Brian A. Victoria - Holy War: Toward a Holistic Understanding
Brian A. Victoria - Holy War: Toward a Holistic Understanding
Send not to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.
Send not to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.
John Donne
Is religion a force
for peace or war? Or to borrow a phrase from the title of Christopher Hitchen’s
recent book, God Is Not Great, does religion really poison everything, including
the possibility of living in a peaceful world? The answer is much
like posing the question of whether the glass is half full or half empty. That
is to say, for every example cited to prove that religion has supported warfare
and violence, other examples can be presented to show ways in which religion
has contributed to not only peace and the avoidance of war but to the
betterment of humanity and the world. When the question is posed in this way,
the debate is as endless as it is futile unless the “winner” is the side that
amasses the greatest number of examples.
There is, however, a
more fruitful way to address the question, at least for those who, like me,
recognize that all of the world’s major religions have, at one time or another,
engaged in “holy war,” or more accurately, condoned the organized use of
violence against perceived enemies. The question then becomes one of seeking to
understand the various factors at work in the world’s major faiths that have
led them to condone, justify, or at least tolerate the use of violence. And
equally, if not more, important is the question of whether there may be some
underlying commonalities in the world’s major faiths that, transcending
differences in doctrine and praxis, result in the sacralization of violence, at
least under certain circumstances.
Let me stress that the
search for such factors or commonalities is not done with the intent of denying
the many positive contributions the world’s major religions have made to peace
and human well-being. Yet, it is also true that these positive contributions are
not the problem that is of so much concern to contemporary society, one
reflection of which is the creation of the very journal this article appears
in. In other words, it is not the bright side of religion that gives cause for
concern but its dark side... read more:
Brian Victoria; Zen
as a Cult of Death in the Wartime Writings of D.T. Suzuki
Vladimir Tikhonov, South Korea’s Christian
Military Chaplaincy - religion as
ideology?
Brian Victoria, Buddhism and Disasters: From
World War II to Fukushima
Brian Victoria, Karma, War and Inequality in
Twentieth Century Japan
