Rozann Carter reviews Rodney Stark's historical exposé on the Crusades, God's Battalions, taking a closer look at the idea of faith-filled fervor.
A few days ago, as you probably know, one of Father Barron’s cultural commentaries made the CNN.com
“Belief Blog.” As is the case with many of Father’s commentaries, whether on YouTube or anywhere else in the secular media, his words stirred up a deluge of negative rebuttal. As I was sitting at my desk reading through the blog on Tuesday afternoon, the onslaught of verbal attacks in the “comments” section of this media outlet was utterly overwhelming to me, as they were usually in the form of outlandish personal attacks rather than sound philosophical objections. Rather than reading what Father Barron actually said, many of the web critics instead questioned his fervor and intention. Comment after vile comment, I began to feel it imperative to personally make sure that the article was not misconstrued, that his intention was not twisted to prove a personal agenda, that the nature of his objective was properly appreciated. Not yet knowing how to go about it, I still felt it deeply necessary to attempt to reason out what seemed irrational, to set straight the misrepresentations, to defend the intention so as to realign the reaction...