The Role of Warfare in Religion Throughout history, the attitudes that Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam have had towards war have changed, and have affected each religion 's development throughout history. The study of warfare in the context of religion is important, because the ability of the three largest religions to survive to the modern day is only partly due to their religious messages. Rather, in times of conflict, religious warfare protected the foundations and peoples of each religion, while also allowing for immense growth and expansion occurred. As a result, teachings about conflict are abundant and can be found within the holy books of Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism alike. Even if these religions denounce war and violence in
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In Jesus ' teachings, peaceful means were always preferred over those including violence, and his followers were taught that the only path towards salvation was the one through peaceful resistance. This concept was expanded on by other early Christian writers such as Tertullian: "only without the sword can the Christian wage war: for the Lord has abolished the sword." and Clement of Alexandria "he who holds the sword must cast it away and that if one of the faithful becomes a soldier he must be rejected by the Church, for he has scorned God." around 200AD . Even though this notion of pacifism appeared to be the right way at the time, it would not stand the test of time as Christian doctrine evolved. In comparison, the belief found within early Hindu scriptures is that of a "Just war", the belief that violence is unnecessary and subservient to peace in most situations, but may be used as a final resort when needed: "May your weapons be strong to drive away …show more content…
In this period, great Muslim leaders such as Salah Al-Din (Saladin) motivated large Muslim armies using scripture, and lead a series of successful counter-attacks into the Holy Land. One example of an important battle occurred in Hattin, where a decisive Muslim victory paved the way for the reconquest of the Holy Land. However, even though the two participants in this conflict appeared to be opposing each other completely; there are still similar aspects to each of their ideas. Both sides believed that it was their God-given duty to defend their faith by fighting against the enemy, and all fighters were promised an opportunity to redeem themselves from sin if they dedicated themselves to this cause. For example, the Qu 'ran allows for physical Jihad to remove any barriers to Islamic Da 'wah (proselytization), while the Bible permits killing in terms of warfare, which can be seen when God commands King Saul to destroy Amalek, the enemy of the Israelites as seen in 1 Samuel, Verse 15. For Hinduism, the middle ages can be seen as a continuation of the earlier stages of development, but with many large scale conflicts occurring as Muslim forces attacked from both Asia and Persia. In this era, the main Hindu focus was on protecting their territory from the rapidly expanding Muslim populations; seeing as it is the dharma of the second highest caste, the Kshatiyas to do so. However, even though there was a focus on protecting
In Jesus ' teachings, peaceful means were always preferred over those including violence, and his followers were taught that the only path towards salvation was the one through peaceful resistance. This concept was expanded on by other early Christian writers such as Tertullian: "only without the sword can the Christian wage war: for the Lord has abolished the sword." and Clement of Alexandria "he who holds the sword must cast it away and that if one of the faithful becomes a soldier he must be rejected by the Church, for he has scorned God." around 200AD . Even though this notion of pacifism appeared to be the right way at the time, it would not stand the test of time as Christian doctrine evolved. In comparison, the belief found within early Hindu scriptures is that of a "Just war", the belief that violence is unnecessary and subservient to peace in most situations, but may be used as a final resort when needed: "May your weapons be strong to drive away …show more content…
In this period, great Muslim leaders such as Salah Al-Din (Saladin) motivated large Muslim armies using scripture, and lead a series of successful counter-attacks into the Holy Land. One example of an important battle occurred in Hattin, where a decisive Muslim victory paved the way for the reconquest of the Holy Land. However, even though the two participants in this conflict appeared to be opposing each other completely; there are still similar aspects to each of their ideas. Both sides believed that it was their God-given duty to defend their faith by fighting against the enemy, and all fighters were promised an opportunity to redeem themselves from sin if they dedicated themselves to this cause. For example, the Qu 'ran allows for physical Jihad to remove any barriers to Islamic Da 'wah (proselytization), while the Bible permits killing in terms of warfare, which can be seen when God commands King Saul to destroy Amalek, the enemy of the Israelites as seen in 1 Samuel, Verse 15. For Hinduism, the middle ages can be seen as a continuation of the earlier stages of development, but with many large scale conflicts occurring as Muslim forces attacked from both Asia and Persia. In this era, the main Hindu focus was on protecting their territory from the rapidly expanding Muslim populations; seeing as it is the dharma of the second highest caste, the Kshatiyas to do so. However, even though there was a focus on protecting