Llull argued crusade failure itself proved God rejected the military method

Evidence

So many knights and noble princes had gone to the land beyond the sea, O Lord, to conquer it, that if this manner would have pleased You, surely they would have wrested it from the Saracens who hold it against our will. This indicates, O Lord, to the holy monks that You hope every day that they do out of love for You what You did out of love for them; and they can be sure and certain that should they throw themselves into martyrdom out of love for You, You shall hear them out in all they want to accomplish in this world in order to give praise to You. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1298

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: A fascinating and modern-sounding empirical argument from divine design: the negative outcome of a strategy is itself revelation that the strategy contradicts God’s will — a theodicy of defeat that recycles failure into confirmation.
• SEED: Essay angle: ‘Llull’s argument from crusade failure as a prototype of empirical theodicy’ — how medieval Christians read historical defeat as God’s own critique of their methods.