Religion and Violence: A Matter of Approach (original) (raw)
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Religion and violence: an ambivalent relationship
Conjectura: Filosofia e Educação. Revista da Universidade de Caxias do Sul. Brasil, 2021
In this paper, we sustain the thesis that there is a violent aspect in the religious attitude. However, it is also true - as paradoxical as it might sound - that religion has been the privileged field to limit all kinds of violence in human societies.
Contemporary Perspectives on Religion and Violence
This essay offers a bibliographic overview of the controversial subject of religion and violence. It begins by summarizing a few contemporary approaches to the study of religion, then summarizes some approaches to violence, and concludes with a glance at a handful of popular theories which address the link. The summaries are sprinkled with references for further study.
The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence
2013
Violence has always played a part in the religious imagination, from symbols and myths to legendary battles, from colossal wars to the theater of terrorism. The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence surveys intersections between religion and violence throughout history and around the world. The forty original essays in this volume include overviews of major religious traditions, showing how violence is justified within the literary and theological foundations of the tradition, how it is used symbolically and in ritual practice, and how social acts of violence and warfare have been justified by religious ideas. The essays also examine patterns and themes relating to religious violence, such as sacrifice and martyrdom, which are explored in cross-disciplinary or regional analyses; and offer major analytic approaches, from literary to social scientific studies. The contributors to this volume--innovative thinkers who are forging new directions in theory and analysis related to religion and violence--provide novel insights into this important field of studies. By mapping out the whole field of religion and violence, The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence will prove an authoritative source for students and scholars for years to come.
Religion, Morality, and Violence
The main problem I want to address here is related to a kind of prosaic paradox, which everybody knows: on one side religions are a way of explaining the genesis of violence – for example in terms of spiritual evasion, like in the case of Kierkegaard’s vision – and a way of escaping it but, at the same time, insofar as religions are carriers of moral views (and take part in their “secular” construction) they constitute a great part of those collective axiologies I illustrated in chapter four, which are possible triggers of punishment. Moral axiological systems are inclined to be the condition of possibility of conflicts that can lead to violent outcomes. Currently we are clearly faced with the so-called “reenchantment of the world”, which consists in a revival of the centrality of religion in politics and media, and consequently religion appears to be at the center of a great part of people’s worries and concerns worldwide. This reenchantment has also been magnified by Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. This obviously coincides with the rise of new conflicts and violence, both at the in-group (fanaticism, racism, xenophobia) and out-group levels (violent terrorist attacks and the consequent “preventive wars”). It seems that morality, more than spirituality, plays the main role in individual and group religiosity, providing stable forms of identity and axiological well-defined systems. The link between violence and the sacred has also been masterfully depicted by Girard in his well-known books: Girard clearly shows that, when dealing with the sacred, we cannot distinguish between proto-religions (for example in the case of primitives or ancient people) and the great monotheistic religions. Both share similar structures of the sacred, even if various differences, for example in the ways of perpetration of the derived sacrifices, must be acknowledged.
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies
Abrahamic faith-based religions are always regarded as peaceful. The question to ask is as follows: how do its followers use violent text in order to justify their action? This article analyses how extremists within these faiths abuse the text and use violence as a means of forcing non-believers into their faith. They claim that God often sanctions their actions of violence.
An Appraisal that Religion on its Own Does Not Breed Violence
Journal of Business and Econometrics Studies, 2024
It will be rare to have a discussion on human existence without mentioning violence; but it will be unfair to see religion as the main reason for violence. Although, religion has an input in violence, but religion in isolation can't breed violence without the input of some other factors which are further explain in this article. This article adopted qualitative method and secondary data. The secondary data was collected through website, publications, journals and textbooks. The data collected through secondary data reveals that religion on its own does not breed violence but it is a component of violence that can be aided by poverty, inequality, bad governance among other factors.
Religious Violence: Fact or Fiction?
The Journal of Human Rights, 2019
The main question of this article is this. Does religion itself play a role in political violence? After clarifying the meaning of relevant terms such as religion, religious violence, secular violence, voluntary action and political violence, I will examine two arguments that can be formulated in favour of the claim that religion itself is the unique cause of the so-called religious type of political violence, concluding that both of these arguments are subject to criticism and neither is successful in supporting that claim. Then I will suggest my own explanation of the real cause and origin of political violence in general and its proper solution. I will also conclude that the well-known distinction between religious and secular violence is not tenable.
'Religion, Hermeneutics and Violence: An Introduction'
Transformation, 2017
This introductory article orients the reader to the topic of this volume – the religious hermeneutics of violence – and situates the individual articles within the wider discussion of the role of religion in acts of violence. Summarising the state of modern scholarship on key debates concerning religion and violence, this article encourages the careful study of how individuals or groups in peculiar historical circumstances interact with their sacred texts and beliefs in a way that facilitates violence or oppression. Though the relationship between sacred texts and violence is complicated, few subjects so demand our attention and require our careful thought.