The Just War and Jihad

Violence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

By Hoffmann, R. Joseph

Publishers Summary:
In the long history of the monotheistic tradition, violence - often bloody with warfare - have not just been occasional but defining activities. Since 9/11, sociologists, religious historians, philosophers and anthropologists have examined the question of the roots of religious violence in new ways, and with surprising results. In November 2004, the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion brought together leading theorists at Cornell University to explore the question whether religions are viral forms of a general cultural tendency to violent action. Do religions, and especially the Abrahamic tradition, encourage violence in the imagery of their sacred writings, in their theology, and their tendency to see the world as a cosmos divided between powers of good and forces of evil? Is such violence a historical condition affecting all religious movements, or are some religions more prone to violence than others? The papers collected in this volume represent the independent and considered thinking of internationally known scholars from a variety of disciplines concerning the relationship between religion and violence, with special reference to the theories of 'just war' and 'jihad', technical terms that arise in connection with the theology of early medieval Christianity and early Islam, respectively.

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ISBN
978-1-59102-371-5
Publisher
Prometheus Books


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Library Journal

Reviewed on March 15, 2006

Edited by Hoffman (religion, Wells Coll., NY;Julian's Against the Galileans ), this collection gathers papers from a recent meeting of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion, an organization of religion scholars who tend to approach the study of religions through naturalistic, cultural, sociological, and psychological lenses. The conference statement at the end of the book registers the partic...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

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