A new look at the Crusades

Rodney Stark, a professor at Baylor University, has written 30 books on religion, including The Rise of Christianity, For the Glory of God, Discovering God, and The Victory of Reason. Last year his book God's Battalions: The Case for the Crusades was published. Of course, in a period of political correctness regarding the history of Islam, his book created quite a controversy. I read it recently and would like to report on some of his major points. A disclaimer at the beginning--I really like Stark for his clarity and willingness to challenge a leftist academic view of history and religion.

For one thing, the title may be a bit misleading. Yes, he does discuss a defense for the Crusades in an attempt to set the record straight. We hear so much today about the evil West, so Stark wanted to establish a better understanding of what really happened during the Crusades. But there is more to the book than simply a defense for this action of Christendom; he spends a great deal of time discussing the historical and cultural background to this pivotal series of events. I'm not complaining that he spent the time doing this. I just want the reader to understand that the book is more complex than simply a defense of Christian activities then.

The author starts by explaining what has gone on in recent times regarding the Crusades. He notes that shortly after the destruction of the World Trade Center by Muslim terrorists, many people blamed the Crusades as the basis for Islamic fury. The Crusades were explained as the first extremely bloody chapter in a long history of brutal European colonialism. He says people have charged that the crusaders marched east not because of idealism, but to pursue land and treasure. The image is one of power-mad popes seeking to expand Christianity through conversion of Muslim masses and knights of Europe as barbarians brutalizing everyone in their path, leaving an enlightened Muslim culture in ruins. He quotes the chair of Islamic studies at American University in Washington, D. C. as suggesting, "the Crusades created a historical memory which is with us today -- the memory of a long European onslaught." Keep in mind this is a person teaching at a university in our nation's capital. You probably won't be surprised to find out he is giving students an incorrect view of history.

This is where it gets good. Stark challenges these anti-Western beliefs about the Crusades. Here is the heart of his book. He wrote God's Battalions to show the Crusades were precipitated by Islamic provocations -- centuries of bloody attempts to colonize the West and by sudden new attacks on Christian pilgrims and holy places. The pope had no hope or plan of converting Muslims. The Crusades were not organized and led by surplus sons, but by the heads of great families fully aware that they would be spending far more money crusading than any modest material rewards they might gain. In addition, the Crusader kingdoms established in the Holy Land were not colonies sustained by local taxation. In fact, they required immense subsidies from Europe.

He also says a couple of other things that are not very popular today. Stark claims it is utterly unreasonable to impose modern notions about proper military conduct on medieval warfare, which clashes today with the pacifism that is so widespread among academics. In addition, he says that it is nonsense to believe that Muslims have been harboring bitter resentments about the Crusades for over one thousand years. Instead, Muslim antagonism about the Crusades did not appear until about 1900, in reaction to the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the start of actual European colonialism in the Middle East. Anti-Crusader feelings did not become intense until after the state of Israel was founded in 1948.

So, this is the book that I would like to summarize for you in the next few blogs. Rodney Stark has done us a big favor by showing that talking heads on TV shows and academics in ivy-towered universities don't necessarily tell us the true story. We need to be far more critical when we hear academics throw around negative statements about our country's history, its leaders, or Christianity.