AISG Soci

Vadim Putzu

Ph.D. in Jewish Thought: School of Graduate Studies, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati, OH.

 

e-mail: vputzu@missouristate.edu; vadim.p@libero.it

 

RESEARCH AND PROFESSIONAL INTEREST

My primary field of research is Jewish mysticism and the Kabbalah. Other research interests include philosophy (Jewish and general), medieval and early modern Jewish history, and science fiction and religion. I have published in books and journals, predominantly articles about medieval Jewish sages and Jewish mysticism, as well as presented at conferences in the U.S. and Italy.

 

PUBLICATION

 

Books

 

2004         Shabbetai Donnolo: Un sapiente ebreo nella Puglia bizantina altomedievale. Cassano delle Murge: Edizioni Messaggi.

 

Refereed Journal Articles

 

Forthcoming - “Ki-tovim dodeika mi-yayin: A proposito di una peculiare esegesi di Ct. 1,2 nella qabbalah spagnola medievale,” Materia Giudaica 27

 

2019         “Mystical Techniques, Mental Processes, and Altered States of Consciousness in Abraham Abulafia’s Kabbalah: A Reassessment,” Archive for the Psychology of Religion 41/2, pp. 89-104.

 

2011         “‘Il Leviatano si digerisce con il vino’: Appunti simbolico-enologici su Menachem Azariah da Fano,” Materia Giudaica 15-16, pp. 365-374.

 

2010         “Internet = cancro: Gematria ed altri ‘alfabeti spirituali’ nella mistica ebraica,” Humanitas 65/5-6, pp. 860-873.

 

Refereed Book Chapters

 

Forthcoming       “Cultural Enology: What Wine Can Teach Us about Religion (and about Jewish Kabbalah and Hasidism in Particular),” in Holy Waters. Edited by Steven Covell, Ryan Lemasters and Zachary Smith.

 

2021         “Heretical Orthodoxy: Eastern and Western Esotericism in Thomas Moore Johnson’s ‘Platonism’,” in Esoteric Transfers and Constructions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Edited by Francesco Piraino and Mark Sedgwick. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 273-296.

 

2020         “Kabbalah in the Ozarks: Thomas Moore Johnson, The Platonist, and the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor,” in Kabbalah in America: Ancient Lore in the New World. Edited by Brian Ogren. Leiden: Brill, pp. 94-112.

 

2019         “Two Hebrew Amulets from the Klau Library: Jewish Magic in the Modern Mediterranean,” in L’eredità di Salomone: La magia ebraica in Italia e nel Mediterraneo. Edited by Emma Abate. Firenze: Giuntina, pp. 315-342.

 

2017         “Tasting Heaven: Wine and the World-to-Come from the Talmud to Safed,” in Olam ha-zeh v’olam ha-ba: This World and the World to Come in Jewish Belief and Practice. Studies in Jewish Civilization, vol. 28. Edited by Leonard Greenspoon. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, pp. 151-170.

 

2012         “‘Whoever kills a human being, it is as if he destroys the entire world’: The Humanism of Shabbetay Donnolo between Mysticism and Science,” in Gli ebrei nel Salento (IX-XVI secolo). Edited by Fabrizio Lelli. Galatina: Congedo, pp. 145-164.

 

2004         “La sapienza nel Sefer hakmonì di Shabbetay Donnolo e la mistica ebraica nella Puglia del Sefer Yuhasin,” in Shabbetay Donnolo. Scienza e cultura ebraica nell’Italia del secolo X. Edited by Giancarlo Lacerenza. Naples: Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”, pp. 105-139.

 

Encyclopedia Entries

 

2006         “Donnolo, Sabbetay ben Avraham,” in Enciclopedia filosofica. Edited by Fondazione Centro Studi Filosofici. Milan: Bompiani, 2006. Vol. 4: 3067.

 

Book Reviews

 

2021         Review of Rabbinic Drinking: What Beverages Teach Us about Rabbinic Literature, by Jordan D. Rosenblum, Oakland, University of California Press, 2020. Religion 51/2, pp. 333-335.

 

2019         Review of Mystical Resistance: Uncovering the Zohar’s Conversations with Christianity, by Ellen D. Haskell, New York, Oxford University Press, 2016. Religion 49/1, pp. 148-152.

 

2015         “The Missing (Slavonic) Link in the Chain of Kabbalah?” Review of Orlov, Andrei A., Divine Scapegoats: Demonic Mimesis in Early Jewish Mysticism. H-Judaic, H-Net Reviews.

 

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AISG