Fighting in the name of God?

In learning about the crusades, we started from the beginning at the First Crusade, by watching Jerusalem - The Making of a Holy City, to help us understand why Jerusalem is regarded as sacred to the Abrahamic faiths.

Following that, we wanted to understand more about the causes for the conflicts that led to crusades, so we watched The Crusades: Crescent and the Cross, which provides more food for thought.  The study of history these days very often lead to philosophical discussions such as:

• the actions, motivations, and consequences behind historical events and figures;
• whether and how view points can be informed or misdirected depending on the sources of historical records; and
• the roles of faiths/religions at different times in history.

The following book provides a humours look into the perils of fighting in the First Crusade.

All the reading and learning from documentaries are well and good, but the most exciting part for us was when we stumbled upon an ancient church which claims to be "the oldest wooden church in the world"!  The church is still being used for services on Sundays.

The highlight of discovering this church lies on the outside of the building.  I don't normally get excited over discovering people's tombs, but there was a 12th century crusader's grave there, right outside the front entrance!  How cool is it to have seen one?!

This post is linked up to:

1) Homeschool Mother's Journal: September 28, 2012

2) Collage Friday: Life is Short
3) Favourite Resources: September 28, 2012
4) TGIF Linky Party #49
5) Weekly Wrap-Up: The One with the Really Good Monday

6) History and Geography Meme #43