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Christianity Today, July, 2007 |

Onward, Christian Soldiers

God's War is the new standard in the field.

Review by Alfred J. Andrea | posted 7/19/2007 09:03AM

To best understand Christopher Tyerman's impressive God's War: A New History of the Crusades (Belknap/Harvard), you must go back more than a half century, to when Sir Steven Runciman produced his three-volume ...

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Simon

Posted: July 26, 2007 3:38 PM

Andrea has it right. Tyerman's 'God's War' is a superb account of Crusade scholarship as it is today. It is the perfect antidote to the highly prejudiced mis-information one finds in the media - and in the pulpit. It may well be replaced one day, just as Tyerman has replaced Runciman, but for the near future Tyerman sets the standard. For a brief introduction to Tyerman's views one can always turn to his volume in the OUP Very Short Introduction series.

A. Yeshuratnam

Posted: July 23, 2007 10:56 PM

Runciman had a poor knowledge of the West. If the West means anything at all, it isnot a specific set of values, but a meta-value. It is about throwing open your gates to the richness of world culture and daring to embrace the best of what you find. But the Arab world attacked by the Crusaders was reactionary, backward and even barbarous. Although the Crusaders could not succed in realizing their objectives, the Middle East during the period of the Renaissance and Reformation sank into economic and political crisis and it ceased to play any role in world politics. But the religious fanaticism that remained dormant during this period, and later during World War I and II exploded into Islamic terrorism. Now the modern Crusade is against the cuitural achievements of the West and the stinking Islamic terrorism of the Middle East which is bent upon wiping out modern civilization in the name of a heretical religion founded by an imposter Prophet. A.Yeshuratnam Trivandrum Kerala State Ind

Will	Posted: July 23, 2007 9:49 AM


I think it is great to see a genuine, historical account present a broader view than the one-dimensional rhetoric that is becoming so familiar and wearisome.

Daniel

Posted: July 19, 2007 10:16 PM


I thought this was an excellent review. The author gave his perspective clearly and he also gave a little foretaste of what the book is like. He obviously likes complex things, like Tyerman himself, but that doesn't make him a bad reviewer. Life itself is complex, more often than not.

Dave	Posted: July 19, 2007 2:45 PM

It is no misconception that the Islamic world was by our standards more civilized. They advocated much religouse Tolerence, Europeans burnt anyone who was not Christian, even Jews, at the stake. Christians and jew, while experienceng pehaps ocation persecutions every few centuries, were very much free to practice their faith Europeans were largly uneducated, which is what gave the Monarchs and Church Heiarchy it's power in the Middle Ages. The Muslim empire was very educated in science, mathmatics, philossphy, liberal arts etc. Given the lack education in Europe at the time, it was easy for thise in leadership to manipulate people into beliving that this was God's war, they had no way of reading the Bible itself and having an opinion. So it is a very true statment that the Muslim empire was very advanced, and that Europenas were by a lighter defintion of the word "Barbaric." It is true though that todays situation isn't directly connected to the crusades. But they do paralelle.

Jorge E

Posted: July 19, 2007 1:46 PM


Good comment. Good description of the book, and the differences between real history and ideological clichés.

Anonymous

Posted: July 19, 2007 1:06 PM


The reviewer seems to like things complicated just because it's complicated. Probably likes pizza with all the toppings and the gulps it down without tasting anything, because if he tasted it it would just be a jumble. Certainly that is what this review is like: A jumble and complex without giving you any real facts tpo savor.

shirley

Posted: July 19, 2007 12:18 PM


Very confusing, Just say what you mean.

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