What Happens After Death?

This weekend, as noted earlier, I am in Waco, Texas giving a lecture as part of the Wilken Colloquium named in honor of Robert Louis Wilken. The theme this year is eschatology. I am giving a lecture alongside Brian Daley, some of whose earlier works I noted here. He and I, I gather, are the Catholic representatives while our evangelical colloquists (the Colloquium being run under the auspices of the Paradosis Centre for evangelical-Catholic dialogue) include Todd Billings and Jerry Walls.

Walls, whose earlier collection on eschatology was noted here, has a book published just this month: Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory: Rethinking the Things That Matter Most (Brazos, 2015), 240pp.

About this book the publisher tells us:

Will heaven be boring? How can a good and loving God send people to hell? Is there such a place as purgatory? If so, why is it necessary, if we're saved by grace?

Questions about the afterlife abound. Given what is at stake, they are the most important questions we will ever consider. Recent years have seen a surge of Christian books written by people claiming to have received a glimpse of the afterlife, and numerous books, films, and TV shows have apocalyptic or postapocalyptic themes. Jerry Walls, a dynamic writer and expert on the afterlife, distills his academic writing on heaven, hell, and purgatory to offer clear biblical, theological, and philosophical grounding for thinking about these issues. He provides an ecumenical account of purgatory that is compatible with Protestant theology and defends the doctrine of eternal hell. Walls shows that the Christian vision of the afterlife illumines the deepest and most important issues of our lives, changing the way we think about happiness, personal identity, morality, and the very meaning of life.

My own lecture, for those who are interested, is entitled "Eschatology and Funerary Practices Today: Byzance après Byzance?" It surveys a good deal of recent Western scholarship critical of reformed funeral rites in the West today as being, inter alia, inadequate expressions of orthodox eschatology and often tools of very shoddy pastoral psychology also. I then critically review the Byzantine funeral rites to see how they fare before making some practical suggestions at the end.

What's More Than Communion?

As I've mentioned before, I'm going at month's end to Baylor University in Texas to give a lecture at the Wilken Colloquium, this year devoted to the theme of eschatology. Later this summer a new book will emerge that also treats this theme in the context of the work of two major theologians, Western and Eastern, of our time, viz., John Milbank and John Zizioulas: Scott MacDougall, More Than Communion: Imagining an Eschatological Ecclesiology (Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015), 288pp.

About this book we are told:

Scott MacDougall offers a proposal for recovering the 'more' to communion and ecclesiology to aid in imagining a church not beyond the world (as in Zizioulas) or over against the world (as in Milbank), but in and for the world in love and service. This concept is worked out in conversation with systematic theologians such as Jürgen Moltmann, Wolfhart Pannenberg, and Johannes Baptist Metz, and by engaging with a theology of Christian practices currently being developed by such as Dorothy C. Bass and Craig Dykstra. The potential for the church to become a vehicle for love and service can be realised when it anticipate God's promised perfection in the communions between God, humanity, and the rest of creation.
Zizioulas' and Milbank's theologies of the church are both marked by an overly realised sense of the impending end of the world (eschatology). As a result, their theology fails to acknowledge the potential for good the time-frame a theology of eschatology can have on influencing how people act. This focus on the impact of the ending of the world is further connected to both theologians' devaluation of material creation and history, privileging of institutions, the restrictive and closed concept of the church, and reduction of ecclesial practice essential to eucharist. 

Cyril of Alexandria's Commentary on John

Whatever his failings in the realm of inter-personal relations (if the Church in Alexandria had an HR department as bothered by busybodies as most organizations today, you can bet Cyril would have been written up during his annual evaluation as "divisive" and "extremist," which things could well be said of most if not all Church Fathers!), there is no denying his significance to the development of early Christian doctrine. Set for release in May is another translation of one of Cyril's works: Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, vol. 2, David R. Maxwell, trans. and Joel C. Elowsky, ed.,  (IVP Academic, 2015), 400pp. 

About this book we are told:

Cyril of Alexandria (ca. 378-444), one of the most brilliant representatives of the Alexandrian theological tradition, is best known for championing the term Theotokos (God-bearer) in opposition to Nestorius of Constantinople. Cyril's great Commentary on John, offered here in the Ancient Christian Texts series in two volumes, predates the Nestorian controversy and focuses its theological firepower against Arianism. The commentary, addressed to catechists, displays Cyril's breathtaking mastery of the full content of the Bible and his painstaking attention to detail as he offers practical teaching for the faithful on the cosmic story of God's salvation. David R. Maxwell provides readers with the first completely fresh English translation of the text since the nineteenth century. It rests on Pusey's critical edition of the Greek text and displays Cyril's profound theological interpretation of Scripture and his appeal to the patristic tradition that preceded him. Today's readers will find the commentary an indispensable tool for understanding Cyril's approach to Scripture.

Pity Origen

As the incomparable Sir Humphrey Appleby says to Prime Minister Jim Hacker in one of the most brilliant British comedies of the 1980s, "half of them are your enemies, and the other half the sort of 'friends' who make you prefer your enemies." How often I have thought of that line when thinking of besotted figures such as Origen or Evagrius, as I have noted several times on here. Their so-called friends and followers did them no favors in many ways, and may in fact in some cases have been worse than outright enemies.

Forthcoming this spring is another book that examines the condemnations attached to Origen, and the role that others played in getting Origen into trouble: Krastu Banev, Theophilus of Alexandria and the First Origenist Controversy: Rhetoric and Power (Oxford UP, 2015), 256pp.

The publisher tells us that some of the virtues of this forthcoming book are that it:

• Presents a contextualized literary-historical approach and offers new insights into the life and reputation of Theophilus of Alexandria (385-412)
• Examines the Festal Letters of Theophilus and identifies the importance of classical rhetorical theory as a methodological tool for the interpretation of relevant historical data
• Focuses on the so-called First Origenist Controversy, the condemnation of Origen in AD 400 in Alexandria, and the punishment and expulsion of his monastic followers from the Egyptian desert

The publisher further blurbs the book thus: 

In the age of the Theodosian dynasty and the establishment of Christianity as the only legitimate religion of the Roman Empire, few figures are more pivotal in the power politics of the Christian church than archbishop Theophilus of Alexandria (385-412). This work examines the involvement of archbishop Theophilus in the so-called First Origenist Controversy when the famed third-century Greek theologian Origen received, a century and a half after his death, a formal condemnation for heresy. Modern scholars have been successful in removing the majority of the charges which Theophilus laid on Origen as not giving a fair representation of his thought. Yet no sufficient explanation has been offered as to why what to us appears as an obvious miscarriage of justice came to be accepted, or why it was needed in the first place. Kratsu Banev offers a sustained argument for the value of a rhetorically informed methodology with which to analyse Theophilus' anti-Origenist Festal Letters. He highlights that the wide circulation and overt rhetorical composition of these letters allow for a new reading of these key documents as a form of 'mass-media' unique for its time. The discussion is built on a detailed examination of two key ingredients in the pastoral polemic of the archbishop - masterly use of late-antique rhetorical conventions, and in-depth knowledge of monastic spirituality - both of which were vital for securing the eventual acceptance of Origen's condemnation. Dr Banev's fresh approach reveals that Theophilus' campaign formed part of a consistent policy aimed at harnessing the intellectual energy of the ascetic movement to serve the wider needs of the church.
 

The Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1. Theophilus of Alexandria and the Origenist Controversy
1: Historical Background
(a) Distant Prehistory
(b) Immediate Prehistory
2: Theological Issues
(a) Theophilus' Origenism and the Evagrian Heritage
(b) The 'Elusive Anthropomorphites' at the time of Theophilus
3: The Anti-Origenist Councils of AD 400
(a) Violence in the Desert
(b) The Condemnation of Orige
Part II. Background for the Analysis of Theophilus' Rhetoric
4: Classical Rhetoric and Christian Paideia
(a) Rhetoric and the Early Church
(b) Mass Persuasion in the Fifth Century: The Case of Theophilus' Festal Letters
(c) Jerome and Synesius on Theophilus' Letters
5: Classical Rhetoric: Theoretical Foundations
(a) Aristotle's Art of Rhetoric
(b) The Progymnasmata Tradition
(c) The Hermogenic Corpus
Part III. Analysis of Theophilus' Rhetoric
6: Rhetorical Proofs from Pathos, Ethos and Logos
(a) Emotional Appeal
(b) Ethical Appeal
(c) Logical Appeal
(d) Theophilus' Teachers
7: Rhetorical Proofs from Liturgy and Scripture
Part IV. Monastic Reception of Theophilus' Rhetoric
8: The Value of Monastic Sources
(a) Rhetorically Important Themes in the Apophthegmata
(b) The Ambiguous Place of Heresy
9: The Image of Theophilus in the Apophthegmata
Review of the Argument and Epilogue
Bibliography

Early Christian Listening

We have been seeing more attention paid in the scholarly world to the role of the senses in particular, and the body in general, in Eastern and early Christianity. Moreover, we have been discovering, especially in Evagrian and other early monastic literature, certain practices of spiritual insight and guidance that would not again be "discovered" and popularized until the advent of Sigmund Freud and the birth of modern psychology. One example of this from nearly a decade ago now is the work of the Orthodox historian and theologian Susan Ashbrook Harvey in her fascinating book, Scenting Salvation: Ancient Christianity and the Olfactory Imagination.

Then in 2013 Carol Harrison published a book whose paperback edition is forthcoming later this spring: The Art of Listening in the Early Church (Oxford UP, 2015), 320pp. Christianity, of course, places great emphasis on message, good news, teaching, and preaching: but to whom? What of those who hear this message? How do they listen? What is involved in the process of listening?

The virtues of this book, according to the publisher, include:

• The first book to consider hearing in the early Church: Rhetoric, or the art of speaking, in the ancient world, has received a great deal of attention; the art of listening has been almost totally ignored.
• Demonstrates how the art of listening influenced early Christian practice (catechesis, preaching, prayer) as well as theological reflection.
• Uses cognitive science, contemporary philosophy, cultural anthropology, and musicology, in addition to theological reflection, to demonstrate that listening is best understood as an art rather than a matter of the rational capture of information.
• Opens up a new approach to early Christian thought and practice which gives a place to the role of the silent listener (human and divine) and examines their role in influencing what is said/written.

About this book the publisher says:

How did people think about listening in the ancient world, and what evidence do we have of it in practice? The Christian faith came to the illiterate majority in the early Church through their ears. This proved problematic: the senses and the body had long been held in suspicion as all too temporal, mutable and distracting. Carol Harrison argues that despite profound ambivalence on these matters, in practice, the senses, and in particular the sense of hearing, were ultimately regarded as necessary - indeed salvific -constraints for fallen human beings. By examining early catechesis, preaching and prayer, she demonstrates that what illiterate early Christians heard both formed their minds and souls and, above all, enabled them to become 'literate' listeners; able not only to grasp the rule of faith but also tacitly to follow the infinite variations on it which were played out in early Christian teaching, exegesis and worship. It becomes clear that listening to the faith was less a matter of rationally appropriating facts and more an art which needed to be constantly practiced: for what was heard could not be definitively fixed and pinned down, but was ultimately the Word of the unknowable, transcendent God. This word demanded of early Christian listeners a response - to attend to its echoes, recollect and represent it, stretch out towards it source, and in the process, be transformed by it.

The Table of Contents:
Preface
Introduction: Voices of the Page
First Impromptu: The Other Side of Language or listening to the voice of Being
I: An Auditory Culture
1: Listening in Cultural Context
2: Rhetoric and the Art of Listening
3: Images and Echoes
II: Theme and Variations
4: Catechesis: Sounding the Theme
Second Impromptu : Playing ball: the art of reception
5: Preaching: Variations on the Theme
Third Impromptu: Singing the blues
III: From Listening to Hearing
6: The Polyphony of Prayer
7: From the bottom to the bottomless
Bibliography

Eastern Biblical Scholarship

2015 marks the bicentenary of the birth of one of the leading biblical scholars of the nineteenth century, Constantin von Tischendorf. In preparation for this event, a new book has just been published discussing his life and legacy: Stanley E. Porter, Constantine Tischendorf: The Life and Work of a 19th Century Bible Hunter (Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015), 176pp.

About this book and its central figure the publisher tells us:

Constantin von Tischendorf was a pioneer. He existed in an age when biblical studies as we know it was being formed, when the quest for forgotten manuscripts and lost treasures was being undertaken with no less zeal and intrigue than it is today. It was Tischendorf who found, and preserved, the oldest extant version of the complete bible that we know of, the so-called Codex Sinaiticus, which he discovered in poor condition at St Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai, in 1846.

With the discovery of the Codex Tischendorf, and others, was to take the study of biblical texts further than ever before, through linguistic methods, and attention to the most ancient sources available. In many ways Tischendorf was a father figure of the modern Historical Critical Method.

In this short biography, Stanley E. Porter, himself one of the most respected scholars of the New Testament and Koine Greek currently writing, gives a portrait of Tischendorf's life and work, together with an annotated republication of Tischendorf's influential work on the Gospels.

Published to celebrate Tischendorf's bicentenary, in 2015, this volume will be a must for those seeking to understand how the study of biblical manuscripts began, and to understand the man who discovered the oldest version of the bible as we know it.

Maximus in Your Handbag

As I have noted before, we live in a happy time when studies continue to pour forth on Eastern figures and topics, especially the Fathers. Thus we have seen a long parade of books about Maximus the Confessor over the last decade and more, as I have noted several times on here.

Now in May we will be treated to a rich collection, in the ongoing series of Oxford Handbooks: Pauline Allen and Bronwen Neil, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Maximus the Confessor (Oxford, 2015),624pp.

The merits of this book, according to the publisher, include:

• Integration for the first time Maximus' of works and thought into the history of his life in the politically troubled times of seventh-century Byzantium.
• Contributions from thirty of the foremost scholars in the field.
• An interdisciplinary work covering one of the most discussed figures in contemporary studies of Byzantine theology, philosophy, and the history of the seventh century.
• Includes updated date list of Maximus' works, allowing the reader to see his full oeuvre at a glance and in chronological order.

The publisher further describes the book for us thus:

Maximus the Confessor (c.580-662) has become one of the most discussed figures in contemporary patristic studies. This is partly due to the relatively recent discovery and critical edition of his works in various genres, including On the Ascetic Life, Four Centuries on Charity, Two Centuries on Theology and the Incarnation, On the 'Our Father', two separate Books of Difficulties, addressed to John and to Thomas, Questions and Doubts, Questions to Thalassius, Mystagogy and the Short Theological and Polemical Works.
The impact of these works reached far beyond the Greek East, with his involvement in the western resistance to imperial heresy, notably at the Lateran Synod in 649. Together with Pope Martin I (649-53 CE), Maximus the Confessor and his circle were the most vocal opponents of Constantinople's introduction of the doctrine of monothelitism. This dispute over the number of wills in Christ became a contest between the imperial government and church of Constantinople on the one hand, and the bishop of Rome in concert with eastern monks such as Maximus, John Moschus, and Sophronius, on the other, over the right to define orthodoxy. An understanding of the difficult relations between church and state in this troubled period at the close of Late Antiquity is necessary for a full appreciation of Maximus' contribution to this controversy.

The editors of this volume provide the political and historical background to Maximus' activities, as well as a summary of his achievements in the spheres of theology and philosophy, especially neo-Platonism and Aristotelianism.

The table of contents:

Part One. Historical Setting
1. Life and Times of Maximus the Confessor, Pauline Allen
2. An Updated Date-List of the Works of Maximus the Confessor, Marek Jankowiak and Phil Booth
3. Byzantium in the Seventh Century, Walter E. Kaegi
4. Maximus, a Cautious Chalcedonian, Cyril Hovorun
Part Two. Theological and Philosophical Influences
5. Classical Philosophical Influences: Aristotle and Platonism, Marius Portaru
6. The Foundation of Origenist Metaphysics, Pascal Mueller-Jourdan
7. Theological and Philosophical Influences: The Ascetic Tradition, Marcus Plested
8. Dionysius Areopagite and Maximus the Confessor, Ysabel De Andia
9. Mindset (γνώμη) in John Chrysostom, Raymond J. Laird
10. Augustine on the Will, Johannes Borjesson
11. Divine Providence and the Gnomic Will before Maximus, Bronwen Neil
Part Three. Works and Thought
12. Exegesis of Scripture, Paul M. Blowers
13. Maximus the Confessor's Use of Literary Genres, Peter Van Deun
14. Passions, Ascesis, and the Virtues, Demetrios Bathrellos
15. Christocentric Cosmology, Torstein T. Tollefsen
16. Eschatology in Maximus the Confessor, Andreas Andreopoulos
17. The Mode of Deification, Jean-Claude Larchet
18. Spiritual Anthropology in Ambiguum 7, Adam Cooper
19. Mapping Reality within the Experience of Holiness, Doru Costache
20. Christian Life and Praxis: The Centuries on Love, George Berthold
21. Liturgy as Cosmic Transformation, Thomas Cattoi
Part Four. Reception
22. The Georgian Tradition on Maximus the Confessor, Lela Khoperia
23. Maximus' Heritage in Russia and Ukraine, Grigory Benevich
24. The Impact of Maximus the Confessor on John Scottus Eriugena, Catherine Kavanagh
25. Maximus the Confessor's Influence and Reception in Byzantine and Modern Orthodoxy, Andrew Louth
26. The Theology of the Will, Ian A. McFarland
27. Maximus and Modern Psychology, Michael Bakker
28. Maximus the Confessor and Ecumenism, Edward Siecienski
29. Reception of Maximian Thought in the Modern Era, Joshua Lollar

Orthodox Readings of Aquinas

Oxford University Press yesterday sent me a flyer in the mail alerting me to the fact that they have just released a paperback version of Marcus Plested's Orthodox Readings of Aquinas. 

When this superlative and wholly welcome study first emerged two years ago in hardback, I reviewed it here, and interviewed Plested here.This is precisely the sort of careful, discerning scholarship that we need, and all the reviews I have seen have been extremely laudatory, and rightly so. Never again should anyone from the East be allowed to slag Aquinas or "the scholastics" until and unless they have read this book from an important Orthodox scholar.

Primary Texts on Christian-Muslim Relations

Presidents, popes, and other "celebrities" seem to think that, ex officio, they are authorized and even magically qualified to unburden themselves of incoherent and illiterate eructations about the Crusades (the same tiresome, fourth-hand, fifth-rate comic-opera presentations one has been hearing forever) and the messiness of Christian-Muslim relations down through the centuries. Perhaps in their retirement or spare time they might allow themselves to be schooled in some of this history on which I have remarked frequently. Perhaps too they might bestir themselves to pick up one of these forthcoming publications, about each of which I shall have more to say in the weeks ahead. It is always, always recommended that one read primary texts rather than the versions that make their way too often into historical accounts, which, especially in the hands of apologists, are too-often tendentious and twisted. Treat yourself, therefore, to one or all of these new volumes:

Jarbel Rodriguez, Muslim and Christian Contact in the Middle Ages: A Reader (University of Toronto Press, 2015), 456pp. 
About this book we are told:

This collection of over 80 primary source readings explores the complex history of Muslim and Christian relations from the seventh to the fifteenth century. With particular focus on the Mediterranean world, and incorporating the works of Byzantine, Jewish, Muslim, and Latin Christian authors, the documents help readers to understand the nature of conflict and contact between medieval Muslims and Christians. They reveal a history of warfare, piracy, and raiding, typically along religious lines, but also a history of commerce, intellectual exchanges, and personal relationships that transcended religious differences.

Many well-known sources are included, as well as lesser-known sources that have never before been translated into English. In collected form, the sources provide a holistic overview of the complex historical relationship between Muslims and Christians.

The second volume, from Michael Phillip Penn, is of especial interest to Eastern Christians: When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam (University of California Press, 2015), 280pp. 

About this book we are told:

The first Christians to meet Muslims were not Latin-speaking Christians from the western Mediterranean or Greek-speaking Christians from Constantinople but rather Christians from northern Mesopotamia who spoke the Aramaic dialect of Syriac. Living in what constitutes modern-day Iran, Iraq, Syria, and eastern Turkey, these Syriac Christians were under Muslim rule from the seventh century to the present. They wrote the earliest and most extensive accounts of Islam and described a complicated set of religious and cultural exchanges not reducible to the solely antagonistic. Through its critical introductions and new translations of this invaluable historical material, When Christians First Met Muslims allows scholars, students, and the general public to explore the earliest interactions of what eventually became the world’s two largest religions, shedding new light on Islamic history and Christian-Muslim relations.

Finally we come to a book set for release later this spring: Charles Tieszen, A Textual History of Christian-Muslim Relations: Seventh-Fifteenth Centuries (Fortress, May 2015), 224pp.

About this book the publisher tells us:

The question of Christian-Muslim relations is one of enduring importance in the twenty-first century. While there exists a broad range of helpful overviews on the question, these introductory texts often fail to provide readers with the depth that a thorough treatment of the primary sources and their authors would provide.
In this important new project, Charles Tieszen provides a collection of primary theological sources devoted to the formational period of Christian-Muslim relations. It provides brief introductions to authors and their texts along with representative selections in English translation. The collection is arranged according to the key theological themes that emerge as Christians and Muslims encounter one another in this era.
The result is a resource that offers students a far better grasp of the texts early Christians and Muslims wrote about each other and a better understanding of the important theological themes that are pertinent to Christian-Muslim dialogue today.

Medieval Christianity

Covering as it does the period of acute crisis ("great schism") between East and West, and all the messy history immediately before 1054 and for centuries afterwards, this new collection promises to be of great interest to historians and ecumenists alike (if they win the lottery to afford it): R.N. Swanson, ed., The Routledge History of Medieval Christianity: 1050-1500 (Routledge, 2015), 408pp.
 
About this book the publisher tells us:

The Routledge History of Medieval Christianity explores the role of Christianity in European society from the middle of the eleventh-century until the dawning of the Reformation. Arranged in four thematic sections and comprising 23 originally commissioned chapters plus introductory overviews to each section by the editor, this book provides an authoritative survey of a vital element of medieval history.
Comprehensive and cohesive, this volume provides a holistic view of Christianity in medieval Europe, examining not only the church itself but also its role in, influence on, and tensions with, contemporary society. Chapters therefore range from examinations of structures, theology and devotional practices within the church to topics such as gender, violence and holy warfare, the economy, morality, culture, and many more besides, demonstrating the pervasiveness and importance of the church and Christianity in the medieval world.
Despite the transition into an increasingly post-Christian age, the historic role of Christianity in the development of Europe remains essential to the understanding of European history – particularly in the medieval period. This collection will be essential reading for students and scholars of medieval studies across a broad range of disciplines.

ISIS, the Crusades, and the Modern Middle East

If you were able yesterday to watch that gruesome video of ISIS burning alive the captured Jordanian pilot, and you watched it through to the end, he was in the fine print at the conclusion, after the immolation of his body, described as deserving his fate because he was a "crusader pilot." I am teaching a course on the Crusades this semester and so was especially struck by this use of the phrase to describe a pilot who was Jordanian and therefore presumably (a) Arab-speaking; and (b)  himself Muslim. But the fact he was flying raids over ISIS territories in conjunction with the Jordanian, American and other governments was enough to disqualify him apparently from membership in the umma and presumably to enroll him instead in the "crusading" enemies of Islam in the dar al-harb, thus making him fit for an exceptionally nasty execution.

ISIS of course is a uniquely demonic mixture of ancient barbarisms and modern technologies. But their invocation of the Crusades is especially modern, more than they or others likely realize. As Jonathan Riley-Smith, the doyen of Crusades scholars today, demonstrated in his short but illuminating book The Crusades, Christianity, and Islam, the Crusades were not a prominent or common feature in Muslim political imagination until the end of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth when they were re-discovered not so much as evidence of Muslim suffering and Western wickedness--for most Muslims were entirely ignorant of the history of the Crusades, or to the extent they knew of them at all they regarded them as generally glorious victories for Islam in the main--but instead as tools by which to browbeat an increasingly guilt-ridden and self-loathing West into ever lower levels of auto-debasement, a process that has only accelerated since then. 

To understand the connections between the events of 2015 and the invocations of Crusades from a thousand years ago, a recent book is especially helpful, coming from the pen of North America's leading scholar of them, Thomas Madden, The Concise History of the Crusades (Rowman and Littlefield, 2014), 264pp.

About this book the publisher tells us:

What is the relationship between the medieval crusades and the problems of the modern Middle East? Were the crusades the Christian equivalent of Muslim jihad? In this sweeping yet crisp history, Thomas F. Madden offers a brilliant and compelling narrative of the crusades and their contemporary relevance. Placing all of the major crusades within their social, economic, religious, and intellectual environments, Madden explores the uniquely medieval world that led untold thousands to leave their homes, families, and friends to march in Christ’s name to distant lands. From Palestine and Europe's farthest reaches, each crusade is recounted in a clear, concise narrative. The author gives special attention as well to the crusades’ effects on the Islamic world and the Christian Byzantine East.