David Nirenberg, “Power and Piety,” The Nation (18 May 2015): 27-32 (original) (raw)

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.

Religion and Violence: The Prime Analogate of the Human

With the brutality of the self-designated Islamic State, the question continues to haunt: Is religion inherently violent? Yes, say the so-called New Atheists: Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett. No, argue Michael Cavanaugh and Karen Armstrong; "the myth of religious violence" is used to cover the violence of secular ideologies. Against the background of the liberal narrative of modern secular modernity and its discontents, the prime analogate of the human, especially as explained by evolutionary biology, is utilized to address the myth and the reality of religion and violence. Wahhabism encapsulates the extremist realities of the question. ABOUT THE AUTHOR M. D. Litonjua is emeritus professor of sociology of the Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, Ohio. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Brown University, an M.B.A. from the University of Missouri at St. Louis, and Licentiates in Philosophy and Theology from the University of Santo Tomas (Manila). A selection of his articles, review essays, and book reviews can be accessed at http://msj.academia.edu/MDLitonjua. . 9/11 ignited the current debate on whether or not religion is inherently prone to divisiveness and violence. The butchery of the self-designated Islamic State has only inflamed passions on both sides of the question. One the one side are the so-called New Atheists -Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett who embrace their reputation as the "Four Horsemen" -vociferously proclaim that religion is inherently destructive and violent; it clings like a bad seed, it is a relic from the past, and it's time is over. On the other hand, Michael Cavanaugh and Karen Armstrong, one a theologian and the other a historian of religion,

“Religion and Violence: From Pawn to Scapegoat”

Points out how religion is power; power will be used by others--even the non-religious; when things go awry, then, religion is then blamed, often by the same ones who have exploited its power. This calls for critical and wary analysis of the rhetorical use of religion as a pawn, followed by its being blamed as a scapegoat. Published in The Destructive Power of Religion; Violence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, edited by J. Harold Ellens (4 volumes, Westport/London: Praeger Publishers, 2004), Vol. 2, 265-83.

Religion and Violence: A Matter of Approach

Islamic Studies for Human Rights and Democracy, 2016

In this paper, we examine the relationship between religion and violence. The idea is that religion, as a collection of texts, is single, but various kinds of actions have been taken under its name. The reason lies in the fact that religion, as a textual entity, is prone to various interpretations. Each of the interpretations indeed, in its turn, embodies a particular approach to the religion. It is in fact the approach and its resulting interpretation that lead to actions on the part of the believers. Some of the approaches to religion may amount to violence and they have indeed amounted to such a phenomenon. We will conclude that the spiritual approach, as compared with the jurisprudential and theological ones, is less likely to give rise to violence.

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.

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.

God religious extremism and violence Rowley

Cambridge University Press, 2024

Why do religious militants think their actions are right or righteous? What keeps me from acting like them? Why do some religious persons act on their beliefs in charitable, inspiring and deeply humane ways? Is secularism the solution to religious violence, or is it part of the problem? This Element explores the vexed issue of violence done in the name of God, looking at the topic through the lens of peace and conflict studies, religious studies and historical studies. The beliefs of various communities, religious and secular, are explored, looking at how convictions inhibit and enable violence. This Element aims to foster a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the promises and perils of religion so that readers can better respond to a world filled with violence.