More than a quarter of a century ago, Marjorie Reeves suggested that the apocalyptic mysticism of Joachim of Fiore might have been influenced by the Jewish mysticism he learned from the Iberian convert Petrus Alfonsi, and wondered if Joachite ideas might not in turn have ‘cross-fertilised’ later Jewish mysticism. This lovely book assures us that it did, and makes the claim convincing through an exploration of the wandering career and prolific writings of another Iberian, Abraham Abulafia (1240–91?), pioneering Kabbalist and self-proclaimed messiah. Hames compares some salient aspects of Abulafia's teachings with those of Joachim and his followers, and finds revealing (albeit sometimes quite general) similarities. These include an emphasis on the premiss ‘quia tempus prefinitium adest’; the same choice of date for the beginning of the new age; the founding of a scriptural hermeneutics on spiritual intelligence; and the positing of a reconciliation between Christianity and Judaism in the new age (Joachim) or with the coming of the Messiah (Abulafia). Hames stresses this last point, recently emphasised within the Joachimite tradition by Robert Lerner. He sees Abulafia's project as something of a ‘counter-history’ to the Joachimite eschatological schema, since Abulafia's reconciliation involves the Christians (as well as the many insufficiently spiritual Jews) finally learning the proper way to read the Hebrew Scriptures, whereas for the Joachimites the pedagogical pressure runs in reverse, with the blind Jews requiring the greatest re-education. We could find further differences. Abulafia's reconciliation ranged wider than that of the Joachimites, encompassing not only Jews and Christians but also Muslims, and indeed any seeker after God. It was more philosophical, having absorbed a great deal of Aristotelian teaching through Maimonides's Guide to the perplexed. We might also posit Muslim influences on Abulafia's universalising mysticism, including the teachings of Andalusi mystics like the Sufi Ibn al-Árabi. Since there are so few ‘smoking guns’ in the Middle Ages, Abulafia's intellectual debts to the Spiritual Franciscans and the Joachimite tradition must remain conjecture, but thanks to this book the conjecture is now both elegant and sturdy. Hames's important work has beautifully reinforced our sense of the interdependence linking the mystical traditions of medieval Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It should delight anyone interested in Abulafia or Joachim, in Kabbalah or mysticism, and most broadly, in the fascinating web of interactions, ‘cross-fertilisations’ and assertion of difference that constitutes the history of religion.