Violence and the world's religious traditions : an introduction

252 Pages·2017·0.849 MB·English

by  Jerryson, Michael K., Juergensmeyer, Mark, Kitts, Margo

Violence and the World’s
Religious Traditions

Violence and the
World’s Religious
Traditions
An Introduction
z
Edited by
MaRk JueRgensMeyeR,
MaRgo kiTTs, and
Michael JeRRyson
1
1
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© Oxford University Press 2017
The essays in this volume were originally published in The Oxford Handbook of
Religion and Violence (2013).
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Juergensmeyer, Mark. editor. | Kitts, Margo, date. editor. |
Jerryson, Michael K., editor.
Title: Violence and the world’s religious traditions : an introduction /
edited by Mark Juergensmeyer, Margo Kitts, and Michael Jerryson.
Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2017. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016033664 (print) | LCCN 2016035675 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780190649661 (paperback) | ISBN 9780190649654 (cloth) |
ISBN 9780190649678 (updf) | ISBN 9780190649685 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Violence—Religious aspects. | BISAC: RELIGION / Comparative
Religion. | RELIGION / Religion, Politics & State. | SOCIAL SCIENCE /
Violence in Society.
Classification: LCC BL65.V55 .V57 2017 (print) | LCC BL65.V55 (ebook) |
DDC 201/.76332—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016033664
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Paperback printed by WebCom, Inc., Canada
Hardback printed by Bridgeport National Bindery, Inc., United States of America
Contents
Introduction 1
The Enduring Relationship of Religion and Violence
Mark JuergensMeyer, Margo kitts, and Michael Jerryson
1. Violence and Nonviolence at the Heart of Hindu Ethics 7
Veena das
2. Buddhist Traditions and Violence 37
Michael Jerryson
3. Sikh Traditions and Violence 70
cynthia keppley MahMood
4. Religion and Violence in the Jewish Traditions 83
ron e. hassner and gideon aran
5. Religion and Violence in Christian Traditions 109
lloyd steffen
6. Muslim Engagement with Injustice and Violence 140
Bruce B. lawrence
7. African Traditional Religion and Violence 173
nathalie wlodarczyk
8. Religion and Violence in Pacific Island Societies 189
andrew strathern and paMela J. stewart
vi Contents
9. Violence in Chinese Religious Traditions 209
Meir shahar
Contributors 227
Index 231
Violence and the World’s
Religious Traditions

Introduction
the enduring relationship
of religion and violence
Mark Juergensmeyer, Margo Kitts, and Michael Jerryson
the dark attraction between religion and violence is endemic to
religious traditions. It pervades their images and practices, from sacred
swords to mythic conquests, from acts of sacrifice to holy wars. Though
much has been written about particular forms of violence related to reli-
gion, such as sacrificial rites and militant martyrdom, there have been few
efforts to survey the phenomena in all of the world’s major religious tradi-
tions, historically and in the present, viewing the subject from personal as
well as social dimensions, and covering both literary themes and political
conflicts.
This compact one-volume collection of essays provides such an over-
view. Each of the essays explores the ways in which violence is justified in
the literary and theological foundation of the tradition, how it is used sym-
bolically and in ritual practice, and how social acts of vengeance and war-
fare have been justified by religious ideas. The essays show how acts of
destruction in the name of God or the gods of religion have been rooted in
historical and literary contexts from early times to the present.
Contemporary acts of violence related to religion are profuse. Since the
end of the Cold War, violence in the name of religion has erupted on
nearly every continent, and many of its perpetrators have claimed divine
justification for their actions. Although no longer novel, such violence and
the adulation of its prophets continue to confound scholars, journalists,
policy-makers, and members of the general public. Some of them have
argued that these forms of violence are not really religious—they are
symptomatic of something else and thus constitute an anomaly, a perver-
sion of foundational religious teachings. Yet it is precisely the foundational