Religion, Intolerance, and Conflict: A Scientific and Conceptual Investigation

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199640912 ISBN 13: 9780199640911

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2013

The relationship between religion, intolerance and conflict has been the subject of intense discussion, particularly in the wake of the events of 9-11 and the ongoing threat of terrorism. This book contains original papers written by some of the world's leading scholars in anthropology, psychology, philosophy, and theology exploring the scientific and conceptual dimensions of religion and human conflict.

Authors investigate the following themes: the role of religion in promoting social cohesion and the conditions under which it will tend to do so; the role of religion in enabling and exacerbating conflict between different social groups and the conditions under which it will tend to do so; and the policy responses that we may be able to develop to ameliorate violent conflict and the limits to compromise between different religions. The book also contains two commentaries that distill, synthesize and critically evaluate key aspects of the individual chapters and central themes that run throughout the volume.

The volume will be of great interest to all readers interested in the phenomenon of religious conflict and to academics across a variety of disciplines, including religious studies, philosophy, psychology, theology, cognitive science, anthropology, politics, international relations, and evolutionary biology.

About the Author:

Steve Clarke is Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University in Australia and Research Fellow, Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Oxford. Russell Powell is Assistant Professor, Department
of Philosophy at Boston University. Julian Savulescu is Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics, Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Oxford.

Review:

"The book is exemplary in that it successfully brings together a variety of diverse intellectual positions regarding a rather difficult and extremely relevant question, namely, whether religion is a force for the promotion of tolerance or intolerance." --The Heythrop Journal