Religion and Violence/Nonviolence

"The Birth of Counterjihadist Terrorism: Reflection on Some Unspoken Dimensions of 22 July 2011"

by Egil Asprem

The Pomegranate 13.1 (2011): 17-32

This editorial article, written in the weeks following the 22/7 terrorist attack in Oslo, reflects on aspects of... more This editorial article, written in the weeks following the 22/7 terrorist attack in Oslo, reflects on aspects of religion, esotericism, ideology and violence in the case of Anders Behring Breivik.

“Deceit, Desire, and the Desert: René Girard’s Mimetic Theory in Conversation with Early Christian Monastic Practice.” In Violence, Transformation, and the Sacred. Ed., Margaret R. Pfeil & Tobias L. Winright. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books (2012): 130-143

by Brian Robinette

Pinhas und Anti-Pinhas? Priestertum und Gewalt im 1Makk und 1QM. In: Berlejung, Angelika; Heckl, Raik (Hg.): Ex oriente Lux. Studien zur Theologie des Alten Testaments (Festschrift für Rüdiger Lux zum 65. Geburtstag), ABG 39, Leipzig 2012, 199-224.

by Tobias Funke

Violence, The Fragile Ego and the Peaceful Self

by Max Velmans

This paper is based on an invited lecture on “Violence, the fragile ego, and the peaceful self” given at the National Seminar on Containing Violence: Measures for Resolution hosted by the Center for Ghandian Studies, GITAM University, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India, 28th January, 2011, during the period that I was a National Visiting Professor of the Indian Research Council of Philosophy (Govt. of India).

This paper gives a brief introduction to various categories of violence along with some of their biological,... more This paper gives a brief introduction to various categories of violence along with some of their biological, socio-cultural, psychological and existential causes, for example violent responses to frustrated needs or desires of the kind specified by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The paper goes on to examine some of the basic principles for ameliorating violence. It then considers a special case of violence associated with fundamentalist beliefs, arguing that these can be understood as a form of destructive self-transcendence, that can ultimately only be remedied by the genuine self-actualization and self-transcendence required for a peaceful self.

Violence, Scripture, and Textual Practices in Early Judaism and Christianity

by Alex Jassen

Biblical Interpretation: A Journal of Contemporary Approaches 17:1–2 (2009): 1–11. Reprint pages 1–12 in Violence, Scripture, and Textual Practice in Early Judaism and Christianity. Edited by Ra‘anan S. Boustan, Alex P. Jassen, and Calvin J. Roetzel. Leiden: Brill, 2009.

Violence, Religion and the Use and Abuse of Healthworlds

by James R. Cochrane

Violence In the Service of Order: The Religious Framework for Sanctioned Killing In Ancient Egypt (Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 2011).

by Kerry Muhlestein

Περί Βίας [Of Violence]

by Christos Iliopoulos

The Shrewdness of Abraham

by James Wetzel

Originally given as a lecture at the AAR

A reading of the Akedah, Abraham's binding of Isaac, with reference to Abelard, Kiekegaard, Aquinas, and Girard. A reading of the Akedah, Abraham's binding of Isaac, with reference to Abelard, Kiekegaard, Aquinas, and Girard.

A Horrific Bible Story - and Why I Read It by Dirk von der Horst

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion Project

There are smart, and there are polemical, ways to think about religiously-motivated violence. As someone who spent his... more There are smart, and there are polemical, ways to think about religiously-motivated violence. As someone who spent his seminary years thinking about Christian anti-Semitism, I was taken aback by the simplistic account of religious violence offered by Sam Harris some years back:

“Religion is the one area of our discourse in which people are systematically protected from the demand to give good evidence and valid arguments in defense of their strongly held beliefs. And yet these beliefs regularly determine what they live for, what they will die for and—all too often—what they will kill for. Consequently, we are living in a world in which millions of grown men and women can rationalize the violent sacrifice of their own children by recourse to fairy tales” (The Case Against Faith). In response, I’d like to explore some reasons I continue to engage with violent biblical stories, taking Judges 11:29-40, the story of Jephthah, who sacrifices his daughter in fulfillment of a vow, as an example.

No one has an innocent history

"Not the Jesus I Love: Waco Residents Perception of the Branch Davidian Conflict" by Janet Jensen

by Claremont Journal of Religion

True Blood & True Terror: Religious Violence in HBO's hit series True Blood

by Jeremiah Bowden

Religion, Pluralism, and Conflicts in the Pacific Islands

by Yannick Fer

In A. Murphy (ed.), Blackwell Companion to Religion and Violence, Wiley-Blackwell, London, 2011: 461-472.

Most of Pacific Island societies today enjoy a relatively peaceful religious climate. Nevertheless, the history of... more Most of Pacific Island societies today enjoy a relatively peaceful religious climate. Nevertheless, the history of Christianization in this region was not simply a step from "darkness" into "light" but rather an ambivalent process: the relationships between mission, colonization and local power struggles generated both violent conflicts, a relative pacification of social life under the authority of new Christian chiefs and an eradication of ritual violence. Even today, some tension and uncertainty remain around the role of religion in contemporary sources of conflicts and violence.
This chapter focuses on:
- the challenges raised by the management of religious and ethnic pluralism in the Pacific Island societies;
- the capacity of religious actors to intervene as mediators in the resolution of conflicts, or to become themselves involved in struggles between communities;
- the effectiveness of Pacific Island Christian churches in the reduction of "ordinary" violence, especially familial and gender violence.

Using the Bible to Promote and Impose Terror on Women

by Michele Stopera Freyhauf

Originally published at the Feminism and Religion Project.

Terrorism is a worldwide issue, not specific to one religion. While we attribute the atrocities of 9/11 to Islamic... more Terrorism is a worldwide issue, not specific to one religion. While we attribute the atrocities of 9/11 to Islamic extremists, Christianity has a long history of imposing terror, especially on women. Phyllis Trible’s book Texts of Terror describes texts in the Old Testament that causes harm to women, i.e. abuse, betrayal, torture, rape/gang rape, and mutilation (See Genesis 16, 21; 2 Samuel 13:1-22, Judges 11:29-40, 19:1-30). Texts such as these are used to validate violence against women, because of the fundamental view that the text is divinely revealed or God’s own words.

This phenomenon is not specific to the Old Testament. Writings in the New Testament are used to put women in their place, define their role in church, family, and society. The remedy for disobedience allows for violence to be committed against the offender. The most damning of these texts are derived from the Pastoral Epistles (1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus). Here, women’s place and role in society is defined. Women should be silent, submissive, and subservient to men. Women are to be veiled, dress modestly without adornment, no gold or pearls. Finally women are not permitted to teach and have no authority over men (See 1 Timothy 2:9-15).

Globalisation of Violence: The Death Game of New Imperialism

by barış çoban

“Globalisation of Violence: The Death Game of New Imperialism”. Critique, The Journal of Socialist Theory, Routledge. Vol. 38, 309-320 (2010).

Entrepreneurs of hate and entrepreneurs of solidarity: Social identity as a basis for mass communication

by Rakshi Rath

Definitions and the Domino Effect: Religious Violence, Islamophobia, and Tariq Ramadan

by Emma Sturgeon

Undergraduate Journal of Religious Studies Vol 1, Spring 2011 (2011): 180-193. University of Ottawa, Ottawa ON.

Universal Human Rights and Non-Western Normative Systems: A comparative analysis of violence against women in Mexico and Pakistan

by Silvie Bovarnick

Published in the Review of International Studies. (33): 59-74.

Abstract:

How universally useful are human rights in addressing violence against women? This paper... more Abstract:

How universally useful are human rights in addressing violence against women? This paper addresses this question by looking at the link between gender, ethnicity and human rights to uncover the complexities that underpin current debates about universal justice and multiculturalism. While my discussion of rape in Mexico and Pakistan illustrates significant particularities with respect to how violence against women is constituted in these different cultural contexts, it also shows that culturally specific manifestations of violence against women often share striking similarities in the way that they are allowed to persist, justified and made invisible. As such, they are part of a global mechanism that reproduces gender subordination in a predominantly patriachial world.

The Power of a Lone Terrorist

by Bibhu Prasad Routray

Published in Straits Times (Singapore), 29 July 2011

Power of a lone self radicalized gunman can excel the efforts of an organized terrorist outfit. Norway is an example.... more Power of a lone self radicalized gunman can excel the efforts of an organized terrorist outfit. Norway is an example. This factor needs to be factored into the counter-terror architecture.

Seeking the good (peace) of the republic: The violence against and of difference in defining the public space

by Johann-Albrecht Meylahn

This article will reflect on the role of legitimate and authorised violence in state-making. This violence in the name... more This article will reflect on the role of legitimate and authorised violence in state-making. This violence in the name of the good defines the state (Benjamin’s law-making violence) by the exclusion of others (Benjamin 1996). Law-making violence together with the violence that coerces or binds [religare] the public into a common understanding of the good (Benjamin’s law-maintaining violence) is at the exclusion of other interpretations of the good (Benjamin 1996). As the law-making and law-maintaining violence of the state is always at the expense of the excluded other, the excluded other will produce a counter violence of difference seeking a legitimate place within the common space of the republic (Benjamin’s divine violence). What is the church’s role in such a context of violence? Is the church’s role to help clarify and clearly define the good that will bind [religare] the citizens into a stronger and more prosperous and peaceful state – onward Christian soldiers marching as to war? Or is there another calling, to be disciples of Christ – with the Cross of Jesus going on before – and enter the space of violence beyond the knowledge of good and evil as peacemakers? These questions will be examined by bringing into dialogue Žižek’s (1997) interpretation of Christianity with Derrida’s (2002) interpretation of hospitality, specifically in the violent South African context.