Product Description: Violence has been a central feature of America's history, culture, and place in the world. It has taken many forms: from state-sponsored uses of force such as war or law enforcement, to revolution, secession, terrorism and other actions with important political and cultural implications...read more

Product Description: This Handbook breaks new ground by addressing global security through the lens of religion and the role religion plays in both war and peace. There has been a considerable upsurge of public concern about the role of religion in contemporary violence...read more

Product Description: Confronted with the uncertainties of living in a modern liberal society, many are tempted toward moral paralysis: a hesitation to judge or act on those judgments. Reinhold Niebuhr’s paradoxical conception of the self allows for a deeper interpretation of this plight and, in this insightful book, Daniel Malotky shows that Niebuhr’s work holds out a potential solution to it: a framework for a measure of moral certainty without ideological blindness...read more

Product Description: This groundbreaking anthology provides the most comprehensive overview for understanding the fascinating relationship between religion and violence--historically, culturally, and in the contemporary world. Bringing together writings from scholarly and religious traditions, it is the first volume to unite primary sources--justifications for violence from religious texts, theologians, and activists--with invaluable essays by authoritative scholars...read more

Religion is one of the most powerful forces running through human history, and although often presented as a force for good, its impact is frequently violent and divisive. This provocative work brings together cutting-edge research from both evolutionary and cognitive psychology to help readers understand the psychological structure of religious morality and the origins of religious violence. Introduces a fundamentally new approach to the analysis of religion in a style accessible to the general reader Applies insights from evolutionary and cognitive psychology to both Judaism and Christianity, and their texts, to help understand the origins of religious violence Argues that religious violence is grounded in the moral psychology of religion Illustrates its controversial argument with reference to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the response to the attacks from both the terrorists and the President. Suggests strategies for beginning to counter the divisive aspects of religionDiscusses the role of religion and religious criticism in the contemporary world. Argues for a position sceptical of the moral authority of religion, while also critiquing the excesses of the “new atheists” for failing to appreciate the moral contributions of religionAwarded Honourable Mention, 2010 Prose Awards

Product Description: The relationship between new religious movements (NRMs) and violence has long been a topic of intense public interest--an interest heavily fueled by multiple incidents of mass violence involving certain groups. Some of these incidents have made international headlines...read more

Product Description: The authors of religious scriptures have rarely had difficulty enhancing sacred narratives with the rhetoric of violence. The phenomenon continues in the easy cohabitation of violence and religion in film, music and literature, and this raises a number of important questions, such as: To what degree does violent rhetoric shape belief and values? How might we understand the social function of violence in popular discourses? How might we understand audience empathy with violent protagonists in popular narratives? What is the significance of violence being associated with particular religious groups or ideas in the media? This collection of essays arose from an international conference investigating those questions...read more

Product Description: Because the cultural conception of ‘religion’ makes a rough equation between ‘being religious’ and ‘being good, moral, and decent’, the violent aspects of religion tend to be seen as either aberrant and isolated incidents in our own tradition, or the sine qua non of someone else's belief...read more

An in-depth study based on the author's interviews with extremists from the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religions identifies the components of terrorist organizations and the characteristics of their leaders, describing how they recruit followers to form sophisticated organizations capable of terrorist acts. Reprint. 30,000 first printing.