War and Peace

Essays on Religion and Violence

Edited by Bryan S. Turner

Publication date:

01 March 2013

Publisher

Anthem Press

Dimensions:

229x153mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780857283078

Reflections on Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” these original essays examine various facets of violence and human efforts to create peace. Religion is deeply involved in both processes: ones that produce violence and ones that seek to create harmony. In the war on terror, radical religion is often seen to be a major cause of inter-group violence. However, these essays show a much more complex picture in which religion is often on the receiving end of conflict that has its origin in the actions of the state in response to tensions between majorities and minorities. As this volume demonstrates, the more public religion becomes, the more likely it is to be imbricated in communal strife.

“No one works harder to better effect than Bryan Turner. In ‘War and Peace,’ he and a select number of New York colleagues reframe the deep structural failure of modern society. Anyone who cares about peace and a world at war with itself cannot but be enlightened by this book.” —Charles Lemert, Senior Fellow, Center for Comparative Research, Yale University