This e-book explores the profession of Abraham Abulafia (ca. 1240–1291), self-proclaimed Messiah and founding father of the varsity of ecstatic Kabbalah. lively in southern Italy and Sicily the place Franciscans had followed the apocalyptic teachings of Joachim of Fiore, Abulafia believed the top of days used to be coming near near and observed himself as selected by means of God to bare the Divine fact. He appropriated Joachite principles, fusing them together with his personal revelations, to create an apocalyptic and messianic state of affairs that he was once convinced might allure his Jewish contemporaries and was hoping could additionally persuade Christians. From his concentrate on the centrality of the Tetragrammaton (the 4 letter ineffable Divine identify) to the date of the predicted redemption in 1290 and the arrival jointly of Jews and Gentiles within the inclusiveness of the recent age, Abulafia’s engagement with the apocalyptic teachings of a few of his Franciscan contemporaries enriched his personal worldview. although his messianic claims have been due to the his revelatory studies and hermeneutical interpreting of the Torah, they have been, to no small quantity, depending on his ancient conditions and acculturation.

“This booklet is old instead of phenomenological, making it either extra convincing and extra readable … it really is appropriate to any severe reader drawn to kabbalah, medieval background, Jewish-Christian family, and the feasibility of significant inter-faith dialogue.” — organization of Jewish Libraries Newsletter

“Hames’s vital paintings has fantastically strengthened our experience of the interdependence linking the magical traditions of medieval Judaism, Christianity and Islam. it's going to pride somebody attracted to Abulafia or Joachim, in Kabbalah or mysticism, and so much widely, within the attention-grabbing net of interactions, ‘cross-fertilisations’ and statement of distinction that constitutes the background of religion.” — magazine of Ecclesiastical History

“Like Angels on Jacob’s Ladder presents an obtainable and considerate presentation of a truly fascinating and critical determine within the Jewish mystical culture. Of equivalent significance, it elegantly indicates a much more advanced area of Jewish-Christian relatives and interplay within the medieval global than regularly unearths expression within the learn of medieval history.” — Nina Caputo, collage of Florida

“A attention-grabbing story.” — Gordon D. Newby, Emory University

Harvey J. Hames is Senior Lecturer of Medieval heritage at Ben-Gurion collage of the Negev. he's the writer of The artwork of Conversion: Christianity and Kabbalah within the 13th Century.