Publisher's description
There is currently much discussion regarding the causes of terrorist acts, as well as the connection between terrorism and religion. Terrorism is attributed either to religious 'fanaticism' or, alternately, to political and economic factors, with religion more or less dismissed as a secondary factor. The Cambridge Companion to Religion and Terrorism examines this complex relationship between religion and terrorism phenomenon through a collection of essays freshly written for this volume. Bringing varying approaches to the topic, from the theoretical to the empirical, the Companion includes an array of subjects, such as radicalization, suicide bombing, and rational choice, as well as specific case studies. The result is a richly textured collection that prompts readers to critically consider the cluster of phenomena that we have come to refer to as 'terrorism,' and terrorism's relationship with the similarly problematic set of phenomena that we call 'religion.'
Contents
- Does Religion Cause Terrorism?
Mark Juergensmeyer - Religion, Violence, Nonsense, and Power
William T. Cavanaugh - Discounting Religion in the Explanation of Homegrown Terrorism: A Critique
Lorne L. Dawson - Religion, Radicalization and the Causes of Terrorism
Tom Mills and David Miller - The Role of the Devoted Actor in War, Revolution, and Terrorism
Scott Atran - Girard on Apocalypse and Terrorism
Espen Dahl - Rational Choice and Religious Terrorism: Its Bases, Applications, and Future Directions
Stephen Nemeth - Terror as Sacrificial Ritual? A Discussion of (Neo-)Durkheimian Approaches to Suicide Bombing
Lorenz Graitl - Imitations of Terror: Applying a Retro Style of Analysis to the Religion-Terrorism Nexus
James R. Lewis - The LTTE: A Nonreligious, Political, Martial Movement for Establishing the Right of Self-Determination of Īlattamils
Peter Schalk - The Role of Religion in al-Qaeda’s Violence
Pieter Nanninga - Meanings of Savagery: Terror, Religion and the Islamic State
Pieter Nanninga - Where’s Charlie? The Discourse of Religious Violence in France Post-7/1/2015
Per-erik Nilsson - Understanding the Threat of the Islamic State in Contemporary Kyrgyzstan
Meerim Aitkulova - Terror and the Screen: Keeping the Relationship of Good and Bad Virtual
Christopher Hartney - Understanding Falun Gong’s Martyrdom Strategy as Spiritual Terrorism
James R. Lewis and Nicole S. D’amico