Cruel Creeds, Virtuous Violence: Religious Violence Across Culture and History - Hardcover

Eller, Jack David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1616142189 ISBN 13: 9781616142186

Publisher: Prometheus, 2010

Synopsis

This illuminating, in-depth studypresents a wealth of case material, demonstrating the many manifestations of religious violence-not just war and terrorism, which are the focus of so many discussions of religiously motivated violence-but also more prevalent forms. The author, an anthropologist, devotes separate chapters to:· sacrifice (both animal and human); · self-mortification (including self-injury, asceticism, and martyrdom); · religious persecution (from anti-Semitic pogroms to witchhunts); · ethno-religious conflict (including such hotspots as Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland, and the former Yugoslavia); · religious wars (from the ancient Hebrews' wars and the Christian Crusades to Islamic jihad and Hindu righteous wars); · and religious homicide and abuse (spousal abuse, genital mutilation, and "dowry death," among other manifestations). In the final chapter, "Religion and Nonviolence," the author examines nonviolent and low-conflict societies and considers various methods of managing conflict. This book goes a long way toward helping us understand the nature of violence generally, its complicated connections with religion, and how society in the future might avoid being blindsided by the worst aspects of human nature.

About this title

About the Author:

Jack David Eller, PhD (Denver, CO), is the author of six other books, including Cultural Anthropology: Global Forces, Local Lives and Introducing Anthropology of Religion: Culture to the Ultimate. He is an assistant professor of anthropology at the Community College of Denver and the film editor for the Anthropology Review Database.

From Publishers Weekly:

Over the centuries, critics of religion have often condemned the world's religions because of the violent acts religions' practitioners have committed against society and against one another. In this unremarkable study of religious violence, anthropologist Eller simply reminds us that religion and violence are not synonymous. After he explores quite perfunctorily six dimensions of violence (instinct, integration into groups, identity, institutions, interests, and ideology), he contends that religion is a social and ideological system that creates a reality in which violence is acceptable, necessary, and even desirable. Drawing on a broad range of examples from the world's religions, Eller examines the violence of many religious practices, ranging from sacrifice and asceticism to war and ethnoreligious conflict. In spite of the persistence of violent acts in and by religions, many religious traditions teach and practice nonviolence, and in his concluding chapter Eller explores the ways in which such traditions present an alternative to religious violence.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Prometheus
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1616142189
• ISBN 13: 9781616142186
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 451