COLUMBUS AND THE QUEST FOR JERUSALEM by anthropologist Carol Delaney
Columbus and the Quest
for Jerusalem by Carol Delaney recounts the drama of Columbus’s four voyages, bringing the
trials of ocean navigation vividly to life and showing Columbus for the master
navigator that he was. Putting Columbus back into the context of his times,
rather than viewing him through the prism of present-day perspectives on
colonial conquests, Delaney shows him to have been neither a greedy imperialist
nor a quixotic adventurer, as he has lately been depicted, but a man driven by
an abiding religious passion. Please find more information about the book and
the author below.
This
is the story of a boy, born to a family of modest means, who grew up to become
the most famous mariner of all time and whose discovery changed the world
forever.” The story has been told many times over centuries and in its telling,
the message and intent became distorted – until now. In COLUMBUS AND THE
QUEST FOR JERUSALEM anthropologist Carol Delaney offers a
profoundly new evaluation of Columbus and the motivation for his famous voyages
—one that stands to radically change our understanding of him.
Between
trips to Spain and Italy doing field work at the key sites of Columbus’s life,
Delaney performed extensive archival research, including a careful study of
Columbus’s own writings. It was there, clearly stated in his own words, that
Delaney discovered the ultimate purpose of his voyages. He set forth with the
intention to deliver letters from Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand to the
Grand Khan of Cathay and set up a trading post to trade for the gold and spices
he had read about in Marco Polo’s book. His ultimate goal was to obtain enough
gold to finance a crusade to retake Jerusalem from the Muslims as a
prerequisite to rebuild the temple for Christ’s return before the end of the
world. In the Christian world of
Columbus’s
day it was widely believed that Jerusalem must be in Christian hands before the
Second Coming of Christ. There was a strong sense that the End Times were
imminent and that time was running out. Columbus believed he had an important
role to play in this apocalyptic drama. He had a calling.
Delaney
sets the stage by describing the tumultuous events that beset Europe leading up
to Columbus’s birth: the failure of multiple crusades to retake the Holy Land,
the devastation of the Black Plague, and the sacking of Constantinople, which
cut off lucrative trade with the Orient and the pilgrimage route to Jerusalem.
Against this backdrop, Delaney reveals how Columbus’s deep conviction led him
to believe he was destined to play a decisive role in retaking Jerusalem.
Five-hundred
years since Columbus’ first voyage, through the Protestant Reformation, the
Enlightenment, and the spread of education – all of which have led to the
growth of secularism – his mission still reverberates today. In the volatile
Middle East, the debate over the Holy Land has long been the thorn in the side
of peace. While there has always been an apocalyptic aura surrounding nuclear
weapons, many believe that a nuclear holocaust is a real possibility and could
likely begin over claims to Jerusalem.
In
writing COLUMBUS AND THE QUEST FOR JERUSALEM, Delaney’s purpose is not
to exonerate Columbus but to place him in his cultural context and shift some
of our attention to the religious ideas that motivated him and were widely
shared by his contemporaries – ideas so deeply influential that they are
present in our current national and political consciousness. Rather than view
him through the prism of present-day perspectives on colonial conquests,
Delaney shows him to have been neither a greedy imperialist nor a quixotic
adventurer, as he has lately been depicted, but a man driven by an abiding
religious passion.
If we
take Columbus at his word, that the conquest of Jerusalem for Christendom was
his ultimate goal, how might that change our assessment of him, his mission,
and the framing of American history? Both timely and important, COLUMBUS AND
THE QUEST FOR JERUSALEM is a convincing portrait of the power of religion
to construct a believable word view and inspire the passion to fulfill its
promises.
About the
Author
Carol Delaney received an MTS from Harvard Divinity School and a
PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Chicago and is a graduate
of Boston University. She was the assistant director of the Center for the
Study of World Religions at Harvard, and a visiting professor in the Department
of Religious Studies at Brown University. She is now a professor emerita of
Stanford University and a research scholar at The John Carter Brown Library at
Brown University.
