Bellum Sacrum

The Crusades were a series of military campaigns fought mainly between European Christians and Muslims. Shown here is a battle scene from the First Crusade.

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„Kristaus riteris, sakau, gali saugiai žudyti ir dar saugiau žūti, nes, žūdamas tarnauja sau, o žudydamas – Kristui. (...) Pagonio mirtimi krikščionis didžiuojasi, nes ja Kristus pašlovinamas“, – skelbė bene demoniškiausias Katalikų bažnyčios šventasis Bernardas Klervietis.

"I come not to bring peace, but to bring a sword" (Matthew 10:34)

Claims that Christianity has a violent side...

Many scholars assert that Early Christianity (prior to 313 AD) was a pacifist religion and that, only after it had become the state religion of the Roman Empire, did Christianity begin to rationalize, institutionalize and endorse violence to further the interests of the state and the church. Some scholars believe that "the accession of Constantine terminated the pacifist period in church history." According to René Girard, "Beginning with Constantine, Christianity triumphed at the level of the state and soon began to cloak with its authority persecutions similar to those in which the early Christians were victims.

Paskui toji valstybinę religiją turinti Romos imperija Šventąja Romos Imperija patapo.

Neatkurta ar atkurta, bet tebegyvuoja.

From its earliest days, Christianity has been challenged to reconcile the scriptures known as the "Old Testament" with the scriptures known as the "New Testament". Ra'anan S. Boustan states that "(v)iolence can be found throughout the pages of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the New Testament." Philip Jenkins describes the Bible as overflowing with "texts of terror".

In response to allegations of violence in their scriptures, many Christian theologians and apologists counter with claims that that the "God of the Old Testament" is a violent God and the "God of the New Testament" is a peaceful and loving God. Gibson and Matthews have labelled this perspective as a "millenia-old bias", and as one that "places the origins of Judeo-Christian violence squarely within Judaism".

In 1095 (see), at the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II declared that some wars could be deemed as not only a bellum iustum ("just war"), but could, in certain cases, rise to the level of a bellum sacrum (holy war).

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