DEUS LO VULT
"God Wills IT"
by:James Robert Kessler 2009
Deus Lo Vult, the battle cry inspired by Pope Urban II that began an era of some of the darkest day’s of mankind existence known as the Christian crusades. A time referred to as the Dark Ages when Christian crusaders clashed with Muslim warriors over the most celebrated piece of holy dirt in all the world, the city of Jerusalem.
About a year ago, I came across a painting by an unknown artist in the 1400's. I thought the composition was amazing in its color and its passion in illustrating a battle scene from the Christian crusades. I felt it would be a perfect backdrop for my own painting in tring to capture a very dark period of human history initiated by the Christian crusades that takes the viewer all the way up to the beginning of the Reformation period and Martin Luther.
Thus, the figure I use in the foreground is that of a young Luther taking up his sword on the threshold of his call to ministry. I believe Luther’s own life best represents the time of reform and change right after the ending of the Christian Crusades. His sword also represents reform throughout the ages and one of the principle, barbaric means that man has brought it about usually in the form of violence. All of course, in the name of religion.
I have incorporated images of dragons and fire to further emphasize a renaissance era that has been romanticized in modern times. Romanticized to the point that it’s evil religious inspired deeds’ has been mostly lost or forgotten to many. Forgotten and thus doomed to relive again and again until mankind learns to remember his mistakes.
Modern Day Crusaders and Ground Zero
The long shadows of the Crusades are still very much in the news today. Former President Bush once made the mistake of referring to the war against terrorism as a "crusade" and was roundly criticized. It seems uttering this word is still both offensive and hurtful to the world’s Muslims. Yet considering how often the Arabs make use of the word themselves it would seem some of our Middle Eastern friends should take refuge from the hot desert sun.
Osama bin Laden, the world’s most wanted and elusive fugitive for the past eight years, has repeatedly referred to Americans as "crusaders" and the present war as a "crusade against Islam." For decades now Americans have been routinely referred to as "crusaders" or "cowboys" among Arabs in the Middle East. Clearly the crusades are very much alive in the Muslim world as they are in the Christian world. The only difference today is CNN, MSNBC Fox News and every news origination on the planet will be on scene to record the horrendous bloodletting of Abrahams prodigies.
It is commonly accepted that the Crusades is a black mark on the history of Western civilization generally and the Catholic Church in particular. Anyone eager to bash Catholics and is familiar with history will ultimately connect the dots leading to the Crusades and the Inquisition. The Crusades are often used as a classic example of the evil that organized religion can perpetrate on the uneducated flock under the guise of Gods sanctioned approval.
The perceptions of the average man on the street in New York and Tehran would agree that the Crusades were an insidious, cynical, and unprovoked attack by religious zealots against a peaceful, prosperous, and sophisticated Muslim world. The truth is what the Muslim’s world use to celebrate as a great victory has been overshadowed by the re-writing of that same history that fears modern day imperialism. So the Crusades have become wars of aggression and the Muslims have quietly assumed the role of victim and victor.
During the Middle Ages you could not find a Christian in Europe who did not believe that the Crusades were an act or a commission from God of the highest standard of justice. Given their own sense of honor the Muslims respected the ideals of the Crusades and the piety of the men who fought them. But that all changed with the coming of the Protestant Reformation. For Martin Luther, who had already jettisoned the Christian doctrines of papal authority and indulgences, the Crusades was nothing more than a ploy by a power-hungry papacy.
What began as a sermon by Pope Urban II in 1095 and echoed in his cry of "God wills it" gradually became swallowed up by Reformation era and Luther. Even Martin Luther’s own motivation was driven by that same understanding that God was directing his path and that justified his action and deed done in the all mighty’s name.
The spirit and ghosts of the Crusades are alive and well this very day and hour. Civilization may have advanced by leaps and bounds but the raw mentality of religious right and wrong’s based upon man-made systems have lived on in different names and new faces. History will continually repeat itself by that same old principle of would you be willing to kill for the god you serve if we can’t learn from her lessons.
"God Wills It" isn’t a battle cry no man can claim. Especially if we base our faith on the message of a Galilean voice that proclaimed ,"I am the way, the truth and the life." He was life and the truth did abide in him because his God message wasn’t framed by a system but by a principle. Jesus’ message was framed by example and it proclaimed that our human existence does have meaning and purpose and always involves others in applying the golden rule.
The true Christian golden rule of God’s justice found in the grace, mercy and the love we extent to our fellow man.
God Will’s It!
James Robert Kessler
Because of Him Art Ministry 2009
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