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Author: Kenneth R. Chase
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1725219794
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 256
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Book Description
The Crusades. The Conquest of the Americas. U.S. Slavery. The Jewish Holocaust. Mention of these events evokes a variety of responses from Christians, including guilt, defensiveness, and bewilderment. Given such a tangled historical relationship to aggression and injustice, how can Christians answer those who argue that our faith is inherently violent, or that Christian doctrines inevitably lead to sacrifice, conquest, and war? In Must Christianity Be Violent? editors Kenneth R. Chase and Alan Jacobs have gathered pointed essays that provide specific responses to these arguments. Divided into "histories," "practices," and "theologies," the essays explore the historical causation of Christian violence and discuss practices that promote what one contributor calls "just peacemaking." The contributors explore the history of Christian violence and advocate the need for an uncompromised biblical theology in our search for peace. This timely collection will appeal to readers of Christian history, ethics, and theology, and those who want to better understand the specifically Christian response to violence and cultivation of peace.
Author: Lloyd Steffen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108848826
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 147
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Book Description
How Christian people have framed the meaning of violence within their faith tradition has been a complex process subject to all manner of historical, cultural, political, ethnic and theological contingencies. As a tradition encompassing widely divergent beliefs and perspectives, Christianity has, over two millennia, adapted to changing cultural and historical circumstances. To grasp the complexity of this tradition and its involvement with violence requires attention to specific elements explored in this Element: the scriptural and institutional sources for violence; the faith commitments and practices that join communities and sanction both resistance to and authorization for violence; and select historical developments that altered the power wielded by Christianity in society, culture and politics. Relevant issues in social psychology and the moral action guides addressing violence affirmed in Christian communities provide a deeper explanation for the motivations that have led to the diverse interpretations of violence avowed in the Christian tradition.
Author: Michael Gaddis
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520241045
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 415
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Book Description
Focusing on the 4th and 5th centuries, Michael Gaddis explores how various groups employed the language of religious violence to construct their own identities, to undermine the legitimacy of their rivals, & to advance themselves in the competitive & high stakes process of Christianizing the Roman Empire.
Author: Paul R. Powers
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000097641
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 411
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Book Description
Does religion cause much of the world’s violence? Is religion inherently violent? Would violence disappear if religion did? Is true religion a force for peace? Is religion a mask for power and self-interest? What aspects of religion make violence more—or less—likely? Religion and Violence: A Religious Studies Approach explores the potential of classic social theories to shed light on the relationships between religion and violence. This accessible and engaging book starts from the premise that both religion and violence are ordinary elements of social life and that rather than causing violence religion plays a crucial role in the management of violence. Ideal for any student approaching the topic of religion and violence for the first time, this core textbook includes chapter overviews and summaries, guides for applying theory to real-world events, discussion questions, and case studies. Further teaching and learning resources are available on the accompanying companion website.
Author: Kenneth R. Chase
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1725219794
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Get Book
Book Description
The Crusades. The Conquest of the Americas. U.S. Slavery. The Jewish Holocaust. Mention of these events evokes a variety of responses from Christians, including guilt, defensiveness, and bewilderment. Given such a tangled historical relationship to aggression and injustice, how can Christians answer those who argue that our faith is inherently violent, or that Christian doctrines inevitably lead to sacrifice, conquest, and war? In Must Christianity Be Violent? editors Kenneth R. Chase and Alan Jacobs have gathered pointed essays that provide specific responses to these arguments. Divided into "histories," "practices," and "theologies," the essays explore the historical causation of Christian violence and discuss practices that promote what one contributor calls "just peacemaking." The contributors explore the history of Christian violence and advocate the need for an uncompromised biblical theology in our search for peace. This timely collection will appeal to readers of Christian history, ethics, and theology, and those who want to better understand the specifically Christian response to violence and cultivation of peace.
Author: Chad M. Bauman
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501751433
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 317
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Book Description
Does religion cause violent conflict, asks Chad M. Bauman, and if so, does it cause conflict more than other social identities? Through an extended history of Christian-Hindu relations, with particular attention to the 2007–2008 riots in Kandhamal, Odisha, Anti-Christian Violence in India examines religious violence and how it pertains to broader aspects of humanity. Is "religious" conflict sui generis, or is it merely one species of intergroup conflict? Why and how might violence become an attractive option for religious actors? What explains the increase in religious violence over the last twenty to thirty years? Integrating theories of anti-Christian violence focused on politics, economics, and proselytization, Anti-Christian Violence in India additionally weaves in recent theory about globalization and, in particular, the forms of resistance against Western secular modernity that globalization periodically helps to provoke. With such theories in mind, Bauman explores the nature of anti-Christian violence in India, contending that resistance to secular modernities is, in fact, an important but often overlooked reason behind Hindu attacks on Christians. Intensifying the widespread Hindu tendency to think of religion in ethnic rather than universal terms, the ideology of Hindutva, or "Hinduness," explicitly rejects both the secular privatization of religion and the separability of religions from the communities that incubate them. And so, with provocative and original analysis, Bauman questions whether anti-Christian violence in contemporary India is really about religion, in the narrowest sense, or rather a manifestation of broader concerns among some Hindus about the Western sociopolitical order with which they associate global Christianity.
Author: Albert Geljon
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004274901
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 260
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Book Description
The ambivalence of ancient Christianity toward violence is investigated in ten studies, ranging from the persecution of Christians to Christian oppression of Jews, heretics and pagans, and the application of Jesus’ teaching to love one’s enemies.
Author: Jonathan Simon Christopher Riley-Smith
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300101287
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 387
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Book Description
"Pulls off the enviable feat of summing up seven centuries of religious warfare in a crisp 309 pages of text."--Dennis Drabelle, Washington Post Book World In this authoritative work, Jonathan Riley-Smith provides the definitive account of the Crusades: an account of the theology of violence behind the Crusades, the major Crusades, the experience of crusading, and the crusaders themselves. With a wealth of fascinating detail, Riley-Smith brings to life these stirring expeditions to the Holy Land and the politics and personalities behind them. This new edition includes revisions throughout as well as a new Preface and Afterword in which Jonathan Riley-Smith surveys recent developments in the field and examines responses to the Crusades in different periods, from the Romantics to the Islamic world today. From reviews of the first edition: "Everything is here: the crusades to the Holy Land, and against the Albigensians, the Moors, the pagans in Eastern Europe, the Turks, and the enemies of the popes. Riley-Smith writes a beautiful, lucid prose, . . . [and his book] is packed with facts and action."--Choice "A concise, clearly written synthesis . . . by one of the leading historians of the crusading movement. "--Robert S. Gottfried, Historian "A lively and flowing narrative [with] an enormous cast of characters that is not a mere catalog but a history. . . . A remarkable achievement."--Thomas E. Morrissey, Church History "Superb."--Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Speculum "A first-rate one-volume survey of the Crusading movement from 1074 . . . to 1798."--Southwest Catholic
Author: J. Harold Ellens
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN: 0275997081
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Select chapters from the controversial 4-volume set examining the influence of sacred texts shaping human nature, society, politics and military strategy across the last 3,000 years.
Author: Hector Avalos
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615921958
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 444
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Book Description
Is religion inherently violent? If not, what provokes violence in the name of religion? Do we mischaracterize religion by focusing too much on its violent side?In this intriguing, original study of religious violence, Prof. Hector Avalos offers a new theory for the role of religion in violent conflicts. Starting with the premise that most violence is the result of real or perceived scare resources, Avalos persuasively argues that religion creates new scarcities on the basis of unverifiable or illusory criteria. Through a careful analysis of the fundamental texts of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism, Dr. Avalos explains how four scarce resources have figured repeatedly in creating religious violence: sacred space (e.g., the perception by three world religions that Jerusalem is sacred); the creation of holy scriptures (believed to be privileged revelations of God's will); group privilege (stemming from such beliefs as a chosen people or predestination, which also creates a group of outsiders); and salvation (by which concept some are accepted and others rejected). Thus, Avalos shows, religious violence is often the most unnecessary violence of all since the scarce resources over which religious conflicts ensue are not actually scare or need not be scarce.Comparing violence in religious and nonreligious contexts, Avalos makes the compelling argument that if we condemn violence caused by scarce resources as morally objectionable, then we must consider even more objectionable violence provoked by alleged scarcities that cannot be proven to exist. He also examines the Nazi Holocaust and the Stalinist Terror, which have been attributed to the pernicious effects of atheism or secular humanism. By contrast, Avalos pinpoints underlying religious factors as the cause of these horrific instances of genocidal violence.This serious philosophical examination of the roots of religious violence adds much to our understanding of a perennial source of widespread human suffering.Hector Avalos (Ames, IA) is associate professor of Religious Studies at Iowa State University, the author of five books on biblical studies and religion, the former editor of the Journal for the Critical Study of Religion, and executive director of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion.
Author: Peter J. King
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781533547743
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 122
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Book Description
Although the two highest commandments in Christianity are to love God and "love your neighbor as yourself," some institutions and individuals have acted violently and attempted to justify themselves through Christian writings. The relationship between Christianity and violence is a subject of controversy because some have used or interpreted its teachings to justify violence, while others maintain that it only promotes peace, love, and compassion. Heitman and Hagan identify the Inquisition, Crusades, Wars of Religion and antisemitism as being "among the most notorious examples of Christian violence." To this list, J. Denny Weaver adds, "warrior popes, support for capital punishment, corporal punishment under the guise of 'spare the rod and spoil the child, ' justifications of slavery, world-wide colonialism in the name of conversion to Christianity, the systemic violence of women subjected to men." Christian violence includes "forms of systemic violence such as poverty, racism, and sexism." Miroslav Volf says that Christianity is intrinsically nonviolent, but has suffered from a "confusion of loyalties." He proposes that "rather than the character of the Christian faith itself, a better explanation of why Christian churches are either impotent in the face of violent conflicts or actively participate in them derives from the proclivities of its adherents which are at odds with the character of the Christian faith." He states that "(although) explicitly giving ultimate allegiance to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, many Christians in fact seem to have an overriding commitment to their respective cultures and ethnic groups." This book discusses the history of violence in Christianity.
