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Guerre sainte, jihad, croisade. Violence et religion dans le christianisme et l'islam
Ce livre cherche à décrire l’évolution des idées, des mentalités et des attitudes envers la violence des armes dans le christianisme et l’islam. Comment parvient-on, en Occident, à la notion de guerre sainte ? Comment entre-t-elle en interaction avec l’idée de jihad dans l’islam ? L’appel à la croisade, dramatique aboutissement d’une évolution millénaire au sein du christianisme, a conduit à l’élaboration d’une doctrine de la guerre sainte rejoignant par de nombreux traits le jihad islamique. Il s’agit de comprendre par quelles voies les deux religions en arrivent, à la fin du xie siècle, à un niveau similaire de sacralisation de la guerre pour mieux saisir comment, encore aujourd’hui, nous en récoltons les fruits vénéneux. Cet ouvrage ne se contente pas d’analyser les sources principales pour en tirer la substance dans un langage clair et accessible à tous. Dans sa partie « Documents », il offre également au lecteur, en traduction, un grand nombre de textes majeurs qui, dans les deux religions, ont fondé les attitudes et les mentalités.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
335 pages, Pocket Book
First published January 1, 2002
1 person is currently reading
35 people want to read
About the author
Jean Flori
49 books6 followersJean Flori est un historien français.
Docteur d'État ès lettres et sciences humaines (Panthéon-Sorbonne, 1981), directeur de recherche au CNRS, Centre d'Etudes Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale de Poitiers, spécialiste des XIe et XIIe siècle siècles et des idéologies guerrières (chevalerie, croisade, guerre sainte, jihad, eschatologie). Il est un spécialiste de la chevalerie à laquelle il a consacré sa thèse d’État soutenue en 1981.
Docteur d'État ès lettres et sciences humaines (Panthéon-Sorbonne, 1981), directeur de recherche au CNRS, Centre d'Etudes Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale de Poitiers, spécialiste des XIe et XIIe siècle siècles et des idéologies guerrières (chevalerie, croisade, guerre sainte, jihad, eschatologie). Il est un spécialiste de la chevalerie à laquelle il a consacré sa thèse d’État soutenue en 1981.
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January 16, 2018
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
First the good because, well, the book was good:
The initial impression is that M. Jean Flori, directeur de recherche honoraire au CNRS, writes incredibly fluidly and reading is a pleasure rarely found in other historians, especially the annales-school.
Additionally, the book is a veritable treasure trove of primary documents and those all all collected in the final fifty pages with neat biographies or introductions to each document.
The book traces Christianity's development from initial Pacifism to Just War and finally Holy War noting various water-shed moments (Jesus, the age of martyrs, Constantine's conversion, St. Augustine, Clovis, Charlemagne, Gregory VII, the reconquista and finally Urban II and the crusades).
Simulateneously but with much less focus, M. Flori outlines the nature of Islam and the meaning of Jihad, undeniably containing a military sense, right from the inception of Islam with Mohammed, and its later development (or lack thereof). It is this essential lack of development which separates Islam from Christianity. Islam was born with a concept of holy war and a prophet who demonstrated it, while Christianity emphasized the next life.
Now for the bad:
Jean Flori is meticulous with each document and attempting to place the document in the historical context. His chapter on Mohammed, Jihad and the Qu'ran (three sub-chapters: L'islam et la guerre à l'époque de Mahomet, La doctrine du jihad dans le Coran et la tradition musulman, and Jihad et conquêtes musulmanes) is nuanced and clear. BUT...this same nuance and historical approach to documents is completely (and I mean completely) lacking with regard to the Bible. I do not know what M. Flori's religious opinions are, but he fails to evaluate the presentation of Jesus in the Bible as an historical document and assumes that the presentation in the Gospels is completely neutral and uniform, he takes the Gospels as gospel if you will forgive the pun.
All this despite the fact that the Gospel authors had widely differing views and emphases when writing. M. Flori deliberately presents Jesus as a complete pacifist and the selective use of quotations lacks any nuance; likely to contrast him with Mohammed. This deliberately makes the developement of doctrine that much more a rupture (which is his goal) and also isolates Jesus from the larger Judeo-Christian theological development (something he needed to do in order to dismiss St. Augustine's Just War theory as a rather un-Christian reversion to the Old Testament). But I suppose M. Flori knows Christianity better than the doctor and patristic Father Saint Augustine.
And if the crusades are such an abberation of Christianity, as M. Flori routinely tells us, "Le but majeur de ce livrea été montrer par quel processus historique l'Église d'Occidents'est peu à peu éloignée de cette attitude résolument non violente pour accepter l'idée de la guerre, puis pour la sacraliser au point d'élaborer en son sein le concept de la guerre sainte, rejoignant ainsi le jihad musulman, qui pour sa part l'avait accepté dès son origine." (p.247) Why do all Christian communities, Orthodox and Catholic (Byzantine, Coptic, Ethiopean, Syriac, Nestorian, Armenian) follow the same developement? In fact, many of these other Christian groups proceed far quicker down the road to warfare than the Western Church. The Western Church's late development can and should be ascribed to the distinction in the West between the government and the Church, especially as many of the Germanic kings were Arians.
But what is completely missing, and painfully obvious throughout the book is any discussion of just war, which is an extension (some would say legitimate) of self-defense. M. Flori rather brusquely mentions, then dismisses St. Augustine's notion and completely fails to see a legitimate development (rupture is his usual term) in Christianity regarding Just War and the role of the (gradually Christianized) state. He makes little to no attempt to understand the crusades (and previous military campaigns such as the reconquista) in the light of self-defense or defensive war and the re-taking of previously Christian lands with Christian brothers still suffering under the yoke of being a dhimmi.
How the Crusades and Jihad are similar and different is only passingly mentioned in the final few pages. Though one would think that the concept of extending territory versus recapturing and liberating previously held land would merit more than a passing glance.
And the ugly:
M. Flori, though he undertook to write a book about the ideological underpinnings of the crusades seems frequently dimissive of the ideological/religious motivations of the actual crusaders and frequently retreats to economic motives (from Marxist analysis, despite being thoroughly debunked recently by Jonathan Riley-Smith amongst others) or power-hungry popes. He assumes the fallacy of doxis before praxis, when in reality most of the documents he quotes from the Church are not espousing a new understanding of the faith but reflecting the developing understanding of those kings and bishops who are busy living the faith as best they can in their particular context using their practical reason.
M. Flori assumes a 20th century concept of a separation of Church and State which was foreign to the Medieval mind and is likely only being projected onto the early Christian community and Jesus himself. This causes him to make the crusades something they weren't, a Christian war, as opposed to war being waged by Christians for what they considered a moral good. As acts of pilgrimage, and sacrifice, those people who undertook in the crusades would be confused by M. Flori's distinction between holy war and just war. Surely, all just wars are holy.
First the good because, well, the book was good:
The initial impression is that M. Jean Flori, directeur de recherche honoraire au CNRS, writes incredibly fluidly and reading is a pleasure rarely found in other historians, especially the annales-school.
Additionally, the book is a veritable treasure trove of primary documents and those all all collected in the final fifty pages with neat biographies or introductions to each document.
The book traces Christianity's development from initial Pacifism to Just War and finally Holy War noting various water-shed moments (Jesus, the age of martyrs, Constantine's conversion, St. Augustine, Clovis, Charlemagne, Gregory VII, the reconquista and finally Urban II and the crusades).
Simulateneously but with much less focus, M. Flori outlines the nature of Islam and the meaning of Jihad, undeniably containing a military sense, right from the inception of Islam with Mohammed, and its later development (or lack thereof). It is this essential lack of development which separates Islam from Christianity. Islam was born with a concept of holy war and a prophet who demonstrated it, while Christianity emphasized the next life.
Now for the bad:
Jean Flori is meticulous with each document and attempting to place the document in the historical context. His chapter on Mohammed, Jihad and the Qu'ran (three sub-chapters: L'islam et la guerre à l'époque de Mahomet, La doctrine du jihad dans le Coran et la tradition musulman, and Jihad et conquêtes musulmanes) is nuanced and clear. BUT...this same nuance and historical approach to documents is completely (and I mean completely) lacking with regard to the Bible. I do not know what M. Flori's religious opinions are, but he fails to evaluate the presentation of Jesus in the Bible as an historical document and assumes that the presentation in the Gospels is completely neutral and uniform, he takes the Gospels as gospel if you will forgive the pun.
All this despite the fact that the Gospel authors had widely differing views and emphases when writing. M. Flori deliberately presents Jesus as a complete pacifist and the selective use of quotations lacks any nuance; likely to contrast him with Mohammed. This deliberately makes the developement of doctrine that much more a rupture (which is his goal) and also isolates Jesus from the larger Judeo-Christian theological development (something he needed to do in order to dismiss St. Augustine's Just War theory as a rather un-Christian reversion to the Old Testament). But I suppose M. Flori knows Christianity better than the doctor and patristic Father Saint Augustine.
And if the crusades are such an abberation of Christianity, as M. Flori routinely tells us, "Le but majeur de ce livrea été montrer par quel processus historique l'Église d'Occidents'est peu à peu éloignée de cette attitude résolument non violente pour accepter l'idée de la guerre, puis pour la sacraliser au point d'élaborer en son sein le concept de la guerre sainte, rejoignant ainsi le jihad musulman, qui pour sa part l'avait accepté dès son origine." (p.247) Why do all Christian communities, Orthodox and Catholic (Byzantine, Coptic, Ethiopean, Syriac, Nestorian, Armenian) follow the same developement? In fact, many of these other Christian groups proceed far quicker down the road to warfare than the Western Church. The Western Church's late development can and should be ascribed to the distinction in the West between the government and the Church, especially as many of the Germanic kings were Arians.
But what is completely missing, and painfully obvious throughout the book is any discussion of just war, which is an extension (some would say legitimate) of self-defense. M. Flori rather brusquely mentions, then dismisses St. Augustine's notion and completely fails to see a legitimate development (rupture is his usual term) in Christianity regarding Just War and the role of the (gradually Christianized) state. He makes little to no attempt to understand the crusades (and previous military campaigns such as the reconquista) in the light of self-defense or defensive war and the re-taking of previously Christian lands with Christian brothers still suffering under the yoke of being a dhimmi.
How the Crusades and Jihad are similar and different is only passingly mentioned in the final few pages. Though one would think that the concept of extending territory versus recapturing and liberating previously held land would merit more than a passing glance.
And the ugly:
M. Flori, though he undertook to write a book about the ideological underpinnings of the crusades seems frequently dimissive of the ideological/religious motivations of the actual crusaders and frequently retreats to economic motives (from Marxist analysis, despite being thoroughly debunked recently by Jonathan Riley-Smith amongst others) or power-hungry popes. He assumes the fallacy of doxis before praxis, when in reality most of the documents he quotes from the Church are not espousing a new understanding of the faith but reflecting the developing understanding of those kings and bishops who are busy living the faith as best they can in their particular context using their practical reason.
M. Flori assumes a 20th century concept of a separation of Church and State which was foreign to the Medieval mind and is likely only being projected onto the early Christian community and Jesus himself. This causes him to make the crusades something they weren't, a Christian war, as opposed to war being waged by Christians for what they considered a moral good. As acts of pilgrimage, and sacrifice, those people who undertook in the crusades would be confused by M. Flori's distinction between holy war and just war. Surely, all just wars are holy.
January 16, 2024
Jean Flori este un istoric remarcabil, specializat în istoria medievală, cu accent pe secolele XI și XII, perioade în care s-au conturat conceptele de război sfânt și cruciadă. Cartea sa, intitulată "Guererre sainte, jihad, croisade. Violence et religion dans le christianisme et l'islam," a fost publicată în 2002 la Paris de editura du Seuil și ulterior tradusă în limba română de editura Cartier din Chișinău, în colecția Cartier Istoric.
Lucrarea se extinde pe 318 pagini, împărțite în patru secțiuni, precedate de o introducere (pag. 5-11) și urmate de un set de documente (pag. 255-314) ce facilitează înțelegerea subiectului tratat. Cele patru secțiuni sunt dedicate evoluției conceptului de război în creștinism și islam, precum și influenței conflictelor asupra ideii de război sfânt.
În introducere, Flori familiarizează cititorii cu tema abordată, evidențiind tranziția de la pacea propovăduită de Iisus la conceptul de război sfânt susținut de Papa Urban al II-lea pentru creștini și amplificarea jihadului conform viziunii lui Mahomed pentru musulmani.
Prima secțiune explorează evoluția relației dintre creștinism și război de-a lungul secolelor I-VIII, evidențiind schimbările doctrinare de la respingerea violenței la predicarea cruciadelor la sfârșitul secolului al XI-lea.
Secțiunea a doua detaliază modul în care războiul este prezentat în Coran, modul în care Mahomed a aplicat versetele referitoare la război și cum urmașii săi au interpretat aceste versete, justificând astfel expansiunea arabă prin jihad.
Partea a treia explorează valorizarea ideologică a războiului în societatea feudală, evidențiind rolul ordinilor cavaleresti și necesitatea papalității de a încheia alianțe pentru a-și apăra teritoriile.
Ultima secțiune prezintă însacralizarea războiului, culminând cu ideea de cruciadă, care nu a apărut brusc în 1095, ci s-a dezvoltat lent în decursul mai multor secole, ajungând la apogeu odată cu cucerirea Ierusalimului.
Documentele de la final oferă o perspectivă suplimentară asupra conceptelor de război sfânt, cruciadă și jihad în creștinism și islam.
Jean Flori oferă o analiză meticuloasă a evoluției conceptului de război sfânt și cruciadă, prezentând perspective obiective asupra dezvoltării viziunii asupra războiului în creștinism și influența islamului asupra acestei idei. Cartea sa aduce o contribuție valoroasă la literatura de specialitate din România și este de înaltă relevanță în domeniu. Cu toate acestea, unele diferențe între cruciadă și islam ar putea să nu fie tratate în mod corespunzător.
Lucrarea se extinde pe 318 pagini, împărțite în patru secțiuni, precedate de o introducere (pag. 5-11) și urmate de un set de documente (pag. 255-314) ce facilitează înțelegerea subiectului tratat. Cele patru secțiuni sunt dedicate evoluției conceptului de război în creștinism și islam, precum și influenței conflictelor asupra ideii de război sfânt.
În introducere, Flori familiarizează cititorii cu tema abordată, evidențiind tranziția de la pacea propovăduită de Iisus la conceptul de război sfânt susținut de Papa Urban al II-lea pentru creștini și amplificarea jihadului conform viziunii lui Mahomed pentru musulmani.
Prima secțiune explorează evoluția relației dintre creștinism și război de-a lungul secolelor I-VIII, evidențiind schimbările doctrinare de la respingerea violenței la predicarea cruciadelor la sfârșitul secolului al XI-lea.
Secțiunea a doua detaliază modul în care războiul este prezentat în Coran, modul în care Mahomed a aplicat versetele referitoare la război și cum urmașii săi au interpretat aceste versete, justificând astfel expansiunea arabă prin jihad.
Partea a treia explorează valorizarea ideologică a războiului în societatea feudală, evidențiind rolul ordinilor cavaleresti și necesitatea papalității de a încheia alianțe pentru a-și apăra teritoriile.
Ultima secțiune prezintă însacralizarea războiului, culminând cu ideea de cruciadă, care nu a apărut brusc în 1095, ci s-a dezvoltat lent în decursul mai multor secole, ajungând la apogeu odată cu cucerirea Ierusalimului.
Documentele de la final oferă o perspectivă suplimentară asupra conceptelor de război sfânt, cruciadă și jihad în creștinism și islam.
Jean Flori oferă o analiză meticuloasă a evoluției conceptului de război sfânt și cruciadă, prezentând perspective obiective asupra dezvoltării viziunii asupra războiului în creștinism și influența islamului asupra acestei idei. Cartea sa aduce o contribuție valoroasă la literatura de specialitate din România și este de înaltă relevanță în domeniu. Cu toate acestea, unele diferențe între cruciadă și islam ar putea să nu fie tratate în mod corespunzător.
October 19, 2022
Livre d'histoire passionnant sur le développement du concept de guerre sainte dans la monde chrétien et musulman. Entre parallélismes et singularités, Jean Flori nous plonge dans les origines des guerres de religion. Des origines du christianisme et de l'islam jusqu'aux affrontements entre croisés et musulmans, le livre étudié les aspects politiques, économiques, religieux et belliqueux des deux grandes religions monothéistes d'un point de vue occidental certes mais bien au-delà des stéréotypes ou biais dont souffrent certains ouvrages sur le sujet.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews