ABSTRACT
With the rise of the Kabbalah in the twelfth century, esotericism acquired an extremely complex form of theological and philosophical mysticism whose influence was soon felt beyond Jewry. From the fifteenth to the seventeenth century Kabbalah developed into such a major movement within European Jewry that a schism almost resulted between kabbalistic and rabbinical Judaism. The Kabbalah is thus not only an important tradition of Jewish, Muslim and Christian esotericism but also a nodal point in European history of religion, where alternative religious options are polemically contrasted with each other. 'Kabbalah' as a collective term can signify quite different currents even just within a Jewish context. Due to social and religious change over the centuries, there arose distinct forms of mystical speculation and practice, which each in their time claimed to represent the 'authentic' Kabbalah. The Lurianic Kabbalah would invest this idea with soteriological speculations concerning salvation.
