Our recent library additions include an article by Dutch pianist Tjako van Schie, “Bach as Architect and Servant of the Spiritual: a closer look at the Goldberg Variations”, sharing a glimpse into the symbolic depth of one of the most popular works by J.S. Bach, with links to audio recordings.

Music reflects a large scale of human emotions, but it is also a lifetime philosophy that unites the humble man with the magnitude of the Cosmos. Bach is a skilled craftsman with only one goal: to serve.

• A pivotal article in the development of Kabbalah studies by Prof. Moshe Idel, “Rabbinism versus Kabbalism”.

The massive reliance on “the Gnostic thesis” has inflicted a major injury to the historical research of Jewish mysticism, for it has implicitly divorced the medieval Kabbalah from its organic sources in ancient Jewish traditions. It is by systematically ignoring the recurrent indications of the Kabbalists and by adopting a pseudo-critical attitude to classical Judaism that the modern scholarship of Kabbalah has been brought to a dead end regarding the origins of the Kabbalah.

• We are happy to provide access to a major work on the history and doctrines of Chinese religion, a thesis in French by the late Monica Esposito, on the “Dragon Gate” (Long Men) School and its alchemical practices. Click here to peruse the two volumes, which include previously untranslated material, extensive sections on “the universal doctrine of salvation of the Three Sages”, on feminine alchemy, a comprehensive bibliography and appendices. Click here for a detailed table of contents in French.