The Myth of Religious Violence

The Myth of Religious Violence
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Total Pages : 296
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780199736645
ISBN-13 : 0199736642
Rating : 4/5 (45 Downloads)

Book Synopsis The Myth of Religious Violence by : William T Cavanaugh

Download or read book The Myth of Religious Violence written by William T Cavanaugh and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-09-03 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The idea that religion has a dangerous tendency to promote violence is part of the conventional wisdom of Western societies, and it underlies many of our institutions and policies, from limits on the public role of religion to efforts to promote liberal democracy in the Middle East. William T. Cavanaugh challenges this conventional wisdom by examining how the twin categories of religion and the secular are constructed. A growing body of scholarly work explores how the category 'religion' has been constructed in the modern West and in colonial contexts according to specific configurations of political power. Cavanaugh draws on this scholarship to examine how timeless and transcultural categories of 'religion and 'the secular' are used in arguments that religion causes violence. He argues three points: 1) There is no transhistorical and transcultural essence of religion. What counts as religious or secular in any given context is a function of political configurations of power; 2) Such a transhistorical and transcultural concept of religion as non-rational and prone to violence is one of the foundational legitimating myths of Western society; 3) This myth can be and is used to legitimate neo-colonial violence against non-Western others, particularly the Muslim world.


The Myth of Religious Violence Related Books

The Myth of Religious Violence
Language: en
Pages: 296
Authors: William T Cavanaugh
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2009-09-03 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The idea that religion has a dangerous tendency to promote violence is part of the conventional wisdom of Western societies, and it underlies many of our instit
Religion and Mental Health
Language: en
Pages: 412
Authors:
Categories: Mental health
Type: BOOK - Published: 1980 - Publisher:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The World's Religions in Figures
Language: en
Pages: 340
Authors: Todd M. Johnson
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2013-03-25 - Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Created by two of the field’s leading experts, this unique introduction to international religious demography outlines the challenges in interpreting data on
Mediating Religion
Language: en
Pages: 430
Authors: Jolyon P. Mitchell
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2003-06-01 - Publisher: A&C Black

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This is the first book to bring together many aspects of the interplay between religion, media and culture from around the world in a single comprehensive study
Living with Religious Diversity
Language: en
Pages: 232
Authors: Sonia Sikka
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2015-08-11 - Publisher: Routledge

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Looking beyond exclusively state-oriented solutions to the management of religious diversity, this book explores ways of fostering respectful, non-violent and w