Atheists love the Crusades. Liberals love the Crusades. Heck, even Muslims love the Crusades. And why shouldn’t they? The Crusades are the chronic chink in the Christian’s historical armor. Is some Christian pestering you with some highfalutin talk about Biblical ethics or Christian virtue? Then just remind them of the Crusades. After all, everybody knows how wrong the Christians were in that instance, and since the Christians were so obviously wrong that time, then they must be wrong now too.
And for the most part Christians acquiesce. “You’re right. You’re right. I know. I know. And I’m sorry for my forefathers’ brutality and insensitivity. Can we just move past that?” The resounding Non-Christian answer is, “No!” And why shouldn’t it be? They say they’ve got us over a barrel. We say they’ve got us over a barrel. Case closed.
There is an antidote to the situation described above, which is simply to know something about the Crusades. 99.9% of everything your opponent knows about the Crusades they learned from a friend who heard it on Oprah, but do you know any more than they do? If you’d like to know more than you do, then I have an option for “Step 1” of that process, which is to read God’s Battalions: The Case for the Crusades, by Rodney Stark.
The case FOR the Crusades? What? Now I’m just talkin’ crazy talk. Who would ever be willing to say publicly that there’s a case FOR the Crusades? Answer: Rodney Stark.
Published in 2009, God’s Battalions leads the reader through significant portions of Eastern and Western history from the migration of Muhammad in A.D. 622, through the Muslim invasion of the next several centuries, and into the Western response to those attacks beginning in the 11th Century.
Here’s the flap copy from inside the dust jacket of the hardcover edition:
In God’s Battalions, award-winning author Rodney Stark takes on the long-held view that the Crusades were the first round of European colonialism, conducted for land, loot, and converts by barbarian Christians who victimized the cultivated Muslims. To the contrary, Stark argues the Crusades were the first military response to unwarranted Muslim terrorist aggression.
Stark reviews the history of the seven major Crusades from 1095 to 1291, demonstrating that the Crusades were precipitated by Islamic provocations, centuries of bloody attempts to colonize the West, and sudden attacks on Christian pilgrims and holy places. Although the Crusades were initiated by a plea from the pope, Stark argues that this had nothing to do with any elaborate design of the Christian world to convert all Muslims to Christianity by force of arms. Given the current tensions in the Middle East and terrorist attacks around the world, Stark’s views are a thought-provoking contribution to our understanding and are sure to spark debate.
I commend it to you.
You can buy it here.<>
