41. God's War I

923 years after the launch of the first Crusade, world leaders are still invoking their memory to explain ongoing conflict. But what were the Crusades, really? Chances are, much of what we think we know about the Crusades is wrong.

Show Notes

This is the first of a two part episode on The Crusades.
 

Over nine hundred years after the launch of the first Crusade, world leaders are still invoking their memory to explain ongoing conflict. But how plausible is that?

Chances are, whether you're a Christian or a skeptic, what you think you know about the Crusades is wrong. Or so says our guest for this episode.

What were the Crusades? How did they start? What did they achieve? Why did they stop? 

And does their shadow really fall over modern tensions between the West and Muslim lands?

LINKS

• Get John Dickson's new book Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History, published by our sponsor Zondervan. It's got a heap more on the Crusades than we could fit into this episode.
• Meet our distinguished guest, Professor Christopher Tyerman. 
• Check out Tyerman's magnum opus, God's War: A New History of the Crusades. He has a written a bunch more, too. 
• Watch the full news segment from France 24 about the Charlie Hebdo caricatures that enraged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
• Listen to this fascinating episode of The New York Times podcast The Daily, all about the killing of French teacher Samuel Paty and the raging debate in France over the relationship between government and religion - primarily the idea of Laïcité - the constitutional principle of secularism in France. 
• Listen to the Undeceptions Single all about 'The Troubles' of Northern Ireland. 
• Here are the Old Testament references where God commands violence:
  • In 1 Samuel, when God commands Saul to completely destroy the Amalekites. 
    • Read this article from The Gospel Coalition writer and blogger Steve McAlpine, Indefensible? Saul and the Amalekite Genocide
  • In the book of Joshua, God ordains a holy war against the Canaanites.
    • And then check out this article 'But, what about Canaan?' quoting John Dickson giving an explanation about what in the world is God doing in the Book of Joshua with the Canaanites.
    • You might also like to check out this explanation, Why did God demand the invasion of Canaan in the Book of Joshua? by The Bible Project.
• Check out Saint Augustine's City of God for more on his broad principles of just war. 
• Read Pope Urban II's full speech at the Council of Clermont in 1095, where he officially called for the First Crusade.
• Here's more on Ridley Scott's 2005 film, Kingdom of Heaven. 

What is Undeceptions with John Dickson?

Every week on Undeceptions we’ll explore some aspect of life, faith, history, culture, or ethics that is either much misunderstood or mostly forgotten. With the help of people who know what they’re talking about, we’ll be trying to ‘undeceive ourselves’ and let the truth ‘out’.