#thomas madden

[ladysnowangel]

Currently reading (summer 2025)

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[rhianna]

Should Christians Apologize for the Crusades? - Crisis Magazine

One of the more ignorant bits of political correctness subverting our cultural memory is the movement to ban the Crusader mascot from schools. A number of schools already have caved in to the pressure to eliminate such a “divisive” or even “racist” mascot, and some, I am quite sure, were happy to lead the way …

[byjoveimbeinghumble]

For medieval men and women, the crusade was an act of piety, charity, and love, but it was also a means of defending their world, their culture, and their way of life. It is not surprising, then, that the crusades lost their appeal when Christians no longer identified themselves first and foremost as members of one body of Christ. By the sixteenth century, Europe was dividing itself along political rather than religious lines. In this new world, the crusade had no place.   It is easy enough for modern people to dismiss the crusades as morally repugnant or cynically evil. Such judgments, however, tell us more about the observer than the observed. They are based on uniquely modern (and, therefore, Western) values. If, from the safety of our modern world, we are quick to condemn the medieval crusader, we should be mindful that he would be just as quick to condemn us. Our infinitely more destructive wars waged for the sake of political and social ideologies would, in his opinion, be lamentable wastes of human life. In both societies, the medieval and the modern, people fight for what is most dear to them. That is a fact of human nature that is not so changeable.

Thomas Madden, "The New Concise History of the Crusades"

[byjoveimbeinghumble]

In May 1911, Isaac Comnenus surrendered on the condition that he not be put into irons. Richard [the Lionheart] complied, ordering him to be placed in shackles of silver...     [From Saladin's biographer, Baha ad-Din:] I saw some of the Frankish infantry with between one and ten arrows sticking in them, and still advancing at their usual pace without leaving the ranks....

Thomas Madden, The New Concise History of the Crusades (2006)

Glad to see that Khal Drogo and Boromir showed up in the middle of the Third Crusade! 

[sciphishow]

Thomas Madden and the Crusades

Thomas Madden and the Crusades

[easyazon_link cloaking=”default” keywords=”thomas madden” localization=”default” locale=”US” nofollow=”default” new_window=”default” tag=”superversivesf-20″]Thomas Madden[/easyazon_link] has a great article up at First Things, Inventing the Crusades and he puts them in a historical perspective that is commonly lost today.

Within a month of the attacks of September 11, 2001, former president…

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