Is Religion Violent?

Religion is just one of many categories of power that can inform violence in the world—be it structural, cultural, or direct. When we understand these kinds of violence as interrelated, we can better work towards dismantling it and creating peace.

Jules Evans defined a religion as a system that binds us in religio: a kind of sacredness, obligation, faith and “cosmic certainty” towards a particular set of precepts. Those outside the religio are framed as “existential threats”, with a strong in-out dynamic bound by a common transcendent ideal.

These important distinctions about religion offer a real challenge to how we see other cultures and their traditions. If we’re only seeing them through our eyes, rather than challenging our gaze, how can they ever trust us to see them for who they are? How does this imposition of “religion” onto other cultures contribute to broader misunderstanding... See more