Missionary failure was blamed on the obstinacy of the infidels

Evidence

The widespread failure of the missionary movements had become clear by the early fourteenth century, as the fall of Acre and the conversion of the Mongols to Islam made manifest. If the infidels were impervious to the subtle reasoning and clear arguments of the missionaries, the fault must lie with the infidels themselves: the obstinate Jews, lascivious Saracens, and barbarous Mongols, all too obsessed with the literal and carnal to understand the intellectual or the spiritual. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1362 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Ramon Martí, in particular, sought to deploy the tools of logic and scholastic theology to decimate the rival religions and prove the truth of Christianity. Yet the missionary efforts of Martí and his associates had only limited success, and increasingly, Christian theologians, like Dominican Thomas Aquinas, affirmed that it was impossible to prove the truth of Christianity through reason alone. Yet when missionary Riccoldo da Montecroce failed to convert Muslims of Baghdad, he attributed his failure to the irrationality of the Muslims. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1181 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Dominican missionary strategy followed a two-phase destroy-then-expound sequence; Practitioners blame the surrounding cultural ethos for eroding the will to pray; Medieval missionaries who lacked language skills and dispute training failed against educated infidels (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Missionary failure was blamed on the irrationality of the infidels themselves. #corroborates (0.97)
• Failed missions were blamed on infidels’ irrationality #corroborates (0.97) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1362
• Failed missionary efforts produced blame of Muslim irrationality rather than self-criticism #expands (0.95) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1181