Written by top practitioner-scholars who bring a critical yet empathetic eye to the topic, this textbook provides a comprehensive look at peace and violence in seven world religions. Offers a clear and systematic narrative with coverage of Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Native American religions Introduces a different religion and its sacred texts in each chapter; discusses ideas of peace, war, nonviolence, and permissible violence; recounts historical responses to violence; and highlights individuals within the tradition working toward peace and justice Examines concepts within their religious context for a better understanding of the values, motivations, and ethics involved Includes student-friendly pedagogical features, such as enriching end-of-chapter critiques by practitioners of other traditions, definitions of key terms, discussion questions, and further reading sections

Product Description: Robinson uses sociological principles to examine the impact of community religiosity on county lethal violence rates. Testing both an integrated model and disaggregated models of lethal violence he finds evidence that religious homogeneity is a better predictor of lethal violence than either the rates of religious participation or the prevalence of religious institutions within a county...read more

How are justifications for religious violence developed and do they differ from secular justifications for violence? Can liberal societies tolerate potentially violent religious groups? Can those who accept religious justifications for violence be dissuaded from acting violently? Including six in-depth contemporary case studies, The Justification of Religious Violence is the first book to examine the logical structure of justifications of religious violence. The first book specifically devoted to examining the logical structure of justifications of religious violence Seeks to understand how justifications for religious violence are developed and how or if they differ from ordinary secular justifications of violence Examines 3 widely employed premises used in religious justifications of violence – ‘cosmic war’, the importance of the afterlife, and ‘sacred values’ Considers to what extent liberal democratic societies should tolerate who hold that their religion justifies violent acts Reflects on the possibility of effective policy measures to persuade those who believe that violent action is justified by religion, to refrain from acting violently Informed by recent work in psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience and evolutionary biology Part of the Blackwell Public Philosophy Series

Product Description: Dynamics of Political Violence examines how violence emerges and develops from episodes of contentious politics. By considering a wide range of empirical cases, such as anarchist movements, ethno-nationalist and left-wing militancy in Europe, contemporary Islamist violence, and insurgencies in South Africa and Latin America, this pathbreaking volume of research identifies the forces that shape radicalization and violent escalation...read more

Product Description: Nine years of violent conflict between Christians and Muslims in Poso from 1998-2007 elevated a previously little known district in eastern Indonesia to national and global prominence. Drawing on a decade of research, for the most part conducted while the conflict was ongoing, this book provides the first comprehensive history of this violence...read more

Product Description: This unsettling book reviews specific instances of 'holy war' as proposed in the holy books of the major faith traditions, and illustrates how bellicose, war-like language is used to explain the spiritual quest. The author proposes that this intermingling of war and spirituality prepares the population for the coming of war...read more

Product Description: Violence has been a central feature of America’s history, culture, and place in the world. It has taken many forms: from state-sponsored uses of force such as war or law enforcement, to revolution, secession, terrorism and other actions with important political and cultural implications...read more

Product Description: Confronted with the uncertainties of living in a modern liberal society, many are tempted toward moral paralysis: a hesitation to judge or act on those judgments. Reinhold Niebuhr’s paradoxical conception of the self allows for a deeper interpretation of this plight and, in this insightful book, Daniel Malotky shows that Niebuhr’s work holds out a potential solution to it: a framework for a measure of moral certainty without ideological blindness...read more

Product Description: As a manifestation of asymmetrical violence coming from the bottom up, terrorism in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries is qualitatively different from terrorism in earlier times. Against a backdrop of globalization, the spread of new forms of mass communication, and the threat of uncontrolled proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the problem of extremism and terrorism acquires a totally new meaning, becoming an important factor not only in the foreign and domestic policy of most countries, but also in the everyday lives of billions of people all over the world...read more