Customer Reviews

The Feast of Saint Abraham: Medieval Millenarians and the Jews (The Middle Ages Series)

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Robert Lerner's new book is a gem of medieval studies scholarship. His elagantly written and laconic prose covers the evolution of Joachism (from Joachim de Fiore, the 12th century Italian millenarian abbot) through several major Christian thinkers. Lerner's ostensible aim here is to illuminate the rare exceptions to medieval Christian anti-Judaism. The Joachites often had startling prophecies concerning the Jews, Lerner tells us, that resulted in oppression for these thinkers. Many were executed and/or imprisoned for years: this was the price of philo-Judaism. Most interesting are his chapters on John of Rupescissa (or John of Roquetaillade) and Peter Olivi, and of course on Joachim himself. This is a must read for anybody interested in a more nuanced understanding of Christian conceptions of Jews in the middle ages.

Lerner's book is a presentation of a part of medieval millennial tradition - the lineage which originates from the powerful personage of Joachim of Fiore. Within this tradition the author traces views on the eschatological role of the Jewry in the future millennial era.
The framework of the whole book is to demonstrate that in the high Middle Ages existed a way of thinking being an alternative to so-called common Christian anti-Judaism. This "path not taken" would be a strain of thought opposed to the one which finally prevailed - the "culture of persecution" having led humanity to the nightmare of the Holocaust. To great disappointment of the present writer, the thesis so strongly emphasised at the very beginning of the book reappears only in the conclusion. The whole book focuses on nothing but the presentation of the historical evidence. Although it is admittedly very vivid and well-ordered evidence, the theme of the aforementioned "culture of persecution" is so weighty that it should be, in my view, considered more thoroughly. Perhaps it is a task for a reader to undertake...
What seems here noteworthy is that the author dealing with Joachite tradition as opposed to the "culture of persecution" does not mention the attempts made by several thinkers (esp. K. Löwith, H. de Lubac) to associate Joachim and his heirs with the totalitarian movements of the twentieth century. Funnily enough, the author does not even refer to the widespread assumption that the very millenarianism itself is inevitably connected with totalitarianism.
To sum up, the book gathers the evidence in favour of the view that not all medieval thinkers thought of the Jews in terms of Christ-killers or obdurate unbelievers. Lerner presents several figures who contradict one of the common prejudices about the Middle Ages: the view that anti-Judaism in the later Middle Ages was so overwhelming that no-one could resist it. The author shows that there were also thinkers - it must be admitted with sorrow that they were predominantly non-orthodox - who accepted the positive eschatological role of the Jewry in the future millennium.