Kabbalah and the Founding of America

Brian Ogren is Anna Smith Fine Associate Professor of Judaic Studies at Rice University. He is the author of The Beginning of the World in Renaissance Jewish Thought and Renaissance and Rebirth: Reincarnation in Early Modern Italian Kabbalah.

"Ogren offers an insightful revisionist take on how esoteric Jewish texts shaped American religious thought in the 17th and 18th centuries ... Historians of American Judaism must take a look." (Publishers Weekly) "Ogren has authored a tour de force with this well-written and captivating volume that reexamines the role of religion in the period leading up to American independence. A must for readers interested in an often untold perspective on the history and religious identity of the United States." (STARRED Library Journal) "This learned and ambitious study reevaluates the role of Kabbalah in shaping early American religious sensibilities and sheds important new light upon the Kabbalistic interests of such key figures as the Mathers, George Keith, Judah Monis, and Ezra Stiles. A path-breaking contribution." - Jonathan D. Sarna, Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University "Anyone interested in the history of the colonial period and the development of spirituality in America, as well as in the impact of Kabbalah on Christian intellectuals, will welcome Brian Ogren's remarkable book. This is a fascinating, thorough, and compelling study of a very important topic and I highly recommend it." - Yaakov Ariel, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill "Radically changes our understanding of the intellectual links between colonial American Puritanism, identity formation, and the esoteric literature of rabbinic scholarship, the mysticism of the Kabbalah, Zohar, and Sefer Yetzirah. Ogren is the foremost scholar to trace the influence of kabbalistic literature and Jewish thought . . . drawing on archival resources few have bothered to examine. This is an intellectual feast of the first order and a credit to American religious historiography." - Reiner Smolinski, Georgia State University "Offers a groundbreaking, often breathtaking story, based on first-rate scholarship, about the relation between forms of Kabbalist thought and major figures and ideas in early America. It is a gripping, thoughtful, and often surprising account that will provoke a reconsideration of the intellectual sources of American ideals and of early modern thought more generally." - Christia Mercer, Gustave M. Berne Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University "The book offers intriguing insights into American History and the History of Religion between 1680 and 1780 and adds innovatively to our understanding of American identity." (Religious Studies Review) "Ogren's analysis of the use and impact of Kabbalah on early religious thought in the New World is remarkable… [T]here is little doubt that Kabbalah and the Founding of America will shape the future study of early Protestant Christian theology and its ties to Jewish thought traveling between the Old World and the New." (Reform Jewish Quarterly) "Ogren takes no shortcuts when it comes to scholarly analysis of his texts and the endless complexities of kabbalistic thought. In the end, his book is about finding Judaism and Jewish thought precisely where it was not supposed to be, and then rethinking both Judaism and Protestantism in response." (The American Jewish Archives Journal)