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A review essay on a book by William Cavanaugh, The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).

The presence of religious violence in the Sikh community in India is studied to clarify the connection between religion & violence. The conventional explanations for Sikh violence -- political, economic, & social factors -- are discussed & ultimately rejected. An analysis of the speeches of militant Sikh Jamail Singh Bhindranwale is performed, demonstrating the theme of ultimate struggle against other ethnic groups & the Indian state. The extent of violent imagery in the Christian & Sikh religious traditions is noted; attention is directed to the domesticization of violent imagery in the Sikh religious tradition. It is asserted that religious movements portray their conflicts as ultimate, cosmic struggles to provide religious justification for their violent activities. Factors that have resulted in various religions' use of violence include the claim that cosmic struggles are actual historical events & remain present in the contemporary world & that such violence has cosmic & divine meanings for individuals who perform violent acts. J. W. Parker

The presence of religious violence in the Sikh community in India is studied to clarify the connection between religion & violence. The conventional explanations for Sikh violence -- political, economic, & social factors -- are discussed & ultimately rejected. An analysis of the speeches of militant Sikh Jamail Singh Bhindranwale is performed, demonstrating the theme of ultimate struggle against other ethnic groups & the Indian state. The extent of violent imagery in the Christian & Sikh religious traditions is noted; attention is directed to the domesticization of violent imagery in the Sikh religious tradition. It is asserted that religious movements portray their conflicts as ultimate, cosmic struggles to provide religious justification for their violent activities. Factors that have resulted in various religions' use of violence include the claim that cosmic struggles are actual historical events & remain present in the contemporary world & that such violence has cosmic & divine meanings for individuals who perform violent acts. J. W. Parker

Confronting Religious Violence begins with the premise that violence committed in God's name is always an act of desecration. A range of contributors come together to consider how a re-reading of the hallowed texts of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam might mitigate the militancy whereby group identity can lead to deadly conflict.

"Twelve international experts from a variety of theological, philosophical, and scientific fields address the issue of religious violence in today's world"--Jacket

Religion and violence are both ambiguous categories but in the cultural mosaic that pits human against human, religion is a reoccurring justifier. There is no religion exempt from this tendency toward violence. Further, based on Milgram and Zimbardo's experiments with students who were convinced that it was necessary to inflict torture on subjects for the greater good, it is apparent that ordinary people may commit heinous acts, given a sense of overarching emergency. Examples of religiously justified atrocities and violent rhetoric are summarized in this essay. In each case there is the mindset that violence is justified due to an extraordinary set of circumstances which require the suspension of behavioral norms.

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