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Redemptive violence
Christian Century, Oct 16, 2007
REDEMPTIVE VIOLENCE: Ever since September 11, 2001, there has been a spate of books attempting to explain why religion has a peculiar tendency toward violence. Many of these arguments, says William T. Cavanaugh, are misplaced. It is impossible to distinguish religion from other spheres of activity in most cultures, including Islamic ones.
And these arguments tend to mask the tendency of secular states to expect absolute commitment from their subjects and to use violence for its own interests. Cavanaugh suggests this empirical test: find out what percent of Americans would be willing to kill for their faith and what percent would be willing to kill for their country. "Whether we attempt to answer these questions by survey or by observing American Christians' behavior in wartime," says Cavanaugh, "it seems clear that, at least among American Christians, the nation-state is subject to far more absolutist fervor than Christianity" (Harvard Divinity Bulletin, spring/summer).
COPYRIGHT 2007 The Christian Century Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
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