Religious Violence in the Ancient World

Religious Violence in the Ancient World PDF Author: Jitse H. F. Dijkstra
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108849210
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 447

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Book Description
Much like our world today, Late Antiquity (fourth-seventh centuries CE) is often seen as a period rife with religious violence, not least because the literary sources are full of stories of Christians attacking temples, statues and 'pagans'. However, using insights from Religious Studies, recent studies have demonstrated that the Late Antique sources disguise a much more intricate reality. The present volume builds on this recent cutting-edge scholarship on religious violence in Late Antiquity in order to come to more nuanced judgments about the nature of the violence. At the same time, the focus on Late Antiquity has taken away from the fact that the phenomenon was no less prevalent in the earlier Graeco-Roman world. This book is therefore the first to bring together scholars with expertise ranging from classical Athens to Late Antiquity to examine the phenomenon in all its complexity and diversity throughout Antiquity.

Religious Violence in the Ancient World

Religious Violence in the Ancient World PDF Author: Jitse H. F. Dijkstra
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108849210
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 447

Get Book

Book Description
Much like our world today, Late Antiquity (fourth-seventh centuries CE) is often seen as a period rife with religious violence, not least because the literary sources are full of stories of Christians attacking temples, statues and 'pagans'. However, using insights from Religious Studies, recent studies have demonstrated that the Late Antique sources disguise a much more intricate reality. The present volume builds on this recent cutting-edge scholarship on religious violence in Late Antiquity in order to come to more nuanced judgments about the nature of the violence. At the same time, the focus on Late Antiquity has taken away from the fact that the phenomenon was no less prevalent in the earlier Graeco-Roman world. This book is therefore the first to bring together scholars with expertise ranging from classical Athens to Late Antiquity to examine the phenomenon in all its complexity and diversity throughout Antiquity.

Violence in Ancient Christianity

Violence in Ancient Christianity PDF Author: Albert Geljon
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004274901
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
The ambivalence of ancient Christianity toward violence is investigated in ten studies, ranging from the persecution of Christians to Christian oppression of Jews, heretics and pagans, and the application of Jesus’ teaching to love one’s enemies.

Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity

Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity PDF Author: Thomas Sizgorich
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812207440
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
In Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity, Thomas Sizgorich seeks to understand why and how violent expressions of religious devotion became central to the self-understandings of both Christian and Muslim communities between the fourth and ninth centuries. Sizgorich argues that the cultivation of violent martyrdom as a path to holiness was in no way particular to Islam; rather, it emerged from a matrix put into place by the Christians of late antiquity. Paying close attention to the role of memory and narrative in the formation of individual and communal selves, Sizgorich identifies a common pool of late ancient narrative forms upon which both Christian and Muslim communities drew. In the process of recollecting the past, Sizgorich explains, Christian and Muslim communities alike elaborated iterations of Christianity or Islam that demanded of each believer a willingness to endure or inflict violence on God's behalf and thereby created militant local pieties that claimed to represent the one "real" Christianity or the only "pure" form of Islam. These militant communities used a shared system of signs, symbols, and stories, stories in which the faithful manifested their purity in conflict with the imperial powers of the world.

There Is No Crime for Those Who Have Christ

There Is No Crime for Those Who Have Christ PDF Author: Michael Gaddis
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520241045
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 415

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Book Description
Focusing on the 4th and 5th centuries, Michael Gaddis explores how various groups employed the language of religious violence to construct their own identities, to undermine the legitimacy of their rivals, & to advance themselves in the competitive & high stakes process of Christianizing the Roman Empire.

Reconceiving Religious Conflict

Reconceiving Religious Conflict PDF Author: Wendy Mayer
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315387646
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
Reconceiving Religious Conflict deconstructs instances of religious conflict within the formative centuries of Christianity, the first six centuries CE. It explores the theoretical foundations of religious conflict; the dynamics of religious conflict within the context of persecution and martyrdom; the social and moral intersections that undergird the phenomenon of religious conflict; and the relationship between religious conflict and religious identity. It is unique in that it does not solely focus on religious violence as it is physically manifested, but on religious conflict (and tolerance), looking too at dynamics of religious discourse and practice that often precede and accompany overt religious violence.

Religious Violence in the Ancient World

Religious Violence in the Ancient World PDF Author: Jitse H. F. Dijkstra
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108494900
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 447

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Book Description
A comparative examination and interpretation of religious violence in the Graeco-Roman world and Late Antiquity.

Princeton Readings in Religion and Violence

Princeton Readings in Religion and Violence PDF Author: Mark Juergensmeyer
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400839947
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
An anthology that examines the historical and contemporary relationship between religion and violence This groundbreaking anthology provides the most comprehensive overview for understanding the fascinating relationship between religion and violence—historically, culturally, and in the contemporary world. Bringing together writings from scholarly and religious traditions, it is the first volume to unite primary sources—justifications for violence from religious texts, theologians, and activists—with invaluable essays by authoritative scholars. The first half of the collection includes original source materials justifying violence from various religious perspectives: Hindu, Chinese, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist. Showing that religious violence is found in every tradition, these sources include ancient texts and scriptures along with thoughtful essays from theologians wrestling with such issues as military protection and pacifism. The collection also includes the writings of modern-day activists involved in suicide bombings, attacks on abortion clinics, and nerve gas assaults. The book's second half features well-known thinkers reflecting on why religion and violence are so intimately related and includes excerpts from early social theorists such as Durkheim, Marx, and Freud, as well as contemporary thinkers who view the issue of religious violence from literary, anthropological, postcolonial, and feminist perspectives. The editors' brief introductions to each essay provide important historical and conceptual contexts and relate the readings to one another. The diversity of selections and their accessible length make this volume ideal for both students and general readers.

The Destructive Power of Religion

The Destructive Power of Religion PDF Author: J. Harold Ellens
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN: 0275997081
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Select chapters from the controversial 4-volume set examining the influence of sacred texts shaping human nature, society, politics and military strategy across the last 3,000 years.

Between Eden and Armageddon : The Future of World Religions, Violence, and Peacemaking

Between Eden and Armageddon : The Future of World Religions, Violence, and Peacemaking PDF Author: Diplomacy Marc Gopin James H. Laue Professor and Director of the Center on Religion, and Conflict Resolution George Mason University
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 019803069X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
Recent years have seen a meteoric rise in the power and importance of organized religion in many parts of the world. At the same time, there has been a significant increase in violence perpetrated in the name of religion. While much has been written on the relationship between violence and religious militancy, history shows that religious people have also played a critical role in peacemaking within numerous cultures. In the new century, will religion bring upon further catastrophes? Or will it provide human civilization with methods of care, healing, and the creation of peaceful and just societies? In this groundbreaking book, Marc Gopin integrates the study of religion with the study of conflict resolution. He argues that religion can play a critical role in constructing a global community of shared moral commitments and vision--a community that can limit conflict to its nonviolent, constructive variety. If we examine religious myths and moral traditions, Gopin argues, we can understand why and when religious people come to violence, and why and when they become staunch peacemakers. He shows that it is the conservative expression of most religious traditions that presents the largest challenge in terms of peace and conflict. Gopin considers ways to construct traditional paradigms that are committed to peacemaking on a deep level and offers such a paradigm for the case of Judaism. Throughout, Gopin emphasizes that developing the potential of the world's religions for coping with conflict demands a conscious process on the part of peacemakers and theologians. His innovative and carefully argued study also offers a broad set of recommendations for policy planners both inside and outside of government.

Terror in the Mind of God

Terror in the Mind of God PDF Author: Mark Juergensmeyer
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520930614
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Completely revised and updated, this new edition of Terror in the Mind of God incorporates the events of September 11, 2001 into Mark Juergensmeyer's landmark study of religious terrorism. Juergensmeyer explores the 1993 World Trade Center explosion, Hamas suicide bombings, the Tokyo subway nerve gas attack, and the killing of abortion clinic doctors in the United States. His personal interviews with 1993 World Trade Center bomber Mahmud Abouhalima, Christian Right activist Mike Bray, Hamas leaders Sheik Yassin and Abdul Azis Rantisi, and Sikh political leader Simranjit Singh Mann, among others, take us into the mindset of those who perpetrate and support violence in the name of religion.