The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation (Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict)

Terrorists and peacemakers may grow up in the same community and adhere to the same religious tradition. The killing carried out by one and the reconciliation fostered by the other indicate the range of dramatic and contradictory responses to human suffering by religious actors. Yet religion's ability to inspire violence is intimately related to its equally impressive power as a force for peace, especially in the growing number of conflicts around the world that involve religious claims and religiously inspired combatants. This book explains what religious terrorists and religious peacemakers share in common, what causes them to take different paths in fighting injustice, and how a deeper understanding of religious extremism can and must be integrated more effectively into our thinking about tribal, regional, and international conflict. Cover ......Page 1 Contents......Page 7 Foreword ......Page 9 Preface ......Page 11 Introduction: Powerful Medicine......Page 14 PART ONE: Coming to Terms with Religion......Page 36 1 The Growing End of an Argument......Page 38 2 Religion’s Violent Accomplices......Page 70 3 Violence as a Sacred Duty: Patterns of Religious Extremism ......Page 94 4 Militants for Peace ......Page 134 5 Reconciliation and the Politics of Forgiveness ......Page 180 PART TWO: The Logic of Religious Peacebuilding ......Page 218 6 Religion and Conflict Transformation......Page 220 7 The Promise of Internal Pluralism: Human Rights and Religious Mission......Page 258 8 Ambivalence as Opportunity: Strategies for Promoting Religious Peacebuilding......Page 294 Notes ......Page 322 Selected Bibliography ......Page 402 Index ......Page 420 About the Carnegie Commission ......Page 438 About the Author ......Page 442 This text explains what religious terrorists and religious peacemakers share in common and what causes them to take different paths in fighting injustice