Books on the Crusades and the East/West Schism

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RobertPGH1981

Puritan Board Sophomore
Hello All,

Does anybody have recommendations on books to read regarding the Crusades, and the East/West Schism? I need to write a history paper on the crusades and I want to analyze the theology of the era. I was looking at focusing on a topic such as was the war a just war. I may instead focus on the relationship between East/West Christianity. I have three books right now but two out of the three focus on surveys. I need something as a deep dive.

Here are the three books that I am starting to use:

1. Medieval Civilization 400-1500 AD - Jacques Le Goff
2. 2000 Years of Christs Power: Vol 2 - The Middle Ages ~ Nick Needham
3. The Sword of the Prophet: Islam; History, Theology, Impact on the World ~ Serge Trifkovic
 
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Just found this article with a few book recommendations. Any others beyond this?

 
Serge is good on Islamic terrorism. Great guy. We've emailed a few times.

Robert Spencer's Politically Incorrect Guide to the Crusades is good.

Steven Runciman is understood to be the standard.
 

The Photian Schism seems to be a hard book to come by without paying a ton of money for it. My local library has it but only allows it as a reference. I may have to spend a decent amount of time at the library. Thanks for that recommendation.

Does Serge's book come off as bias? I saw some of the views and they explain the view as being biased. Although you would expect that from the world in either case but just curious of your thoughts on that.
 
The Photian Schism seems to be a hard book to come by without paying a ton of money for it. My local library has it but only allows it as a reference. I may have to spend a decent amount of time at the library. Thanks for that recommendation.

Does Serge's book come off as bias? I saw some of the views and they explain the view as being biased. Although you would expect that from the world in either case but just curious of your thoughts on that.

He watched his homeland overrun by heroin and sex-traffickers. Yes, he is biased. The facts are still there, though.
 
He watched his homeland overrun by heroin and sex-traffickers. Yes, he is biased. The facts are still there, though.
Thanks for this... The unfortunate thing is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of scriptural evaluation to these topics. Granted it was a different era and time but for the Muslims, the concept of crusading is active as we saw on 9/11. Many historical scholars agree on this point.
 
Thanks for this... The unfortunate thing is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of scriptural evaluation to these topics. Granted it was a different era and time but for the Muslims, the concept of crusading is active as we saw on 9/11. Many historical scholars agree on this point.

We have to make a distinction. To the degree the Crusaders believed Deus Vult, they were wrong. To the degree they actually fought a defensive war to stop the Muslim onslaught, they were right.
 
We have to make a distinction. To the degree the Crusaders believed Deus Vult, they were wrong. To the degree they actually fought a defensive war to stop the Muslim onslaught, they were right.
That was one thing I was thinking about writing my paper on. The other was how the Schism was impacted during the crusades. In short, my understanding is that the West did go and "help" East but ended up keeping the land. This pushed the East/West further from each other. I am hoping that Steven Runciman vol 2 on Jerusalem & Acre speaks on this some.
 
That was one thing I was thinking about writing my paper on. The other was how the Schism was impacted during the crusades. In short, my understanding is that the West did go and "help" East but ended up keeping the land. This pushed the East/West further from each other. I am hoping that Steven Runciman vol 2 on Jerusalem & Acre speaks on this some.

More or less. The Schism was brewing since at least Photios. The Crusades would have had a circumstantial impact on the Schism, though not a material one. I think the Crusades would have hardened how the laity viewed the West, but the church had formally split 50 years earlier.
 
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