Belief and Bloodshed

James Wellman is associate professor in the Comparative Religion Program at the University of Washington.

• 1 Introduction: Religion and Violence: Past, Present and FuturePart 2 The Ancient and Medieval WorldChapter 2 Dismemberment, Creation, and Ritual: Images of Divine Violence in the Ancient Near EastChapter 3 Making Memory: Ritual, Rhetoric, and Violence in the Roman TriumphChapter 4 Taming the Beast: Rabbinic Pacification of Second Century Jewish NationalismChapter 5 Violent Yearnings for the Kingdom of God: Münster's Militant AnabaptismChapter 6 Imperial Christianity and Sacred War in ByzantiumChapter 7 Founding an Empire of Sacrifice: Innocent Domination and the Quaker Martyrs of Boston, 1659-1661Part 7 The Modern WorldChapter 8 Holy Culture Wars: Patterns of Ethno-Religious Violence in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century ChinaChapter 9 Femicide as Terrorism: The Case of Uzbekistan's UnveilingChapter 10 Monks, Guns and Peace: Theravada Buddhism and Political ViolenceChapter 11 Avoiding Mass Violence at RajneeshpuramChapter 12 "Obliterating an Idol of the Modern Age": The New Iconoclasm from the Twin Buddhas to the Twin TowersChapter 13 Is War Normal for American Evangelical Religion?Chapter 14 On Political Theology, Imperial Ambitions, and Messianic Pretensions: Some Ancient and Modern Continuities

This cross-disciplinary group of scholars provides fascinating studies across historical periods and religious traditions - all centered around the crucial theoretical point that religious group identities both promote solidarity and can facilitate violence. An important contribution to a timely and urgent conversation.