Jesus Killed Mohammed

From the May 2009 Harper's magazine, Jeff Sharlet has an article about the "christianization" of the United States military (behind pay wall, unfortunately). On the right is the issue's cover, complete with 14th-century illustration of the taken of Jerusalem by the First Crusaders. I've talked a bit about this stuff elsewhere, but I thought I'd draw attention to Sharlet's article for a few reasons.

First of all, I don't like the chronological flattening that the cover suggests. Sure, it's a pretty picture. Sure, it's Christians vs. Muslims (and I'll talk a bit about that below). Sure, there are some interesting parallels with the Middle Ages. But what Sharlet's talking about sure ain't medieval. Context matters in all historical situations.

Sharlet is talking about a number of things here: the "invasion" of the military chaplaincy by fundamentalist evangelicals beginning in the 1980s, the political rise of many of these evangelicals to the highest ranks of the armed forces, and finally -- perhaps most importantly -- the implications that these developments have on how we, the United States, conduct ourselves in wartime (Sharlet's opening anecdote is excerpted here). And on this last point, allow me to point to some of his examples: the discrimination against non-evangelicals at the Air Force Academy, GIs desecrating mosques in Iraq with crosses, senior military leadership describing the war against Islam (yes, that's how they phrase it -- against the entire religion -- and they're not alone in thinking this way) as a battle between God (us) and Satan (them).

Ultimately, for it comes down to this. These evangelical strands in the modern US military are representative of pentecostal (he doesn't use that term but I would) evangelicals in the US more generally: Americans are the new chosen people because we fight for God/ Jesus. This is a discussion in an apocalyptic register, participation in a cosmic battle between good and evil, in which the means are necessarily excused for the accomplishment of the ends. Can you do wrong if God wants you to do something?

Maybe Harper's illustration wasn't so inappropriate after all -- not because what's going on is so medieval but because it's so eminently modern too.

Pope Benedict XVI & Ambrose Autpert

So, yesterday (4/22/09) Pope Benedict XVI addressed a general audience in St. Peter's square and took as his theme, Ambrose Autpert, 8th-century monk, abbot of San Vincenzo al Volturno, and tutor of Charlemagne himself. You can watch a bit of it above. The full-text, however, can be found here. Apparently, this is "part of a catechetical series he is giving about great writers of the Church in the Middle Ages." He's already spoken on Bede and Boniface. I wonder who he'll do next? Anyway, I'm just going to throw this out there for you. The sermon's pretty bog-standard to my eyes, though it's interesting how papa manages to take a bit from Autpert and link it to the current global financial crisis. Who said Carolingians weren't relevant when discussing complex financial derivatives?

postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies

Just announced by Eileen Joy, of ITM fame.

• Read a bit about it here.
  
• Read the press release here.
• Read the prospectus here.
  

"Christianity and the Emperor between Diocletian & Constantine"

Just this past Friday, Prof. Samuel Collins (George Mason University) came and gave a talk for the Medieval & Early Modern Studies crowd at Virginia Tech. It was tremendous. But don't take my word for it; have a listen yourself.

Listen to the podcast
(requires iTunes)

CFP: Conference on Medievalism

Discovered via the Studies in Medievalism blog:

Studies in Medievalism invites session and paper proposals for its annual interdisciplinary conference, October 8-11, 2009. We welcome papers that explore any topic related to the study and teaching of Medievalism, and especially those that focus on this year's theme of “Medievalism and Religion.”

This interdisciplinary conference seeks to bring together aspects of the Middle Ages with the ways artists and scholars since medieval times have imagined these eras in literature, film, music, painting, sculpture and other media, as well as in other (non-humanities) institutions. One does not have to look far to find connections between medievalism and religion. For example, in her book's Epilogue, Karen Armstrong writes, "Crusading is not a lost medieval tradition: it has survived in different forms in both Europe and the United States and we must accept that our own views are as likely to be blinkered and prejudiced as either the Arabs' or the Jews'. It is probably impossible for us to change these old crusading attitudes overnight." Points of focus might include (but are not limited to):

• Counter cultural medievalists beliefs
• Misrepresentations of medieval religion in contemporary society (including Neopaganism)
• Medievalism, religion, war and other contemporary crusades
• Medievalist contemporary religious music
• The “gothic” architecture of American churches
• Re-imaginings of important religious figures (Cuthbert, Saladin, Catherine of Siena, Maimonides, Margery Kempe)
• Travel and/or pilgrimage literature (early or modern)
• Modern historical novels (including mysteries)
• Medievalist religious works on the contemporary stage
• Shakespeare and medievalist beliefs
• Tolkien and Religion
• Religion in contemporary Arthurian works
• Medievalist religion portrayed on film, television and/or the radio
• Medievalist religion and the Internet
• Medievalist religion in electronic and/or non-electronic games
• Gender identity and sexuality, medievalism and religion

Selected papers related to the conference theme will be published in The Year’s Work in Medievalism.

Deadline: July 1, 2009

Please send session proposals to Pam Clements, along with the technology request form (available at the website). Email submissions are welcome: clements AT siena.edu.

Siena College is located near Albany in beautiful upstate New York, 2 hours north of New York City, with easy access via Albany International Airport (ALB) and by Amtrak train and auto. October is prime leaf-peeping season with an average temperature of 65 degrees. Siena College, a contemporary institution that is yet also firmly grounded in the traditions of Franciscan Catholicism, is the perfect setting for our exploration of medievalism and religion.

Pam Clements, Ph.D., Conference Chair
CLEMENTS AT siena.edu
International Conference on Medievalism
Siena College
515 Loudon Rd.
Loudonville, NY 12211-1462
518-783-2359
Fax 518-783-6548

April Fool's! Oh, Wait... (Obama & Joachim Revisited)

It's only fitting, I guess, that speaking of prophets makes you prophetic yourself. Way back in August 2008, I found a short Italian news article saying that Barack Obama was a reader of 12th-century mystic and theologian Joachim of Fiore, and that Obama had referenced Joachim no less than 3 times during Obama's presidential campaign. I did some digging and came up with nothing. I'm 99.999999999% certain that Obama did NOT reference Joachim and about 95% certain that Obama has not read Joachim's letters, his Book of Concordance, or his Book of Figures.

But what's evidence got to do with unsubstantiated claims? So, just last week the Vatican (meaning specifically Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher to the Pontifical Household) put out a statement condemning Joachim as a heretic and, at least implicitly, chastising President Obama for referencing Joachim positively from the stump. Articles here and here. Also, a bit more from Father Cantalamessa here.

Oh dear.

But this may, in fact, be a teachable moment. How did Fathern Cantalamessa get his information? From the CNS Blog:

In an e-mail message this afternoon, Father Cantalamessa told me, “Typing ‘Obama Gioacchino da Fiore’ (the monk’s name in Italian) in Google, you will find all the news on which I based my remarks.”

This led Father Cantalamessa to go public with his condemnation of Joachim. Yet, it led the CNS blogger/ reporter (Ms. Cindy Wooden) to do this:

In an e-mail message this afternoon, Father Cantalamessa told me, “Typing ‘Obama Gioacchino da Fiore’ (the monk’s name in Italian) in Google, you will find all the news on which I based my remarks.”

In fact, I did that Friday when I first read Father Cantalamessa’s meditation, but since I couldn’t find any real proof that Obama had cited Joachim as an inspiration for his vision of a changed world order, I simply wrote about Father Cantalamessa’s main points.

Getting back to Obama and Joachim this morning, it appears most of the results that turn up in the Google search cite an Aug. 28 or 29 article in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. But searching the newspaper’s Web site, no such article comes up.

The only thing I could think to do next was contact the most serious organization dedicated to studying and promoting the writings of Joachim, the International Center for Joachimist Studies. When I asked if they knew when Obama mentioned Joachim, a spokeswoman told me, “Everyone asks us, but we have no information and we don’t know how this got started. We don’t have on hand any information showing if or when he cited Joachim.”

Thank you, Ms. Wooden. Just thank you.