The Holy War and the Armies of God: Thinking Sociologically about the Crusades

• In Event: Comparative-Historical Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Comparative-Historical Roundtable 2

Abstract

Drawing on Stark (2009), this paper reexamines the Crusades from the standpoint of historical sociology. I contend that the Crusaders’ movement was not only a response to the challenge of Islam but also a pivotal episode of Europe’s religiopolitical expansion of the High Middle Ages. Why did this geopolitical turnaround take place? Many scholars view the source of Europe’s expansionism in the unique sociopolitical dynamism of the Western world. Others underscore the institutional power of the Christian church. After comparing the evolution of the Latin West with the political developments in the Islamic Caliphate and the Byzantine East, I attribute the occurrence of the Crusaders’ movement (and Europe’s geopolitical expansionism more broadly) to the unique synthesis of political dynamism and institutional coordination in the West, the combination which did not transpire at that time in the worlds of Islamdom and Eastern Christendom.

Author

• Pavel I. Osinsky, Appalachian State University