ABSTRACT
Guillaume Postel was not only an original thinker, but also a very public figure. He has been largely ignored by scholars who often discard his work as too obscure to be seriously analyzed. Guillaume Postel represents what one could call the 'other' French Renaissance, a renaissance whose humanism draws some of its foundational principles heavily from medieval thought. He believed that World Peace could only be reached through the Shechinah or the Indwelling Presence of God. According to Scholem, the Shechinah literally in-dwelling, namely of God in world is taken to mean simply God himself in His omnipresence and activity in the world and especially in Israel. Postel insists on the fact that this Feminine Principle can be found in both male and female and that it transcends gender. His idea of salvation through the Feminine Principle has some of its roots in "medieval notions of sexuality'.
