The Origins of Religious Violence: An Asian Perspective

(Paperback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Religiously motivated violence caused by the fusion of state and religion occurred in medieval Tibet and Bhutan and later in imperial Japan, but interfaith conflict also followed colonial incursions in India, Sri Lanka, and Burma. Before that time, there was a general premodern harmony among the resident religions of the latter countries, and only in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries did religiously motivated violence break out. While conflict caused by Hindu fundamentalists has been serious and widespread, a combination of medieval Tibetan Buddhists and modern Sri Lankan, Japanese, and Burmese Buddhists has caused the most violence among the Asian religions. However, the Chinese Taiping Christians have the world record for the number of religious killings by one single sect. A theoretical investigation reveals that specific aspects of the Abrahamic religionsan insistence on the purity of revelation, a deity who intervenes in history, but one who still is primarily transcendentmay be primary causes of religious conflict. Only one factora mystical monism not favored in Judaism, Christianity, and Islamwas the basis of a distinctively Japanese Buddhist call for individuals to identify totally with the emperor and to wage war on behalf of a divine ruler. The Origins of Religious Violence: An Asian Perspective uses a methodological heuristic of premodern, modern, and constructive postmodern forms of thought to analyze causes and offer solutions to religious violence.

Reviews

Thoroughly researched and meticulously argued, The Origins of Religious Violence makes a powerful case that Asian religious traditionsalthough historically less conducive to violence than their Western counterpartshave their own histories of complicity in warfare and oppression. Nicholas F. Gier provides a compelling and insightful philosophical analysis of why violence occurs in the name of religion, despite the centrality of nonviolence to so many of the worlds religious traditions. This book should quickly become indispensable to college courses and to any serious conversation or reflection on religion and violence. -- Jeffery D. Long
This is an extremely timely, relevant, if not actually prophetic book as we continue to struggle with the roots and realities of religious violence, religious intolerance, and religious terrorism in our own contemporary world. -- Jeffrey J. Kripal, Rice University

Author Bio

Nicholas F. Gier is professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Idaho.