Holy War, Martyrdom and Terror: Christianity, Violence and the West, ca. 70 C.E. to the Iraq War by Philippe Buc (review)

Medieval historian Philippe Buc has produced a fascinating and provocative study of how Christian theology affects religious and secular violence in the West, one that will interest historians, philosophers, and many social scientists.

The examination of religious struggles covers inter alia the Jewish Roman wars (66–73 c.e.), the First Crusade, and the Reformation. Christianity, obviously, is not unique in producing violence. All religions have peaceful and violent dimensions, which they exhibit at different times in their histories and which change how we view them, as an eighteenth-century observation by Voltaire makes clear to us today: “The Muslims law-giver was a powerful and terrifying man, who established his dogmas by his courage and weapons; yet his religion became merciful and tolerant. Christianity’s divine founder lived in humility and peace, and preached forgiveness, but owing to our furious madness, his holy and sweet religion became the most intolerant and barbarous of all” (p. 67).

Christian theology also produced the just war doctrine, an important theme in secular wars too. It is not clear why Buc ignores this doctrine because analyzing the differences between just and unjust wars would help put his account of holy war in better perspective. Just war advocates believe war is evil but can be justified if the aim is to respond to a serious lethal attack that cannot be addressed in any other way and if there is a significant prospect for success. Governments must organize the response, and violence must be restricted to members of the enemy’s armed forces and preclude atrocities that would make successive wars more brutal. The aim is to eliminate the threat but not change the international or domestic world. The UN Charter incorporates the just war doctrine in allowing states to go to war only if they have been attacked.

The holy war aims to transform the world by ending all wars and is one in which God eventually participates. In a holy war atrocities were appropriate because they demonstrated one’s commitment and expedited victory. Buc focuses on the First Crusade, which the pope authorized (1095); all Christians were supposed to be involved through swords, donations, and prayers. Provoked by a request for Europeans to protect the Byzantine Empire from Islamic threats, the crusade transformed the objective to freeing Jerusalem from Islamic rule, thereby enabling a “new world” to emerge where governments would disappear and liberty would prevail everywhere. The Crusaders committed many atrocities, including cannibalism when a starving army ate Muslims, an unplanned activity but a theme present in Christian literature. Buc notes cannibalism had two effects: It struck “divine fear in the Muslims . . . and purged the Christian army of lukewarm elements . . . cowardly men useless for war” (p. 283). Prisoners were also massacred, most tortured to death often through stoning. Captured women were killed, and children were slaughtered sometimes by dashing their skulls against the walls, a practice that biblical references justified and was repeated five centuries later in the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre of Huguenots.

Jerusalem’s “liberation” did not produce a new world and Muslims recaptured Jerusalem. Crusades nevertheless continued against Islam. The Crusaders were committed to millennialism based on an interpretation of the Book of Revelation, which describes Jesus coming back on earth for a thousand years after the enemies of Christianity are destroyed. Second-century analysts like Justin Martyr designated martyrdom as indispensable for changing society or pushing history forward to the creation of a new world. Martyrs would change the next generation, and as the numbers of martyrs increased, God would be affected too.

Christ was the first martyr whose crucifixion resulted in another culture. Christians who do not support Crusades acted similarly to the ancient Jews who did not try to prevent Christ’s death. Crusaders also were the first Christians to massacre Jews, a pattern each...