The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict [Hardcover]

William T Cavanaugh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 3, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0195385047 | ISBN-13: 978-0195385045

The idea that religion has a dangerous tendency to promote violence is part of the conventional wisdom of Western societies, and it underlies many of our institutions and policies, from limits on the public role of religion to efforts to promote liberal democracy in the Middle East. William T. Cavanaugh challenges this conventional wisdom by examining how the twin categories of religion and the secular are constructed. A growing body of scholarly work explores how the category 'religion' has been constructed in the modern West and in colonial contexts according to specific configurations of political power. Cavanaugh draws on this scholarship to examine how timeless and transcultural categories of 'religion and 'the secular' are used in arguments that religion causes violence. He argues three points: 1) There is no transhistorical and transcultural essence of religion. What counts as religious or secular in any given context is a function of political configurations of power; 2) Such a transhistorical and transcultural concept of religion as non-rational and prone to violence is one of the foundational legitimating myths of Western society; 3) This myth can be and is used to legitimate neo-colonial violence against non-Western others, particularly the Muslim world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[A]n important book." --Commonweal

About the Author

William T Cavanaugh is Senior Research Professor at DePaul University in Chicago.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (September 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195385047
• ISBN-13: 978-0195385045
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #140,314 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good reminder, November 15, 2009

By 

Almelle (Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict (Hardcover)

In the Myth of Religious Violence, Cavanaugh tries to deconstruct the secular/religious divide which, he says, was created in Europe during the period that nation-states were gaining power over and against transnational empires and religious governments. He says the idea of this divide and the resultant idea of religion resulting in violence has been used to legitimate secular nation-state use of military power against 'religion.' He argues against religion as something concrete and divisible from other parts of society: 'there is no transhistorical and transcultural essence of religion,' and so we can't separate or theorize 'religious' violence as separate from 'secular' violence. Throughout the book, he does this by examining the rise of the dichotomy between secular and religion, the ways in which this has been used by academics and nation-states, and the observed impacts of religion on war and violence.

Cavanaugh makes a strong argument that religion (including Christianity and Islam) does not equal violence, and that 'religious violence' against secular states is not necessarily the only or real moral issue in these types of conflicts. See also some of Talal Asad's work (Genealogies of Religion) on Christianity, Islam, and Secularism. Worth a read, especially if you're interested many of the current religiously-charged conflicts around the world.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant refutation of the idea that religion causes wars, May 31, 2010

By 

Jeri Nevermind "loves to read" (Idaho) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict (Hardcover)

In this thoughtful and beautifully reasoned book, Cavanaugh proves the idea that religion causes violence is a myth.

Many would be surprised to hear what is meant, in this argument, by religion. Secularists have argued that "'nationalism is the most powerful religion in the US'" (p 23), for example. And communism, which clearly declared itself atheist and then set out to slaughter every nun, priest, etc, not to mention over 100 million other people, becomes, in this kind of logic, yet another religious movement (Three excellent books on this subject are "The Forgotten: Catholics in the Soviet Union", "The Black Book of Communism", and "The Plot to Kill God").

This same group of secularists have argued that religion is permissible only when it is mute. As Martin Marty suggested religion "must appeal to publicly accessible reason and avoid conflicts of loyalty between religious believers and the values of the nation-state" (p 121).

Cavanaugh argues that "the myth of the wars of religion is...a crucial legitimating function for the secular West" (p 123). In this myth, the past was ruled by a barbaric and violent religiosity, now replaced by peaceful secularism.

In fact, this myth disintegrates upon the smallest amount of investigation. It is difficult to imagine anyone being able to demolish Cavanaugh's logic.

A truly fine book.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Definite-Read Book (With Only One Flaw), April 16, 2011

By 

Christian Smith (Chapel Hill, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict (Hardcover)

This is a significant, very well-written book that deserves a wide reading. The story it tells is fascinating and important, and makes a valuable contribution to our reflections about religion and violence in the contemporary world. The unmasking of the modern, secular, liberal myth of religious violence is scrumptious.

The one flaw in the book, in my view, is the author's having bought too uncritically into the "Talal Asad" account of "religion" being a modern invention. There is truth to that, properly understood. But when the distinction between religion as a concept and religion as an activity/practice gets lost (as social constructionists tend to be vulnerable to), problems arise. Cavanaugh falls into that and related elisions of what ought to be kept distinct in Chapter 2. I recommend as an antedote Martin Riesebrodt's The Promise of Salvation: A Theory of Religion (Chicago, 2010). Even so, that flaw in no way undermines his larger argument, which is right in my view, very important, and powerful.

If many people read this book and understood and worked out the significance of its message, the world would be a better place. As for myself, I plan to assign it in my graduate seminar in sociology of religion this fall, first week of classes, to help expand the vision of what we're even taking about and the assumptions we make about it. Many thanks to Cavanaugh for his good work in producing this book.