Violence And Religion

The eleven authors we read over the duration of this course left me less than satisfied in my understanding of the relationship between religion and violence (a sentiment I would guess is shared by a majority of our class). I could not locate the source of my discontent. We have been offered numerous models, a variety of solutions, and a definition or two. Yet, I find my thoughts on the relationship between religion and violence more muddled than ever. Surely there is an explanation: a flaw in the way our authors have been approaching religion and violence that has affected the theories they presented and can account for their lack of a cohesive explanation. Therefore, I decided to use my final essay to explore the theories presented in our reading list and attempt to resolve my frustration.
I began by listing the basic information needed to reach a satisfactory …show more content…
• Is religion (intrinsically) violent?
Having established a framework for understanding the relationship between religion and violence, I reexamined the books and our corresponding comment papers. I recorded the principal theory of each book, the definitions provided, and whether the author proposed a solution to religious violence. Additionally, I noted whether he commented on the purpose of religion, whether religion was inherently violent, or his perception of the relationship between religion and culture.
As I anticipated, several authors did not complete the framework. After having identified what each author missed, I questioned why he failed to address the basic principles I outlined. This is where deeper questions like why are we unable to agree on or even create a satisfactory definition of religion come into play. Several of the authors (Lincoln, Assad, Cavanaugh, Beck) comment on why defining and understanding the connection between religion and violence is so difficult- I evaluated their comments and used them to further my own