AKC 6 General Spring Term 2007 Religion in the Contemporary World: Social Scientific

AKC 6 General – Spring Term 2007 – Religion in the contemporary world: social scientific perspectives 19/02/07

AKC 6 – 19 FEBRUARY 2007

ARE THERE VIOLENT RELIGIONS?

DR MARAT SHTERIN, DEPARTMENT OF THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES

The current perception of the growing climate of religious violence has provoked a variety of questions about the relationship between religion and violence.

Is violence in the nature of religion?
Are some religions or religious traditions more prone to encouraging or justifying violence than the others?
What sort of political developments and state policies are likely to provoke religious violence?
Why and how can individuals be attracted to groups advocating religious violence and/or persuaded to commit acts of violence, such as suicide or homicide?
Can social scientific studies of religiously motivated violence suggest some policy recommendations for diminishing the likelihood of religious violence?

This lecture attempts to address these questions drawing on social scientific research rather than speculations and sweeping generalisations.

I. Violence in Religious Traditions

There is little evidence to suggest that some religious traditions are inherently more violent or peaceful than others. Moreover, from a social scientific viewpoint, attempts to find explanations through reference to ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’ interpretations of religious traditions are unlikely to bring us much closer to understanding of instances of religiously motivated violence. Such instances and theological references can be found in the histories of all major religious traditions. Perhaps it is more revealing to look into particular types of interpretations of religious traditions by groups and their leaders, and, broader, into relationships of these groups with politics and society.

Also, it is worth considering the following:

- there are around 2500 various religions and religious movements in the world, only few of them ever have recourse to violence

- much of the violence has been committed in the name of secular ideologies (Nazism, Communism)

- secular states have on numerous occasions been involved in violence against religion

- our picture of religious violence in the contemporary world is seriously affected by the disproportionate mass media attention to this phenomenon

I would like to stress that none of the explanations of religiously motivated violence offered in this lecture should be seen as an exercise in its justification.

II. Millenarian beliefs and violence

It is an empirical fact that many episodes of religiously motivated violence have been linked to millenarian beliefs, i.e. belief in the imminent end of the world, different interpretations of which can be found within the major religious traditions, such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. These beliefs characteristically involve:

–Theological dualism: terrestrial vs. supernatural (divine)

–Concept of a divine plan for history: ultimate defeat of evil

–Revelation(s) about signs of the imminent end of the world

–Images of Destruction, Judgment, creation of a new heaven and a new Earth

–Imminent world transformation, anticipation of a perfect world order, collective salvation

Also, millenarian groups (e.g. Branch Davidians, People’s Temple, arguably Al-Qaeda), are often marked by

–sharp boundaries that they envision between US/THEM; saved/doomed

–“end time” morality

–the ethos of “something has to be done” about the world of evil

However, most millenarian groups never have recourse to violence (most early Christians, Shia Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc).

III. Fundamentalism and Violence

Some versions of religious fundamentalism do contain strong justifications and even encouragement of violence as they frame their grievances in terms of :

•a picture of divine battles between Good and Evil “here-and-now”

•“cosmic war” in which political enemy is seen as demon, for which divine reward is expected for earthly sacrifice, killing is perceived as a symbolic statement and ultimately justified, and which is a kind of war that cannot be lost by those on the God’s side, even if they lose their lives, as they are part of the divine plan or will

However, we have to be careful and avoid sweeping judgments that all fundamentalists are alike and necessarily engage in violence.

IV. What are the social dimensions of religiously motivated violence?

This section offers analysis of cases involving religiously motivated violence (People’s Temple, Branch Davidians, and, briefly, Al-Qaeda) and puts forward the following considerations:

•Some religious groups may start with or develop properties that are conducive to violence, in particular unstable charismatic leadership, sense of persecution, physical (geographical) or socio-psychological isolation

•Some politically motivated religious groups may see violence as a justifiable, indeed necessary, means to ‘do God’s will’. However, their motivation can be further encouraged and made to look plausible in the eyes of the adherents by secular states adopting rhetoric of warfare, in particular with religious imagery

•The sense of persecution leading to violence can be further enhanced by negative and unjustifiable media and political campaigns against religious groups, as opposed to balanced criticism and monitoring of their activities

The overall conclusion offered for this lecture is that while having in mind certain identifiable patterns of religiously motivated violence, we should see its instances as outcomes of complex social interactions and study them on a case-by-case basis.