Religion and Terrorism: The Use of Violence in Abrahamic Monotheism

(Paperback)

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Description

Religion and Terrorism: The Use of Violence in Abrahamic Monotheism provides theoretical analysis of the nature of religious terrorism and religious martyrdom and also delves deeply into terrorist groups and beliefs in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Religious terrorism is found in all three of the great monotheistic faiths, and while the public is most aware of Islamic terrorism, Jewish and Christian faiths have extremist groups that warp their teaching in ways unrecognizable to most adherents to support terrorism. This work will be of interest to scholars in religious studies, political science, and sociology.

Reviews

The urgent necessity of understanding exactly how contemporary terrorism is motivated by monotheism is the focus of this important collection. The topic requires conceptual clarification, doctrinal precision and historical attention to the interplay between doctrine and political and cultural circumstances. These essays, taken individually and as a whole, get the mix of these tasks just right, and the result is an important and readable contribution to the discussion. Required reading-not only for policy makers dealing with security concerns, but also for all the religiously serious descendants of Abraham. -- Joseph Boyle, St. Michael's College
This is a fine collection of essays that takes seriously the religious beliefs that percolate beneath the purveyors of global terrorism. But it does so with a level of sophistication, careful scholarship, and respectful analysis that is rarely found among scholars and activists who often write and opine on this subject. -- Francis J. Beckwith, Baylor University

Author Bio

Veronica Ward is associate professor of political science at Utah State University. Richard Sherlock is professor of philosophy at Utah State University.