THE CRUSADES:4-part miniseries on the myths, the legends, and the truths of the Crusades*AN EWTN 1-DISC DVD

Learn some of the Truth about the Crusades in this little documentary.

I have seen several of the episodes of this series on Catholic cable, and they are interesting and enjoyable. It is especially enjoyable visually, and done with a sort of elegant simplicity, which is the right way to handle the subject. Not surprisingly there is very a recognizable apologetical angle to everything uttered by the narrator, and presumably even that which was edited-in from the university experts. Still, even with that editing, these experts say some very illustrative things. Surely, this series could have been something far less enjoyable, if one takes as guide some of the propaganda efforts produced by this cable outfit.Having said that, there seems to be an identifiable feeling in the project that somehow a serious mien can be portrayed about history, yet bizarrely you can just leave central issues out. This doesn't ruin the affair, because it was apparently generally well conceived, but it does make it strangely Sunday School sounding. This is especially strange because there is a lot that alludes to very complex realities in an elegant way. The best example of this is the COMPLETE ABSENCE in the episodes I saw of any discussion of the of one of the main impetuses for the Crusades for the general crusader. To wit, it has long been accepted that a primary motivation for joining the Crusades was to receive a special plenary indulgence granted by various Popes. One wonders, if this show tried so hard to do a good job, how could they leave that central issue out? It tells you something. Perhaps, one of the episodes I did not see so far contains a mention of it, but given the dearth in narrative discussions very relevant to the indulgence issue in the episodes I did see, I bet not. How can you mention that the Pope blamed the great sinfulness of the Christian population for the very loss of the Holy Lands, and not mention that a plenary indulgence to absolve that guilt was conveniently offered to recover those same Holy Lands. In addition, I saw the creators of this series on a catholic cable talk show, and they cleverly side-stepped the indulgence issue by saying simply that the crusaders were very motivated by "penitential" concerns. They never mentioned the indulgence issue, so I bet it is nowhere in the whole series. Simply put, that it was not in the episodes I saw is pretty instructive.Of course, if you do register the centrality of indulgences in the whole affair, the great piety of the participants, which surely cannot be negated on the whole, is at least put in a more realistic context as to motivation. That it was left out indicates that this whole effort was just one the level of a History Channel documentary, though a bit less annoying, which is a good thing. But surely no more reliable in the end. A shame since it is quite touching in spots.The treatment of the fall of the Templars in the episode I saw was not nearly as bad as I might have expected. Though it left so much out, and given the centrality of the Templar ethos to the whole popular conception of Crusades even today, it seemed a regrettable lack of emphasis.Lastly, some of the rather funny bits come from the commentary of a Dominican named Thomas Crean. Crean makes the assertion that Catholic Church tradition treats violence per se as being a "natural" phenomenon, and thus outside in itself of moral qualities. In other words, the idea being that what makes violence either good or bad is the purpose it is put to. Well, I think Crean is strongly misrepresenting the nature of thinking on violence in Christendom, and especially its implied identification with a force that is a Privatio Boni arguable legible in many, many Christian thinkers. Thus, I believe the issue, even from a orthodox Christian perspective is MUCH MORE VEXED morally than Crean is alleging. It is almost comical in the delivery of this Dominican, as he said, in kind of a quirky tone that "loving your neighbor does not mean that you cannot kill him."