Christians Haven’t Always Been Mewling “Judeo-Christian” Pacifists

Editor’s Note: This is a work in progress.

“Judeo-Christianity” is a weird movement that was popularized in the USA in the 20th century and has utterly nothing to do with France or Notre Dame https://t.co/7aGxgaaTmO

— EMPEROR ‘KINGFISH’ WHITEPILL (@CptBlackPill) April 15, 2019

When I visited #NotreDameCathedral in 2012, its majestic beauty brought me to my knees. I wept and prayed and thanked God for my surroundings. Not just the building, but the artisans His hands formed, the history of Faith on display, the art, the stories of lives changed by God.

— Kristina Ribali (@KristinaRibali) April 16, 2019

Built in 1163.

856 years of history.

Gone.#NotreDame pic.twitter.com/Q2ehHl8YvA

— David Santa Carla ? (@TheSantaCarla) April 15, 2019

Ave Maria pic.twitter.com/lb6Y5XV05a

— Ignacio Gil (@Inaki_Gil) April 15, 2019

As I have repeatedly said on this blog, I am a historicist who likes to skip around and hop through history and current events on any given day, and in light of the destruction of Notre Dame yesterday now is an excellent time to take a look back at the culture that created it. It occurred to me long ago that it was very different from “Christianity” as it exists today.

The men who built Notre Dame Cathedral in France also fought in the Crusades. Bernard of Clairvaux, one of my favorite Catholics, is famous for preaching the Second Crusade. I spent the better part of the last year lost in my book studying this period:

“What may appear today to many Christians and perhaps most non-Christians as an irreconcilable paradox between holy war and the doctrines of peace and forgiveness proclaimed in the Lord’s Prayer, the Sermon on the Mount and many other Gospel passages has not always been so obvious or recognized. This was certainly not the case in educated circles around Urban II at the end of the eleventh century.

Note: Bernard of Clairvaux was one of the most famous men of the 12th century. Does he sound anything like your modern Judeo-Christian? No, he sounds like someone who is enraptured by the love of his LORD, not the love of orbiting the Jews like Charlie Kirk.