This dissertation presents a Whiteheadian interpretation of the notions of mind,
immanence and process as they are addressed in the Zohar. According to many scholars,
this kabbalistic creation story as portrayed in the Zohar is a reaction to the earlier
rabbinic concept of God qua creator, which emphasized divine transcendence over divine
immanence. The medieval Jewish philosophers, particularly Maimonides influenced by
Aristotle, placed particular emphasis on divine transcendence, seeing a radical separation
between Creator and creation. With this in mind, these scholars claim that one of the
goals of the Zohar’s creation story was to emphasize God’s immanence within creation.
Similar to the Zohar, the process metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead and his
followers was reacting to the substance metaphysics that had dominated Western
philosophy as far back as ancient Greek thought. Whitehead adopts a very similar
narrative to that of the Zohar. First there is mind containing all the eternal objects which
serve as potential for the creation (God’s primordial nature). Mind becomes immanent in all actual occasions through prehension (God’s consequent nature). Finally God becomes
“the lure” (to use Whitehead’s phrase) in the ongoing process of nature (God as
superject). In this narrative, God is not the static being, the unmoved mover as discussed
by Aristotle, but rather, is portrayed as a dynamic becoming, a God of process.
Due to these significant similarities between Whitehead’s process philosophy and
the Zohar with regard to the immanence of God and the process of creation, it is
worthwhile to attempt a process interpretation of the kabbalistic creation story. The first
part of this dissertation is entitled Philosophical Foundations, focusing on the intellectual
framework of this study of the Zohar. The second part is entitled Creating a Narrative,
looking at the text of the Zohar through the lens of Whitehead’s metaphysics. Finally,
the conclusion looks at the narrative and discusses whether the goals of the dissertation
have been achieved. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fau.edu/oai:fau.digital.flvc.org:fau_33455 |
| Contributors | Gold, Michael (author), Banchetti, Marina P. (Thesis advisor), Florida Atlantic University (Degree grantor), Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Languages, Lingustics and Comparative Literature |
| Publisher | Florida Atlantic University |
| Source Sets | Florida Atlantic University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, Text |
| Format | 252 p., application/pdf |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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