Belief and Bloodshed

Religion and Violence across Time and Tradition

Contributions by Scott Noegel, Sarah Culpepper Stroup, Michael Berger, Charles McDaniel, Paul Stephenson, Jon Pahl, David Atwill Pennsylvania State University, Marianne Kamp, Charles Keyes, Marion Goldman, Joel Black, Bruce Lincoln Edited by James K. Wellman

Publication date:

23 February 2007

Length of book:

280 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Dimensions:

238x161mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780742558236

Intended for students as well as scholars of religion and violence, Belief and Bloodshed discusses how the relationship between religion and violence is not unique to a post-9/11 world—it has existed throughout all of recorded history and culture. The book makes clear the complex interactions between religion, violence, and politics to show that religion as always innocent or always evil is misguided, and that rationalizations by religion for political power and violence are not new. Chronologically organized, the book shows religiously motivated violence across a variety of historical periods and cultures, moving from the ancient to medieval to the modern world, ending with an essay comparing the speeches of an ancient king to the speeches of the current U.S. President.

1 Introduction: Religion and Violence: Past, Present and Future
Part 2 The Ancient and Medieval World
Chapter 2 Dismemberment, Creation, and Ritual: Images of Divine Violence in the Ancient Near East
Chapter 3 Making Memory: Ritual, Rhetoric, and Violence in the Roman Triumph
Chapter 4 Taming the Beast: Rabbinic Pacification of Second Century Jewish Nationalism
Chapter 5 Violent Yearnings for the Kingdom of God: Münster's Militant Anabaptism
Chapter 6 Imperial Christianity and Sacred War in Byzantium
Chapter 7 Founding an Empire of Sacrifice: Innocent Domination and the Quaker Martyrs of Boston, 1659-1661
Part 7 The Modern World
Chapter 8 Holy Culture Wars: Patterns of Ethno-Religious Violence in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century China
Chapter 9 Femicide as Terrorism: The Case of Uzbekistan's Unveiling
Chapter 10 Monks, Guns and Peace: Theravada Buddhism and Political Violence
Chapter 11 Avoiding Mass Violence at Rajneeshpuram
Chapter 12 "Obliterating an Idol of the Modern Age": The New Iconoclasm from the Twin Buddhas to the Twin Towers
Chapter 13 Is War Normal for American Evangelical Religion?
Chapter 14 On Political Theology, Imperial Ambitions, and Messianic Pretensions: Some Ancient and Modern Continuities

This cross-disciplinary group of scholars provides fascinating studies across historical periods and religious traditions - all centered around the crucial theoretical point that religious group identities both promote solidarity and can facilitate violence. An important contribution to a timely and urgent conversation.