Crusade Preaching and the Ideal Crusader

• Sermons & preaching
• Crusades
• High Middle Ages (c.1000 -1300)

“Crusading Preaching invites scholars of history of crusade, religion, and medieval sermons to reconsider the vital role preachers and ecclesiastics had in crafting the identity of crusaders. It also provides a valuable basis for further research on the connections between the University of Paris and Rome, propaganda and policy, and the larger influence that the concept of the "ideal crusader" had on the perception of defeat and the memorialization of the dead.” (Lydia M. Walker, in The Medieval Review, 10/09/2019)

“(…) this valuable synthesis of the treatment of the ideal crusader in sermons of the thirteenth century would be well suited for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses and provides a tremendously useful starting point for anyone wishing a state-of-the-field survey of crusade sermon studies.” (Jessalynn Lea Bird, in Speculum, 95/1, 2020, p. 243)

“(…) overall this is a carefully researched and thoughtful book which brings to light a number of important themes in relation to crusade preaching and the construction of the best sort of crusade participant.” (Megan Cassidy-Welch, in Sehepunkte, 20, 2020)

« Dans l’ensemble, il s’agit donc d’un livre très complet et impressionnant, et il convient de mettre en relief la qualité et la quantité de la mise en contexte que Tamminen fournit dans ses analyses de ces sources – recourant souvent et considérablement à des textes théologiques ou ecclésiastiques – pour mettre en évidence la portée et le sens d’un thème particulier. » (Nicholas Morton, dans Le Moyen Âge, 1, 2020, p. 179)

“On balance, Tamminen makes a lucid and instructive contribution to scholarship on the crusade model sermons and thirteenth-century crusade ideology more broadly. His analysis effectively complements the best recent work in this field and shows that, even if we can tease out some features that are common to all of the model sermons, there was no monolithic conception of the ‘true’ crusader in the thirteenth century, but rather many different conceptions of this idealized figure. Students, teachers, and researchers seeking to understand the complex development of crusading ideas in this period will no doubt read this book with great interest.” (James H. Kane, in Parergon, 37/2, 2020, p.253)