Violence and the World's Religious Traditions: An Introduction

ISBN-13: 9780190649654 / Angielski / Twarda / 2016 / 256 str.

Mark Juergensmeyer; Margo Kitts; Michael Jerryson

Opis

Is religion inherently predisposed to violence? Or has religion been taken hostage by a politics of aggression? The years since the end of the Cold War have shown a noticeable shift in patterns of religious extremism, accentuating the uncomfortable, complex, and oft-misunderstood relationship between religion and violence. The essays in this succinct new volume examine that relationship by offering a well-rounded look at violence as it appears in the world's most prominent religious traditions, exploring Hindu, Buddhist, Chinese, Sikh, Jewish, Christian, Islamic, African, and Pacific Island texts and practices.

The essays in Violence and the World's Religious Traditions explore the ways in which specific religions have justified acts of destruction, in history, in scripture, and in the contemporary world. But the collection also offers an investigation of religious symbols and practices, shedding new light on the very nature of religion and confronting the question of how deeply intertwined are violence and faith.

Recenzje

All of the essays are thought-provoking as they address texts and scriptural traditions, symbols and metaphors, and manifestations of actual violence... There is food for thought in these readings for scholars already familiar with the broad strokes of theories of religion and violence, as well as those knowledgeable in the world's religious traditions.

O autorze

Mark Juergensmeyer is Professor of Sociology and Global Studies, and Director of the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Margo Kitts is Professor of Humanities and Religious Studies and Coordinator of Religious Studies and East-West Classical Studies at Hawai'i Pacific University in Honolulu. Michael Jerryson is Professor of Religious Studies at Youngstown State University.