Joachim of Fiore and the Prophetic Future

Rating:
Summary: Masterly, concise handbook of Joachimism
Review: Joachim of Fiore is a powerful figure of the medieval Latin West. Every scholar who is concerned about the Calabrian Abbot must also know Miss Reeves' personage. Miss Reeves book can be called a kind of handbook of Joachimism, i.e. of the Abbot's life and output, and of the later development and shaping of his concepts. This is a concise but masterly lecture made by the connaisseur of the subject. So it is a hndbook in the best sense of the world. The Author has got her own - based on her many years' research - point of view concerning Joachim's theology of history as well as his influence. For a reader who knows that, it is not surprising that she gives relatively not much room to the heretic movements deriving from the Calabrian in her book for concerns of our Author seem to focus on some different themes. The book is written from a perspective of historian and we will find much data and less analysis in it, even if we do, it will be an analysis of historical kind. But it seems to be rather an advantage than a defect. The Author allows the reader to be free in his interpretations providing at the same time solidly presented, well-ordered and complete evidence concerning the Calabrian Abbot's vision and its later history.