John V. Tolan
Autor von Saracens
Über den Autor
John V. Tolan professor of history at the University of Nantes.
Werke von John V. Tolan
Saint Francis and the Sultan: The Curious History of a Christian-Muslim Encounter (2007) — Autor — 29 Exemplare
Faces of Muhammad: Western Perceptions of the Prophet of Islam from the Middle Ages to Today (2018) 20 Exemplare
England's Jews: Finance, Violence, and the Crown in the Thirteenth Century (The Middle Ages Series) (2023) 6 Exemplare
L'Europe latine et le monde arabe au Moyen Âge: cultures en conflit et en convergence (2009) 3 Exemplare
Zugehörige Werke
Visions of community in the post-Roman world : the West, Byzantium and the Islamic world, 300-1100 (2012) — Mitwirkender — 5 Exemplare
Getagged
Wissenswertes
- Geschlecht
- male
- Nationalität
- USA
- Ausbildung
- Yale University
University of Chicago - Berufe
- historian
Mitglieder
Rezensionen
Listen
Auszeichnungen
Dir gefällt vielleicht auch
Nahestehende Autoren
Statistikseite
- Werke
- 15
- Auch von
- 2
- Mitglieder
- 215
- Beliebtheit
- #103,625
- Bewertung
- 4.2
- Rezensionen
- 2
- ISBNs
- 41
- Sprachen
- 3
I am reading this book for a class I am taking on St. Francis, and I only needed to read four chapters, so here goes.
In his introduction, Tolan gives the basic facts. After two unsuccessful attempts to join the Crusades, Francis finally reaches Egypt with the Fifth Crusade in September 1219. After leaving the crusaders' camp and deliberately getting himself arrested, Francis demanded to meet the sultan, an educated man known for his peacekeeping attempts. He attempted to convert the sultan to Christianity, failed, refused a money offer by the admiring Muslim, and was returned safety to his camp. Francis failed in two regards. Not only did he fail to convert the sultan, he did not even gain his desired martyrdom, though five brothers did the following January. The only direct reference to this episode in Francis' scant and scattered writings was in Chapter 16 of his Earlier Rule of 1221, which exhorts the Lesser Brothers to go among the Saracens and live subject to them as lambs among wolves, while preaching Christianity in word and deed. The Earlier Rule, which was full of Francis' deep spiritual advice but impractical and poorly written as a constitution for a religious order, was replaced by the Later Rule, which reduces Chapter 16 to two sentences stating that a brother can go "among the Saracens" if they choose.
Francis' first hagiographer, Thomas of Celano, wrote his First Life in 1228, shortly after Francis died, to satisfy the ecclesiastical need for an official hagiography of this new saint. Celano portrays Francis as a saint seeking martyrdom and preaching to the sultan. The sultan's offer of money was not an act of interfaith hospitality but a hagiographic trope of temptation akin to Jesus' assault by Satan in the desert. Francis' fearlessness was not due to his vulnerability and trust in the sultan, but to his desire to be martyred by the sultan. Celano later wrote a Second Life, including popular stories he did not put in his first volume. One of these was a story in which Francis tells the Crusaders to not fight that day. They ignore him and are miserably defeated. While modern commentators trot this out as proof of Francis' pacifism, Tolan points out that this strange story only shows Francis enjoining crusaders to not fight that day.
Bonaventure's vita, written around 1260, became the official hagiography of Francis. Bonaventure ordered all previous hagiographies to be burned. According to Tolan, Bonaventure made a less human Francis, one who always knew what to say, one who was marked by God from birth for his destiny. Bonaventure's vita is less chronological than Celano's, instead organized according to Bonaventure's spiritual theology. Bonaventure portrays the sultan in an even worse light than Celano, and even includes a story in which Francis proves his holiness by stepping into a burning fire and being unharmed (a trope drawn from the Book of Daniel). Bonaventure also portrays the event in his sermons, in which Francis not only impresses the sultan but converts him!
The final chapter on Francis' appropriation in the twentieth century chronicles interfaith and peace/justice advocates who now see Francis as open to the Muslim faith, against the Crusades, and even, according to Sufi author Idries Shah, a "Christian Sufi." John Paul II drew on this when he proclaimed Francis the patron saint of ecology and when he chose Assisi for his infamous interreligious prayer days. Tolan does not disagree with these high-minded aims. He just thinks they have little to do with Francis' historical encounter with the Sultan.
This was a dense book, full of context and historical detail lacking in modern Franciscan commentaries on the topic. (See my review of Kathleen A. Warren's book.) But unlike the Franciscan commentators, Tolan seems to lack a broader view of Franciscan spirituality, the vision that impels modern Franciscans to peace work. How do we proceed after recognizing that we are interpreting and inventing history for current needs?… (mehr)