Download or read book Jainism written by Kurt Titze and published by Motilal Banarsidass Publ.. This book was released on 1998 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kurt Titze invites the reader, after acquainting him or her with the main tenets of the world`s classical religion of non-violence, to join him on a fascinating pilgrimage. The past glories of India have been and still are a favourite subject in books and films. In this book with its 350 illustrations spread over 280 pages, Kurt titze enfolds a sequence of glories which have been kept alive to the present-day. The aim of this book is to entice the reader to ask his way to spots and sites that are not mentioned in tourist guide books. To the Digambara Meru temple in Old Delhi, for example, or to the Veerayatan Ashram on the outskirts of Rajgir run by Jaina nuns, or to the rock-cut twenty-four Tirthankaras near Gingee in Tamilnadu. That an increasing number of people who pick up this book may do so instead of climbing the ramparts of yet another fort or of gazing at yet another collection of horrifying weapons.

Download or read book Fighting Words written by Hector Avalos and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is religion inherently violent? If not, what provokes violence in the name of religion? Do we mischaracterize religion by focusing too much on its violent side?In this intriguing, original study of religious violence, Prof. Hector Avalos offers a new theory for the role of religion in violent conflicts. Starting with the premise that most violence is the result of real or perceived scare resources, Avalos persuasively argues that religion creates new scarcities on the basis of unverifiable or illusory criteria. Through a careful analysis of the fundamental texts of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism, Dr. Avalos explains how four scarce resources have figured repeatedly in creating religious violence: sacred space (e.g., the perception by three world religions that Jerusalem is sacred); the creation of holy scriptures (believed to be privileged revelations of God's will); group privilege (stemming from such beliefs as a chosen people or predestination, which also creates a group of outsiders); and salvation (by which concept some are accepted and others rejected). Thus, Avalos shows, religious violence is often the most unnecessary violence of all since the scarce resources over which religious conflicts ensue are not actually scare or need not be scarce.Comparing violence in religious and nonreligious contexts, Avalos makes the compelling argument that if we condemn violence caused by scarce resources as morally objectionable, then we must consider even more objectionable violence provoked by alleged scarcities that cannot be proven to exist. He also examines the Nazi Holocaust and the Stalinist Terror, which have been attributed to the pernicious effects of atheism or secular humanism. By contrast, Avalos pinpoints underlying religious factors as the cause of these horrific instances of genocidal violence.This serious philosophical examination of the roots of religious violence adds much to our understanding of a perennial source of widespread human suffering.Hector Avalos (Ames, IA) is associate professor of Religious Studies at Iowa State University, the author of five books on biblical studies and religion, the former editor of the Journal for the Critical Study of Religion, and executive director of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion.

Download or read book Violence and Non violence Across Time written by Sudhir Chandra and published by Routledge Chapman & Hall. This book was released on 2020-01-14 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book probes the complex interweaving, across time and cultures, of violence and non-violence from the perspective of the present. One of the first of its kind, it offers a comprehensive examination of the interpenetration of violence and non-violence as much in human nature as in human institutions with reference to different continents, cultures and religions over centuries. It points to the present paradox that even as violence of unprecedented lethality threatens the very survival of humankind, non-violence increasingly appears as an unlikely feasible alternative. The essays presented here cover a wide cultural-temporal spectrum - from Vedic sacrifice, early Jewish-Christian polemics, the Crusades, and medieval Japan to contemporary times. They explore aspects of the violence-non-violence dialectic in a coherent frame of analysis across themes such as war, jihad, death, salvation, religious and philosophical traditions including Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, mysticism, monism, and Neoplatonism, texts such as Ramayana, Mahabharata and Quran, as well as issues faced by Dalits and ethical imperatives for clinical trials, among others. Offering thematic width and analytical depth to the treatment of the subject, the contributors bring their disciplinary expertise and cultural insights, ranging from the historical to sociological, theological, philosophical and metaphysical, as well as their sensitive erudition to deepening an understanding of a grave issue. The book will be useful to scholars and researchers of history, peace and conflict studies, political science, political thought and cultural studies, as well as those working on issues of violence and non-violence.

Download or read book Religion without Violence written by Peter Ochs and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2019-11-18 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1992, Peter Ochs and a few Christian and Muslim colleagues began to gather small groups, in and outside the classroom, to practice close and attentive reading of the sacred Scriptures of the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian traditions. The hope was that members of different religions could hear one another through the patient, respectful reading of each other’s Scripture. Hearing each other, participants might enter into interreligious relationships that might point a way to the peaceful engagement of religions—especially those who, after September 11, 2001, too often found themselves at each other’s throats. It was a hope for religion without violence. Nearly thirty years later, this practice of study-across-difference has seeded an international movement, now named Scriptural Reasoning. The movement nurtures cooperative study among students, scholars, and congregants devoted to distinctly different religious and value traditions. In Religion without Violence, Ochs reflects on the practical and philosophic lessons he has learned from hosting hundreds of Scriptural Reasoning engagements. He introduces the “scriptural pragmatism” of Scriptural Reasoning.” He painstakingly recounts instances of successful scriptural reasoning and warns where and how it might fail. He provides guidance on how to introduce and facilitate Scriptural Reasoning in the classroom. He shows how reading out of the “hearth” of a faith can contribute to peace building across religions. And, drawing on the resources of rabbinic tradition, Augustine, and Charles Peirce, he moves beyond practice to reflect on the implications of Scriptural Reasoning for discerning what kinds of “reasoning” best address and help repair societal crises like religion-related violent conflict.

Download or read book How Violence Shapes Religion written by Ziya Meral and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-23 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion and violence are intrinsic to the human story. By tracing their roots in human experience, Meral reveals that it is violence that shapes religion.

Download or read book Religion and Violence in Western Traditions written by André Gagné and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-09-16 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the connection between religion and violence in the Western traditions of the three Abrahamic faiths, from ancient to modern times. It addresses a gap in the scholarly debate on the nature of religious violence by bringing scholars that specialize in pre-modern religions and scriptural traditions into the same sphere of discussion as those specializing in contemporary manifestations of religious violence. Moving beyond the question of the “authenticity” of religious violence, this book brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines. Contributors explore the central role that religious texts have played in encouraging, as well as confronting, violence. The interdisciplinary conversation that takes place challenges assumptions that religious violence is a modern problem that can be fully understood without reference to religious scriptures, beliefs, or history. Each chapter focuses its analysis on a particular case study from a distinct historical period. Taken as a whole, these chapters attest to the persistent relationship between religion and violence that links the ancient and contemporary worlds. This is a dynamic collection of explorations into how religion and violence intersect. As such, it will be a key resource for any scholar of Religious Studies, Theology and Religion and Violence, as well as Christian, Jewish, and Islamic Studies.

Download or read book Non violence in the World Religions written by Hagen Berndt and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents portraits of practitioners of non-violence in the world religions, as well as an examination of the issues of concern. Part one contains brief biographies of prominent and lesser known figures -- from Desmond Tutu to Thich Nhat Hanh -- who have been instrumental in advocating non-violence in religion. Part two examines issues like war and peace, reconciliation, and social justice. The book speaks powerfully both to religious and non-religious people.

Download or read book Violence and Non Violence across Time written by Sudhir Chandra and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2018-10-03 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book probes the complex interweaving, across time and cultures, of violence and non-violence from the perspective of the present. One of the first of its kind, it offers a comprehensive examination of the interpenetration of violence and non-violence as much in human nature as in human institutions with reference to different continents, cultures and religions over centuries. It points to the present paradox that even as violence of unprecedented lethality threatens the very survival of humankind, non-violence increasingly appears as an unlikely feasible alternative. The essays presented here cover a wide cultural–temporal spectrum — from Vedic sacrifice, early Jewish–Christian polemics, the Crusades, and medieval Japan to contemporary times. They explore aspects of the violence–non-violence dialectic in a coherent frame of analysis across themes such as war, jihad, death, salvation, religious and philosophical traditions including Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, mysticism, monism, and Neoplatonism, texts such as Ramayana, Mahabharata and Quran, as well as issues faced by Dalits and ethical imperatives for clinical trials, among others. Offering thematic width and analytical depth to the treatment of the subject, the contributors bring their disciplinary expertise and cultural insights, ranging from the historical to sociological, theological, philosophical and metaphysical, as well as their sensitive erudition to deepening an understanding of a grave issue. The book will be useful to scholars and researchers of history, peace and conflict studies, political science, political thought and cultural studies, as well as those working on issues of violence and non-violence.

Download or read book Faith and Violence written by Thomas Merton and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 1968-10-15 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Faith and Violence, Thomas Merton offers concrete and pungent social criticisms grounded in prophetic faith about such issues as Vietnam, racism, violence, and war.

Download or read book Not in God s Name written by Jonathan Sacks and published by Schocken. This book was released on 2015-10-13 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ***2015 National Jewish Book Award Winner*** In this powerful and timely book, one of the most admired and authoritative religious leaders of our time tackles the phenomenon of religious extremism and violence committed in the name of God. If religion is perceived as being part of the problem, Rabbi Sacks argues, then it must also form part of the solution. When religion becomes a zero-sum conceit—that is, my religion is the only right path to God, therefore your religion is by definition wrong—and individuals are motivated by what Rabbi Sacks calls “altruistic evil,” violence between peoples of different beliefs appears to be the only natural outcome. But through an exploration of the roots of violence and its relationship to religion, and employing groundbreaking biblical analysis and interpretation, Rabbi Sacks shows that religiously inspired violence has as its source misreadings of biblical texts at the heart of all three Abrahamic faiths. By looking anew at the book of Genesis, with its foundational stories of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Rabbi Sacks offers a radical rereading of many of the Bible’s seminal stories of sibling rivalry: Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, Rachel and Leah. “Abraham himself,” writes Rabbi Sacks, “sought to be a blessing to others regardless of their faith. That idea, ignored for many of the intervening centuries, remains the simplest definition of Abrahamic faith. It is not our task to conquer or convert the world or enforce uniformity of belief. It is our task to be a blessing to the world. The use of religion for political ends is not righteousness but idolatry . . . To invoke God to justify violence against the innocent is not an act of sanctity but of sacrilege.” Here is an eloquent call for people of goodwill from all faiths and none to stand together, confront the religious extremism that threatens to destroy us, and declare: Not in God’s Name.

Download or read book The Bah Faith Violence and Non Violence written by Robert H. Stockman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-08-13 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Both violence and non-violence are important themes in the Bahá'í Faith, but their relationship is not simple. The Bahá'í sacred writings see violence in the world – not just against Bahá'ís, but physical and structural violence against everyone – as being a consequence of the immature state of human civilization. The Baha'i community itself has been nonviolent since its founding by Baha'u'llah in the mid nineteenth century and has developed various strategies for responding to persecution nonviolently. This Element explores how their scriptures provide a blueprint for building a new, more mature, culture and civilization on this planet where violence will be rare and nonviolence prevalent.

Download or read book Violence and the World s Religious Traditions written by Mark Juergensmeyer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An introductory survey of the whole field of study of religion and violence. It includes overviews of major religious traditions, and it analyzes patterns and themes relating to religious violence. It also explores major analytic approaches, and forges new directions in the study of this important emerging field"--

Download or read book God Is Not Great written by Christopher Hitchens and published by McClelland & Stewart. This book was released on 2008-11-19 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christopher Hitchens, described in the London Observer as “one of the most prolific, as well as brilliant, journalists of our time” takes on his biggest subject yet–the increasingly dangerous role of religion in the world. In the tradition of Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris’s recent bestseller, The End Of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope’s awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry of the double helix.

Download or read book Fight written by Preston M. Sprinkle and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a world of violence, how can Christians live out Jesus' command to "love our enemies"? New York Times bestselling author Preston Sprinkle challenges us to consider a biblical response to violence.

Download or read book Christianity and Violence written by Lloyd Steffen and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-20 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How Christian people have framed the meaning of violence within their faith tradition has been a complex process subject to all manner of historical, cultural, political, ethnic and theological contingencies. As a tradition encompassing widely divergent beliefs and perspectives, Christianity has, over two millennia, adapted to changing cultural and historical circumstances. To grasp the complexity of this tradition and its involvement with violence requires attention to specific elements explored in this Element: the scriptural and institutional sources for violence; the faith commitments and practices that join communities and sanction both resistance to and authorization for violence; and select historical developments that altered the power wielded by Christianity in society, culture and politics. Relevant issues in social psychology and the moral action guides addressing violence affirmed in Christian communities provide a deeper explanation for the motivations that have led to the diverse interpretations of violence avowed in the Christian tradition.

Download or read book Fields of Blood written by Karen Armstrong and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2014-10-28 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sweeping exploration of religion and the history of human violence—from the New York Times bestselling author of The History of God • “Elegant and powerful.... Both erudite and accurate, dazzling in its breadth of knowledge and historical detail.” —The Washington Post In these times of rising geopolitical chaos, the need for mutual understanding between cultures has never been more urgent. Religious differences are seen as fuel for violence and warfare. In these pages, one of our greatest writers on religion, Karen Armstrong, amasses a sweeping history of humankind to explore the perceived connection between war and the world’s great creeds—and to issue a passionate defense of the peaceful nature of faith. With unprecedented scope, Armstrong looks at the whole history of each tradition—not only Christianity and Islam, but also Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Judaism. Religions, in their earliest days, endowed every aspect of life with meaning, and warfare became bound up with observances of the sacred. Modernity has ushered in an epoch of spectacular violence, although, as Armstrong shows, little of it can be ascribed directly to religion. Nevertheless, she shows us how and in what measure religions came to absorb modern belligerence—and what hope there might be for peace among believers of different faiths in our time.

Download or read book God Without Violence written by J. Denny Weaver and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Playing off a five-year-old boy's question concerning whether parents would put their son to death on a cross, this book plunges headlong into the ongoing debate about the character of God. Following the historic faith confession that God is revealed in Jesus, the book's first chapter sketches the life and teaching of Jesus. That life, which reveals Jesus' rejection of violence, calls for an understanding of God in nonviolent terms. Weaver thus invites us to embrace a nonviolent atonement image, which stands as a direct challenge to the inherited atonement images. Deriving theology from the narrative of Jesus also leads Weaver into discussions about the very nature of theology, the character of the Bible, the divine violence in the Old Testament (as well as the purported divine violence in the book of Revelation), and a rethinking of historic Christology. Each of these discussions has implications for life today--implications for economics, forgiveness, violence, gender discrimination, racism, and more. The book is thus an introduction to foundational issues of theology and ethics, suitable for church discussion groups and introductory college classrooms. ""Inviting us to 'live the story of Jesus' and to 'join the conversation' the Bible poses about the character and identity of God, Denny winsomely guides us in reading the Bible as revealing a nonviolent and loving God. This is a wonderful book for Sunday School or discussion groups--accessible and compelling in its presentation of a coherent theology that resonates with the best of our contemporary values."" --James Rissler, Pastor, Atlanta Mennonite Fellowship ""Denny Weaver pulls together various strands from his long-term, fruitful project of reconfiguring theology in light of biblical nonviolence. This accessible and forceful call to a substantive engagement with nonviolence challenges us to embody Jesus' way of peace in thought and deed--consistently and practically. A timely and coherent message for the twenty-first century."" --Ted Grimsrud, Author of Instead of Atonement: The Bible's Salvation Story and Our Hope for Wholeness ""Drawing upon his groundbreaking work in narrative theology in The Nonviolent Atonement and The Nonviolent God, J. Denny Weaver has now written a practical, accessible guide for ordinary Christians on its implications for the most important issues of our day: economic justice, racism, gender equality, and care of creation. This book is a must-read for any serious Christian concerned about living the way of Jesus in the midst of our violent world."" --Scott Anderson, Executive Director, Wisconsin Council of Churches ""In this fresh and superb work, J. Denny Weaver challenges the church to loop back, again and again, to our Christian roots found in the story of Jesus. By some miracle he was able to write an accessible resource and also intertwine several of his key theological contributions from former books into one text. Read this book with others, and expect a meaningful conversation to open around how we can embody the narrative of Jesus for our time."" --Drew G. I. Hart, Assistant Professor of Theology, Messiah College; Author of Trouble I've Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism J. Denny Weaver is Professor Emeritus of Religion at Bluffton University, Ohio. Among his recent books are Becoming Anabaptist (2nd ed., 2005); Defenseless Christianity (co-authored, 2009); The Nonviolent Atonement (2nd. ed., 2011); The Nonviolent God (2013); and John Howard Yoder: Radical Theologian (co-authored, 2014).