgin, a series of de casibus stories, a religious romance, an expanded exemplum, and a folktale. These tales vary, too, in the degree of pathos aimed for and achieved. The Second Nun's Tale and the Monk's Tale - with one striking exception - are only marginally pathetic, whereas the Clerk's Tale , the Prioress's Tale , the Physician's Tale , and the Man of Law's Tale are intensely so. Nevertheless, they may be properly considered together. They share a narrative mode and a method of treatment, they possess several features in common, and they make essentially the same demand on a modern reader, and are best understood and appreciated by reference to certain characteristics of fourteenth-century experience and mentality.

Reviewed by: Concealment and Revelation: Esotericism in Jewish Thought and Its Philosophical Implications Mark Verman Concealment and Revelation: Esotericism in Jewish Thought and Its Philosophical Implications, by Moshe Halbertal, trans. Jackie Feldman. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007. 200 pp. $32.95. By tracing the construct of esotericism from the Rabbinic to the medieval period Moshe Halbertal offers an important and illuminating contribution to understanding the course of Jewish intellectual history. He is a professor of Jewish thought and philosophy at Hebrew University and originally published this study in Hebrew in 2001. It follows his monograph on the late thirteenth-century Provencal talmudist and Maimonidean, R. Menahem ha-Meiri. One of the admirable features of Halbertal's current presentation is its scope. He offers substantial selections from significant primary sources, many of which have hitherto not appeared in English. For this reason alone the book is worthwhile for the general readership. It is also greatly enhanced by the accompanying insightful analysis. With equal facility Halbertal edifyingly discusses an impressive panoply of Jewish mystics, philosophers, and exegetes. Concealment consists of 168 pages of text followed by 21 pages of informative endnotes and is divided into 17 compact chapters and an introduction. With the exception of the last and longest one, each chapter is approximately 10 pages in length. Accordingly, one can easily traverse every section in a relatively [End Page 168] short time. In the "Introduction" Halbertal lays out the pervasive nature of esotericism in society: "Esotericism . . . is a tendency to view canonical texts, social phenomena, or even individual behavior as a form of coded manifestation that intentionally conceals something deeper and more meaningful that only the few can decipher" (p. 1). As one would anticipate, throughout the book Halbertal is in dialogue with Leo Strauss and his pioneering work, Persecution and the Art of Writing, originally published in 1952. "At the root of the elitist political esoteric outlook, as Leo Strauss developed it, is the idea that social order will collapse under complete conditions of transparency" (p. 3). Ultimately, however, Halbertal's primary criticism of Strauss is that he is too myopic, in that for Strauss the primary motif for esotericism in Maimonides and his fellow travelers is self-defense. "The philosopher protects himself and the society by going underground" (p. 137). According to Halbertal, this overarching explanation is too limited to adequately explain Jewish esotericism in its fullness, which is a much more expansive and complex phenomenon than addressed by Strauss. In Chapter One, "The Paradox of Esotericism," Halbertal opens with the foundational mishnah from Hagigah 2:1 concerning restrictions on public discussions of both cosmogony and the Divine realm. As the book unfolds it is intriguing to discover that successive luminaries including Abraham ibn Ezra, Maimonides, Nachmanides, and Abba Mari each highlighted this key text, but interpreted it differently. Initially Halbertal presents two distinct perspectives on esotericism in rabbinic texts. One approach posits the notion that "[t]he secret of God's essence is encrypted in the Holy Scriptures, and the knowledge of these secrets grants man possession of magical powers" (p. 9). A second tack was promoted by R. Akiva, whereby "nonconventional exegetical criteria must be applied to the sacred scriptures, since the text possesses absolute semantic fullness" (p. 10). Halbertal concludes the first chapter by introducing a seminal theme that is one of his major contributions to the topic, namely what he characterizes as "the esoteric paradox" (p. 12). He convincingly demonstrates that although the purported intent of the esoteric enterprise is to restrict the content of the special realm of knowledge to an inner circle of cognoscenti, it is fundamentally uncontrollable. Anyone can assert that a particular teaching constitutes an authentic esoteric doctrine of the religious tradition. If challenged, the proponent can simply claim that the reason that it isn't commonly accepted is precisely that it has been hidden. Esotericism can even be used to promote doctrinal subversion and heresy. "We should be reminded that, because of the preferential status of the esoteric, heretical positions acquire a status as the inner core of religion and even as the loftiest pinnacle of religious life" (p. 45). [End Page 169] Chapters Two through Fifteen trace discussions...