Synopses & Reviews
As recently as 1915, when the legendary scholar of Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem sought to find someoneanyoneto teach him Kabbalah, the study of Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah was largely neglected and treated with disdain. Today, this field has ripened to the point that it occupies a central place in the agenda of contemporary Judaic studies.
While there are many definitions of Kabbalah, this volume focuses on the discrete body of literature which developed between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries. The basis for most of this kabbalistic literature is the concept of the ten sefirot, the complex schema depicting the divine persona, and speculation about the inner life of God. It maintains the conviction that all human action reverberates in the world of the sefirot, and thus influences the life of divinity. Proper action helps to restore harmony and unity to the world of God, while improper action reinforces the breach within God brought about originally through human transgression.
Collected here in one volume are some of the most central essays published on the subject. The selections provide the reader with a sense of the historical range of Kabbalah, as well as examples of various kinds of approaches, including those of intellectual and social history, history and phenomenology of religions, motif studies, ritual studies, and women's studies. Sections discuss mystical motifs and theological ideas, mystical leadership and personalities, and devotional practices and mystical experiences.
Review
"Way and Judy Chu have put together an excellent book on explorations into the lives of adolescent boys. The essays are rich in diversity, not only in the populations of boys studied, but also in research methodology and theoretical perspective."-Choice,
Review
"Empirical research on the lives and behavior of adolescent boys from a variety of ethnic and class backgrounds."-The Chronicle,
Review
"The volume explores the experiences of boys who have been excluded from previous developmental research and also challenges the existing stereotypes about boys."-NYU Today,
Review
"Brings together a coherent and consistent body of literature on a topic that is often relegated to a single chapter or afterthought in similar books and edited volumes....Adolescent Boys challenges the limited and often skewed male images perpetuated by the media, superordinant male groupings, and Western men by giving voice to adolexcent boys growing up in diverse cultures of boyhood." -Harvard Educational Review,
Synopsis
An essential volume of 12th to 17th century papers on the Jewish mysticism of Kabbalah
As recently as 1915, when the legendary scholar of Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem sought to find someone--anyone--to teach him Kabbalah, the study of Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah was largely neglected and treated with disdain. Today, this field has ripened to the point that it occupies a central place in the agenda of contemporary Judaic studies.
While there are many definitions of Kabbalah, this volume focuses on the discrete body of literature which developed between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries. The basis for most of this kabbalistic literature is the concept of the ten sefirot, the complex schema depicting the divine persona, and speculation about the inner life of God. It maintains the conviction that all human action reverberates in the world of the sefirot, and thus influences the life of divinity. Proper action helps to restore harmony and unity to the world of God, while improper action reinforces the breach within God brought about originally through human transgression.
Collected here in one volume are some of the most central essays published on the subject. The selections provide the reader with a sense of the historical range of Kabbalah, as well as examples of various kinds of approaches, including those of intellectual and social history, history and phenomenology of religions, motif studies, ritual studies, and women's studies. Sections discuss mystical motifs and theological ideas, mystical leadership and personalities, and devotional practices and mystical experiences.
Synopsis
A flurry of best-selling works has recently urged us to rescue and protect boys. They have described how boys are failing at school, acting out, or shutting down emotionally. Lost in much of the ensuing public conversation are the boys themselvesthe texture of their lives and the ways in which they resist stereotypical representations of them.
Most of this work on boys is based primarily on middle class, white boys. Yet boys from poor and working class families as well as those from African American, Latino, and Asian American backgrounds need to be understood in their own terms and not just as a contrast to white or middle class boys. Adolescent Boys brings together the most up-to-date empirical research focused on understanding the development of boys from diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
The authors show how the contexts of boys' lives, such as the schools they attend shape their identities and relationships. The research in this book will help professionals and parents understand the diversity and richness of boys' experiences.
About the Author
Niobe Way is professor of applied psychology at New York University's Steinhardt School of Education. She is a three-time NYU Press author/editor, having written
Everyday Courage and edited
Adolescent Boys as well as having co-edited
Urban Girls with Bonnie Leadbeater in 1996. She is also co-editor of
The Experience of Close Friendship in Adolescence. Judy Y. Chu is lecturer at Standford University and the principal investigator of "Learning What Boys Know," A multi-site research project examining boys' relationships and boys' psychosocial developemnt during adolescence and early childhood.