Religion Violence

Gil Bailie wrote Violence Unveiled in the mid-1990s after learning of René Girard’s mimetic theory of human cultural origins. The mimetic theory posits that human interspecies violence posed an existential threat to the continuation of any early human community until the evolution/discovery of a particular kind of directed social violence – scapegoating violence - which in times of social crisis brought peace and harmony to the community at the expense of what would later be understood as a sacred victim or god who becomes a focus of religious awe.

This volume in Biblical Theology for Life series dives deeply into the topic of human violence. Before exploring what the Bible says about violence, Old Testament scholar Helen Paynter sets out the contours for the study ahead by addressing the various definitions of violence and the theories of its origins, prevalence, and purpose.

Over the 20-year period that I was trapped in an abusive marriage, I left and reconciled with my husband many times before God gave me the courage to break free once and for all. I wanted to find a book that would soothe my troubled spirit and show me clearly the Scriptures that speak of God's heart for hurting and abused women. I could not find such a book and so, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I wrote this 40-day devotional. This devotional aims to comfort and uplift the hurting heart of any woman who, like me, was overwhelmed by the pain of an abusive marriage.

While millions of believers around the world are finding their understanding of Christianity to be outdated and untenable, Matthew Distefano has managed to paint the gospel in such a way that even an atheist could appreciate its beauty. Rather than a message of rapture, or rewards and reprisals, Distefano presents the good news of what God has done in history to stem the tide of our own violence and evil - inviting us into a whole new way of living and being in this world.

Beating Guns provides a provocative look at gun violence in America and offers a clarion call to change our hearts regarding one of the most significant moral issues of our time. Best-selling author, speaker, and activist Shane Claiborne and Michael Martin show why Christians should be concerned about gun violence and how they can be part of the solution.

Moving beyond typical conservative and liberal approaches, which seek to either defend or whitewash over violence in the Bible, Disarming Scripture takes a surprising yet compelling approach.

Este é um audiolivro necessário, especialmente quando pululam nas redes sociais “sábios” com respostas prontas para todos os problemas do país e do mundo, com base em fé ideológica, religiosa ou de qualquer outra espécie. Hélio Schwartsman, filósofo e jornalista da Folha de S. Paulo, não tem, é claro, todas as respostas, mas formula perguntas com muita perspicácia.

Warum radikalisieren sich Teenager in aufgeklärten und freien Gesellschaften wie Österreich, Deutschland und Frankreich? Anhand von fünf Biographien bieten Anja Melzer und Fabian Reicher authentische Einblicke in die perfide Propaganda von IS und Islamisten bei europäischen Jugendlichen und klären über die dschihadistische Jugendsubkultur auf. Sie beschreiben ihren in der Praxis erfolgreichen neuen Ansatz, wie radikalisierte Jugendliche zurückgewonnen und weitere dschihadistische Anschläge in Europa verhindert werden können.

Religion-related violence is the fastest spreading type of violence worldwide. Attacks on religious minorities follow a clear pattern and are preceded with early warning signs. Until now, such violence had no name, let alone a set of policies designed to identify and prevent it. A unique attempt to create a new moral and legal category alongside other forms of persecution and mass murder, Religicide explores the roots of atrocities such as the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, the Bosnian war, and other human rights catastrophes.

What if Jesus was serious about loving our enemies? For too long, those who carry the name "Christian" have ignored the Christlike path of enemy-love and creative nonviolence. For many of us, the Second Amendment has become more important than the Sermon on the Mount. It's time we begin to walk the path of peace marked out for us by the Prince of Peace and learn to study war no more.

Black Americans' resilience during centuries of racially motivated violence is beyond remarkable. But continuing to endure this harm allows for generations of trauma to fester and grow. Healing has to be the priority going forward. For decades, Tracey Michae'l Lewis-Giggetts clung to her upbringing in the church, believing that racial reconciliation would come through faith and discipline, being respectable, and doing what's right. But when her cousin became the victim of a white supremacist's hateful rampage, her body and soul said, "no more."

Ever wonder why much of American Christianity is pro-spanking, pro-tough-on-crime, anti-gun control, pro-war, and hell-affirming, even though Jesus taught mercy, non-violence and enemy love? When Michael Camp started deconstructing his evangelical faith, he noticed a pattern. The doctrines he questioned—original depravity, substitutionary atonement, God-ordained genocide in the Old Testament, the doctrine of hell, etc.—were all tied to retribution and violence.

In 1878, Elder Joseph Standing traveled into the Appalachian mountains of North Georgia, seeking converts for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Sixteen months later, he was dead, murdered by a group of 12 men. Most accounts of this event have linked Standing's murder to the virulent 19th-century anti-Mormonism that also took the life of prophet Joseph Smith and to an enduring southern tradition of extralegal violence.

Pilgrimage is a sacred tradition that has existed around the world for centuries. Every year, more than 100 million devotees from different cultures and faiths embark on journeys to such holy sites as Santiago de Compostela, Mecca, and Banaras. For some, making a pilgrimage is a spiritual act, while for others it is a secular experience of personal restoration. And yet there has never existed a tradition of pilgrimage within the US. Cultural geographer James E. Mills makes a compelling case for the creation of a network of American pilgrimage routes to heal societal divisions....

Taylor Schumann never thought she'd be a victim of gun violence. But one spring day a man with a shotgun walked into her workplace and opened fire on her. While she survived, she was left with permanent wounds, both visible and invisible. In When Thoughts and Prayers Aren't Enough, Taylor invites us to see what it means to be a survivor after the news vehicles drive away and the media moves on.

In An Antidote to Violence, Barry Spivack and Patricia Anne Saunders examine the peer-reviewed research and suggest that TM can influence the collective consciousness of a society which leads to a decrease in negative social trends, such as a decline in war fatalities, and to an increase in cooperation between nations. Weaving together psychology, sociology, philosophy, statistics, politics, physics, and meditation, An Antidote to Violence provides evidence that we have the knowledge to reduce all kinds of violence in society.

God at War explores the dark attraction between religion and warfare. Virtually every religious tradition leaves behind it a bloody trail of stories, legends, and images of war, and most wars call upon the divine for blessings in battle. This book finds the connection between religion and warfare in the alternative realities created in the human imagination in response to crises both personal and social.

Deepak Chopra's passionate new book, Peace Is the Way, was inspired by a saying from Mahatma Gandhi: "There is no way to peace. Peace is the way." In a world where every path to peace has proved futile, the one strategy that hasn't been tried is the way of peace itself. "We must not bring one war to an end, or 30," Chopra tells us, "but the idea of war itself."

Jihad is the most misunderstood concept in both the Muslim and the non-Muslim world. This book educates the listener on the misconceptions around the word "Jihad", and explains the true meaning of Jihad with support of the Quran and example from the life of the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad. All the teachings of Islam are based on the principle of peace. It is no exaggeration to say that Islam and violence are contradictory to each other. The concept of Islamic violence is so obviously unfounded that prima facie it stands rejected.

Jesus an anarchist? That doesn't sound like the Jesus preached by the political establishment, mega church pastors, or even most small town ministers. Nevertheless, Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of God that makes all other political loyalties inconsequential.