Kabbalah under Post-Modern: The tradition and innovations

Abstract

The article deals with the phenomenon of a nowadays remarkable revival of interest in kabbalah in Western countries and Russia. Unexpected “renaissance” of this ancient esoteric tradition, accompanied by its considerable transforma tions, gave rise to discussions on the authenticity of neokabbalah and its “discontinuity” caused by influence of Western culture and New Age in particular. The author argues that revitalization and modernization of kabbalah is a very complicated and multidimensional process that is not confined to the adoption of postmodern Western spirituality. The analysis of the so called “popular kabbalah” as the mediator between kabbalah sensu stricto and Western culture shows: there is a great variety of strategies aimed at the incorporation in contemporary cultural space. In the greatest majority of cases kabbalists prefer to use creative potential of classical kabbalah as the basis of “big” social projects and the way to resolve the most actual problems of postmodern man and society.