Religion and Violence

Religion these days is in bad odor in some quarters. Specifically, it is often alleged to foster violence. Is this so? No, it isn’t. But religion is often one part oƒ cultural mixes from which violence arises. To understand, then, the relationship, if any, between religion and violence, we must untangle these mixes. This course will do so especially for two cases in which some find it to be self-evidently true that religion fosters violence: the Crusades, and current and recent violence enacted by people of Islamic descent.

Recommended Reading:

Karen Armstrong, Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence, ISBN 978-0385353106.

Steve Piker is an anthropologist by career, most spent at Swarthmore College, and has offered courses at four of Maine’s senior colleges. Religion has been a career-long teaching and research interest.

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