Alchemy of the Word is a study of the literary, philosophical, and
cultural ramifications of Cabala during the Renaissance. Important
intellectual figures from 1490 to 1690 are considered, including
Agrippa, Dee, Spenser, Shakespeare, Browne, and Milton; Cabalas
more recent impact is also discussed. Cabala, a hermeneutic style
of Biblical commentary of Jewish origin, is based on the notion
that, along with an inscribed Decalogue, Moses received a secret,
oral supplement that provides a symbolic, allegorical, and moral
qualification of the literal law of religion.
Building on the work of Gershom Scholem, Joseph Blau, Harold
Bloom, Francois Secret, Michel de Certeau, and Arthur Waite,
Beitchman takes a fresh look at the "mystical" text through the
lens of postmodernist theory. In a model developed from
Deleuze-Guattari's "nomadology" to explore issues related to the
Zohar, he shows that Cabala was a deconstruction of Renaissance
authority. Like deconstruction, Cabala presents familiar material
from novel and sometimes provocative perspectives. It allows space
for modifiability, tolerance and humanity, by widening the margins
between the letter of the law and the demands of an existence whose
rules were so rapidly changing.
An exercise in the literary analysis of "sacred texts" and an
examination of the mystical element in literary works, Alchemy of
the Word is also an experiment in new historicism. It shows how the
reincarnation theories of E M. Van Helmont, which impacted heavily
on the seventeenth century English cabalistic circle of Henry More
and Ann Conway, demonstrate at once the originality and boldness of
Cabala, but also its desperation, constituting a theoretical
parallel tothe continental "acting out" of the Sabbatian
heresy.
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