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 | Edition: First Edition

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

"Williams T. Cavanaugh's Myth of Relipious Violence is a disaplined, detailed and painstakingly thorough book that sets out to debunk al all-too-pervasive liberal myth: that something called "religion" is necessarily inclined to produce violence, especially left unchecked"--Leigh Edwards, Durham, North Carolina

"Cavanaugh not only exposes the myth for what it is, he provides details to show precisely how the myth is not grounded in reality"--Walter Brueggemann, Christian Century

"...an important and highly interesteding work...enough to make one doubt the modern dogma of religious violence and be alert to its ideological function in the West."--James R. A. Merrick, University of Aberdeen.

"The book is well-written, thoroughly documented, and clearly argued, and it should be of value both to generalists and to readers with particular interest in the topic."--Debra Erickson

"A detailed and carefully researched rebuttal of the idea that there is some essence or necessary function of religion that makes it a more consistent cause of violence than other worldviews, belief systems or ideologies. He effectively unveils the self-serving nature of secular liberal condescension toward religion."--Modern Theology

"Razor sharp and pertinent...Cavanaugh leaves us hard pressed to imagine how the notion of a privatized, internalized "God of One's Own" could ever be part of the solution to a problem that it is responsible for inventing in the first place."--Common Knowledge

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; First Edition edition (September 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195385047
• ISBN-13: 978-0195385045
• Product Dimensions: 1 x 6.4 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #247,472 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful

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

By Almelle

Format: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.

16 of 18 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

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

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.

19 of 25 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 VINE™ VOICE

Format: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.

12 of 17 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Mostly insightful, some quibbles July 10, 2010

By Joseph M. Hennessey

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

As the title of the book suggests, Cavanagh turns the sword of the word "myth" back on secular modernists, who are so fond of brandishing it at traditional religious folk, as if the mere use of that word proves their case. On p. 4, he contends that "these arguments [religion causes violence] are part of a broader Enlightenment narrative that has invented the dichotomy between the religious and the secular and constructed the former as an irrational and dangerous impulse that must give way in public to rational, secular forms of power." There we have the dogmatic, intolerant, totalitarian liberalism, which calls itself tolerant, open-minded and open to diversity.

Sometimes it is claimed, even by the Dean of Stanford Law School, that there were no wars of religion in the United States because we have the No Establishment Clause in the First Amendment. However, from 1620 on, there were no wars of religion [yes, some exiling and lashing], so at least the USA experience debunks the religion causes wars' thesis. On p. 138, Cavanagh points out that the 30 Years War, which supposedly led to the enlightenment's hatred of religion, was fought mostly by mercenaries, so it was more over politics and pay than religion. The same could be said of the war between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland; none of the participants could be called 'good Christians.'

Quibbles: on p. 58 and other places, Cavanagh contends that the categories religion and secularism are relatively new, modernist scholarly constructs. But the 2 notions have been around since Jesus said "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." This was followed by Pope Gelasius' doctrine of the 2 swords.... One could contend the split between religion and secular widened in the Investiture controversy under Pope Gregory VII, and that secularism was truly born after the Spanish Inquisition, when Marrano Jews fled to the Netherlands, producing Spinoza, the first secular man.

I found the first 3 chapters of the book on target, but not the 4th. On the 2nd to last page of the book, #230, argues that under the Christian myth of violence, the true reality of Christianity is the peaceful Jesus, and under the recent spate of Muslim terrorism, is a political war against the colonizers. Sorry, jihad is one of the fundamentals of the Muslim religion, both peaceful and violent jihad when necessary.

Over all, the book is a good antidote to hegemonic, fundamentalist, totalitarian liberal secular agnosticism. Read more ›