Nicholas F. Gier is professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Idaho.

• Chapter 1: From Mongols to Mughals: Hindu-Muslim Relations in Medieval India Chapter 2: Hindu Nationalism, Modernism, and Reverse Orientalism Chapter 3: Premodern Harmony, Sri Lankan Buddhist Nationalism, and ViolenceChapter 4: Burmese Nationalisms and Religious Violence against MuslimsChapter 5: Buddhism in Bhutan: From Violent Lamas to Peaceful KingsChapter 6: “Compassionate” Violence in Tibet: 1,000 Years of War MagicChapter 7: Buddhism and Japanese Nationalism: A Sad Chronicle of ComplicityChapter 8: Sikhism, the Seduction of Modernism, and the Question of Violence Chapter 9: Religious Nationalism, Violence, and Taiping ChristianityChapter 10: Hypotheses on the Reasons for Religious Violence Chapter 11: The Gospel of Weak Belief, Overcoming the Other, and Constructive Postmodernism

Thoroughly researched and meticulously argued, The Origins of Religious Violence makes a powerful case that Asian religious traditions—although historically less conducive to violence than their Western counterparts—have their own histories of complicity in warfare and oppression. Nicholas F. Gier provides a compelling and insightful philosophical analysis of why violence occurs in the name of religion, despite the centrality of nonviolence to so many of the world’s religious traditions. This book should quickly become indispensable to college courses and to any serious conversation or reflection on religion and violence.