Abstract
The author investigates the Kabbalistic idea that God has a female potency, Shekhina, and locates its development in twelfth century Provence. The reason for the origin of this idea has puzzled scholars. What is proposed here is an approach which has been virtually ignored — the influence of the strongly Christian local context; more specifically, the huge growth in veneration of the Virgin Mary around the same time. He argues that the strong emphasis on Mary, leaning dangerously at times towards deification, may well have influenced the development of a similar idea in Judaism.
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