Nebuchadnezzar's Dream: The Crusades, Apocalyptic Prophecy, and the End of History by Jay Rubenstein

Abstract

Reviewed by: Nebuchadnezzar's Dream: The Crusades, Apocalyptic Prophecy, and the End of History by Jay Rubenstein Gaelle Bosseman Rubenstein, Jay, Nebuchadnezzar's Dream: The Crusades, Apocalyptic Prophecy, and the End of History, New York, Oxford University Press, 2019; cloth; pp. xxi, 280; 16 colour plates; R.R.P. £19.99; ISBN: 9780190274207. The American historian Jay Rubenstein delivers here his most recent contribution in the field of apocalyptic thought and the ideology of the crusades from the end of the eleventh to the thirteenth century, after Armies of Heaven: The First Crusade and the Quest for Apocalypse (Basic Books, 2011), and The First Crusade: a Brief History with Documents (Bedford/St Martin's, 2015). The book follows a chronological path, examining perceptions of the crusades, and more precisely the collapse of the First Crusade's ideals. Its main thesis is that apocalyptic thought and prophetic speculation played a decisive role in the motivations of the crusades' protagonists—a role underestimated in modern historiography, according to the author. The book comprises twelve chapters distributed into four parts. Part 1 examines the prophetic interpretation of the First Crusade by contemporary observers, especially the crusader Bohemond of Antioch (first chapter) and, after him, Lambert of Saint-Omer (Chapters 2 to 5). Rubenstein argues that in the Liber Floridus Lambert proposes a vision of history in which the First Crusade and the capture of Jerusalem mark a 'transformative moment in salvation history' (p. 33) that may have been perceived as the opening act of the Last Days. This historical conceptualization would have been shaped by the interpretation of the visions of Daniel: to some crusaders, such as Bohemond, the 1099 conquest of Jerusalem fulfilled the prophecy; the crusade was the rock destroying the statue of Nebuchadnezzar's dream (Daniel 2). Part 2 studies the relationship between this apocalyptic mind-set and the behaviours of the crusaders. It concludes that despite a penitential discourse sustained by the eschatological tension, soldiers failed to embody the ideals of the crusade. But it is above all the failure of the Second Crusade (1146–49) and a growing disillusionment that explain the necessity to revise the prophecy. Part 3 analyses texts from 1144 to 1187—the period leading to the loss of Jerusalem—in order to assess how the place given to the crusades in the history of salvation evolved. Chapter 8 concentrates on Bernard of Clairvaux, showing how he used eschatological tension in his sermons and letters to encourage participation in the Second Crusade; Chapter 9 is centred on The Two Cities of Otto of Freising (d. 1158), a universal chronicle in which the German bishop does not describe the Second Crusade in which he nevertheless took part. Relying on Augustine's theology of history, Otto's eschatological material might have come from his reading of the Liber Floridus (p. 138). As Rubenstein underlines, in Otto's system the Last Days had begun because of the Investiture Controversy, not because of the events in the east (p. 130); the monk is more concerned with the theological and moral threats embodied by the Antichrist than with apocalyptic speculations linked to the crusade. Chapter 10 studies the writings of Geiroh of Reichersberg, a German theologian contemporary to Otto; of Hildegard of Bingen; [End Page 285] and of Ralph the Black, an English cleric. In their writings the crusades do not play a significant role in salvation history: these authors are more preoccupied with threats internal to the Church—heresy, schism, and simony. As Rubenstein puts it, to them 'Apocalypse begins at home' (p. 153). Finally, Part 4 analyses the re-evaluation of the place of the crusade in apocalyptic thought following the loss of Jerusalem in 1187. After examining the uses of its apocalyptic meaning and its possible causes (the sins of the Christians or of the Frankish settlers, the delay of many knights' departure to the Holy City, etc.), Rubenstein centres on the writings of Joachim of Fiore. The conclusion discusses two main questions: the actual impact of apocalyptic thought on the crusaders and their motives; and the lessons to be learned from parallels with twenty-first-century uses of apocalyptic discourses. In order to enable comparisons, several...