Legacy and Representation of Christian Worldview - Research Paper Example

?The Crusades: Its Legacy and Representation of Christian Worldview I. Thesis ment An investigation into the justification and the cause of the crusade whether it represented the Christian worldview and whether its legacy has been positively beneficial to the Western World. II. Background and objective of the Crusade In 1095, the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus I sought the help of the pope to send in help to keep the Seljuk Turks at bay. The council of the Church responded in November 1095 with a decree of using war to advance its religious fervor. The call for a crusade gained momentum with the sermon of Pope Urban the II in a religious gathering at the Clermont, France in November 27, 1095 where called for arms to reclaim the Holy Land1 (Tyrman 2004, 26-28). The call to arms was “a war answering God's command, authorized by a legitimate authority, the pope, who by virtue of the power seen as vested in him as Vicar of Christ, identified the war's object and offered to those who undertook it full remission of the penalties of confessed sins and a package of related temporal privileges, including church protection of the family and property2” (Tyrman 2004, 30). Those who will die in battle was to be regarded as martyrs and could expect eternal salvation as the crusade is considered as a response of vow made to God3 (Riley-Smith 2008, 9). III. The Reason of the Crusade There were many ancillary reasons why the crusade was launched. Scholars argue that the crusades were launched primarily for economic and political reason because Europe at that time was in a state of war and famine that the crusade is a convenient way out of it. Others argue for adventurism while others asserted that it was for religious aggrandizement. It cannot be denied however that at the core of the crusade is religious fervor. Europe in 10th century was predominantly Catholic who was preoccupied with religion and the remission of their sins that such environment provided the ideal ideological context to push for a war under a sacred cause. The idea of going to the East was also a welcome prospect for wealth and adventure considering the economic and political condition of Europe. IV. The Theological Justification of the Crusade It was difficult to reconcile that the violence of such magnitude was done in Christ’s name who taught charity and love. In the Christian’s Volume of Sacred Laws where the Ten Commandments were written, it was even decreed that “thou shall not kill”. Theologians at that time however justified the crusade by glossing the narrative at Mount Sinai where the same law was decreed in the Ten Commandments that God Himself authorized the death of those who worshipped the golden calf when Moses descended from the mountains to receive the Law of God4 (Riley-Smith 2008, 10). In addition to reclaiming the Holy Land that was conquered by the Muslims in 638, the pope justified the crusade as the papacy’s program of reform to unite the western and eastern Christianity and to reconstruct churches in the lands which was previously occupied by the Muslims rule5 (Powell 1995, 666). The teachings of St. Augustine, a prominent theoretician in the fourth and fifth century was also used to justify the violence of the crusade as a corrective measure, an act of love to discipline just like a parent to an erring child6 (Powell 1995, 666). That even God demanded violence when Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son Isaac. This is done by God not without just cause and not out of cruelty but out of righteous retribution. The Augustinian tradition posits that those who took part in war “should only use as much force as necessary7” (Riley-Smith 2008, 12). It follows according to his doctrine that those who administer the crusade should restraint themselves so that the innocent will suffer as little as possible. The result however says otherwise because when the Christian crusaders entered Jerusalem, they slaughtered all of its occupants, including children, women and elderly. What supposed to be a circumscribed retaking of the Holy Land became a bloodbath. V. The Legacy of the Crusade If there is anything laudable about the crusade, it was only the audacity of the Christian crusaders who traveled thousands of miles enduring the ravages of the road and the inclemency of the weather just to go to Jerusalem to reclaim it. It did reclaimed Jerusalem during the first crusade but eventually lost it to Saladin. If there is anything left of the crusade that is worthy of a revisit was only the structures that was built during the occupancy of the crusaders. Even, the stories being told about them by the locals where those structures were erected are less than flattering. What also endured as a legacy along with those structures is the enmity and residual resentment of the Muslims against the Christians who launched the crusades. In one of the narratives, Scham described that the nightmare of the children of Palestine were about monsters coming after them wearing crosses on their chests8 (2002). This demonstrates how deep seated the enmity that the crusade has left with its religion and representative (cross) that was suppose to preach love and charity but became a monster in the eyes of the Muslims. The crusades can also hardly be considered as a representative of a Christian worldview despite the justification of the theologians during its time. The extent of the murder when the Christian crusaders invaded Jerusalem was beyond comprehension as it killed all of its inhabitants including the children, women and elderly. As one Frenchman who witnessed the account, “there was murder everywhere that the streets were filled with blood up to their knees”. These atrocities were all done in the name of Christ who preached and practiced love and charity and even gave his own life to save the Christians. To this day, the mention of the word “crusade” still brings a cold chill in the spine of every Muslim in the Middle East. It left an unhealed animosity in the subconscious of the Muslim world that still divides the West and the East. In a way, the idea of the crusade fueled the Islam extremism that continues to terrorize the western world costing us billions of dollars in security measures and immeasurable anxiety which could have been channeled in other productive and humanitarian efforts. Without the crusade, the world could have been a more peaceful and more united world today. There may have been technological, economic and political benefits that were derived from the crusade but such advances could have been still attained without the residual resentment brought by the atrocities of the crusades. Progress and change is inevitable, it would have still came without the crusade. Even if we admit that this was the benefit derived from the crusade, it was cancelled out by the cost brought by the legacy of crusade – which is the great chasm that still divides the East and West. References: Scham, Sandra. Legacy of the Crusades. Archaeology, 00038113, 55, no. 5 (2002) Powell, James M. Rereading the Crusades .The International History Review 17, No. 4 (Nov., 1995): 666. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40107437. Accessed: 07/10/2011 Riley-Smith, Jonathan. Crusades, Christianity and Islam. (Columbia University Press USA, 2008), 9,10,12. Tyerman, Christopher. Fighting for Christendom. (Oxford University Press, Oxford, , GBR 2008), 26-28, 30. Read More