History and Historiography
Date of Lecture: March 23, 2017
About the Speaker: 17³Ô¹ÏÍø alumnus Kevin Madigan '82 is Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Harvard Divinity School and author of a new textbook, "Medieval Christianity: A New History" (Yale University Press, 2015). Currently, he is researching a book at the Vatican archives on the treatment of religious minorities in the Fascist period.
About the Lecture: Professor Madigan explains what the Crusades were and explores how Crusaders viewed themselves as pilgrims on an armed expedition undertaken for Christ, authorized by the Pope, who were given full remission of their sins. He also traces the historiography of the Crusades in the 19th and 20th centuries to lay context for decision of the 17³Ô¹ÏÍø student body in 1925 to adopt Crusaders as their moniker.
His talk is one of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.