Interdisciplinary Study of Religions Program Presents

The Crusades in the Abrahamic Spiral of Violence

You can have prosperity, victory against the odds, and the enjoyment of a complete life.
 
All you have to do is sacrifice your child.
 
Those are the terms of reference set out in the biblical story of the command God gives Abraham, to offer his son on a ritual altar.  Genesis 22, known as the Aqedah, or “Binding” of Isaac, since Abraham bound his son in order to slay him, has a rich and often dark history. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have armed themselves over time with the conviction that an innocent victim – Isaac or Christ of Isma’il – models God’s desire for how his people should sacrifice themselves for him.
 
In the Crusades, those three religions deployed their unique versions of Abraham’s offering as they inflicted violence on one another and suffered violence at one another’s hands.
 
Our discussion is designed to show how the Aqedah focused violence during the period of the Crusades, and how resources of interpretation within each tradition could lead them out of their mutual confrontation.
 

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For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].

Time: 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm EDT/GMT-4

Location: Olin Humanities, Room 204

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