Religion and Violence by Lewis, James; Bogdan, Henrik;

Short description:

This four volume set represents the most extensive guide available to past and current research on religion and violence from ancient times to the present. The contents are highly interdisciplinary, drawing together landmark work from the fields of history, sociology, anthropology, political science and religious studies. Primary sources, including excerpts from sacred texts, classical theological statements, and graphic illustrations, supplement the scholarly articles, providing readers with a range of sources to draw upon in their own teaching and research.

Conflict between Muslims and Jews in the Middle East, Catholics and Protestants in Ireland, religious nationalism in Africa or fundamentalism in South Asia, the language of Jihad from one corner, the language of crusade from another, the din of explosions in nightclubs, marketplaces, and abortion clinics: everyday, the news media offers a new report illustrating the vital link between religion and violence. Although religiously-motivated violence is widely acknowledged, it is poorly understood. As globalization continues both to inspire crises of faith, and to broadcast the bloody consequences of these crises, the need for a comprehensive reference work such as this seems more urgent now than ever before.

Long description:

Because the cultural conception of ‘religion’ makes a rough equation between ‘being religious’ and ‘being good, moral, and decent’, the violent aspects of religion tend to be seen as either aberrant and isolated incidents in our own tradition, or the sine qua non of someone else's belief. We avoid the dark side of faith because it challenges our very notions of what religion is ‘supposed’ to be. However, the connection between religion and violence is not unique to other people’s religions, nor is it confined to the present time period. In many ways, violence lies at the very heart of religion.

This four-volume set represents the most extensive guide available to past and current research on religion and violence from ancient times to the present (though with an emphasis on the contemporary period). Contents have been selected bearing in mind certain criteria: solid scholarship, range of empirical subject matter and theoretical perspectives, and range of influential and relatively unknown articles. Primary sources, including excerpts from sacred texts, and classical theological statements supplement the scholarly articles, providing readers with a range of sources to draw upon in their own research.

The volumes form an essential reference source, to be used by students and academics from a variety of different disciplines (sociology, religious studies, anthropology). Religion and Violence is fully indexed and includes a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor.