Schwartz (humanities, Bar-Ilan U.) explores a type of magic aimed at "drawing down" spiritual forces to affect natural forces for healing or to predict the future, that assumed a controversial role in 12th-15th century philosophical discourse in Jewish communities in Spain, Provence, and Byzantium. Not only did astral magic conflict with the prevailing Aristotelian world view, the esoteric practice was also criticized on theological grounds as akin to idolatry for the images it employed. Based on readings of the diverse positions of such thinkers as Judah Halevi and E. b. Moses Kalkish, the author argues that medieval Jewish intellectuals integrated the rationalists' paradigm of occult experience with Aristotle's science. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)