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Professor-author to discuss the Crusades in free lecture Dec. 1
By Julie Filby
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Archbishop’s Lecture Series Speaker: Thomas F. Madden, Ph.D. |
Widely recognized expert on the Crusades and Christian-Muslim conflict, Thomas F. Madden, will speak at the Dec. 1 installment of the Archbishop’s Lecture Series.
In his lecture “The Crusades: Then and Now,” Madden will discuss the Crusades, a series of medieval religious wars fought for the defense of Christian people, the Christian faith, or the Catholic Church. Many of the conflicts were a response to Muslim conquests of Christian territories and harassment of Christian pilgrims in the Middle East.
“Catholics are often embarrassed by the Crusades because they believe that they were raw acts of aggression in the name of God,” explained Madden. “The truth is that the Crusades were defensive wars fought to preserve the Christian world and rescue Christian peoples.”
Understanding the Crusades can serve as a way for the faithful to deepen their faith by expanding their knowledge of Church history.
“The Crusades are one more reason why studying the rich history of the Catholic Church can be an enormously faith-building experience,” he said.
Madden will share historical perspective as well as contemporary relevance of the Crusades.
“The talk will begin with a survey of what historians know about the Crusades then trace the ways that the Crusades have been distorted during subsequent centuries for various agendas,” he said.
The lecture will explore how the wars are remembered in the West and Muslim Middle East and “how those defective memories play an important part in shaping the conflicts of the modern world,” Madden said.
“I'll be looking at how perceptions of the Crusades have changed dramatically from the Middle Ages to our own time, and how those perceptions continue to animate events today.”
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Thomas F. Madden |
Madden has spoken and written extensively on the crusading movement, including a 2005 book “The New Concise History of the Crusades” (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers), “Crusades: Medieval Worlds in Conflict” (Ashgate Publishing, 2010), “The Crusades: The Essential Readings” (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002) and “Crusades: The Illustrated History” (University of Michigan Press, 2004).
He has served as an expert for several media outlets including The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The History Channel and PBS.
Madden is a professor of medieval history at St. Louis University and director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Mexico, and a master’s and doctorate degree from the University of Illinois.
The next speaker in the Archbishop’s Lecture Series will be author, blogger and New York Times columnist Ross Douthat on Feb. 23. The final lecture of the series will be delivered March 6 by political scientist Timothy S. Shah, associate director of the Religious Freedom Project at the Berkley Center For Religion, Peace and World Affairs. Shah is a specialist in the relationship between religion and political freedom in theory, history and contemporary practice.
All lectures are free, open to the public and followed by a question and answer session. Lectures begin at 7 p.m. in Bonfils Hall, on the east side of the John Paul II Center campus at 1300 Steele St. in south Denver. Advance registration is not required; seating is first-come, first-served. To learn more about the full series, or to listen to audio recordings of past lectures, visit http://www.archden.org/index.cfm/ID/5098/Archbishops-Lecture-Series/.
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