Religion and violence in a globalised world

Verbum et Ecclesia

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Religion and violence in a globalised world
 
Creator Huber, Wolfgang
 
Subject Theology; Ethics democratic South Africa; globalised world; nonviolence; religion; violence; monotheism
Description Violent religious extremism is seen as one of the mega-problems of the 21st century. This article – based on a key lecture at the conference on ‘Violence in a democratic South Africa’ at the University of Pretoria and the David de Villiers memorial lecture at the University of Stellenbosch, both held during August 2010 – critically discussed the interaction between religion and violence in our present-day, globalised world. Three different propositions on the relationship between religion and violence were scrutinised. In countering the proposition that religion, or more specifically monotheism, necessarily leads to violence, it was argued that violence is not an inherent, but rather an acquired or even an ascribed quality of religion. The second proposition that religion leads to non-violence was affirmed to the extent that religions do provide a strong impulse to overcome violence. However, they also tend to accept violence as an inevitable part of reality and even justify the use of violence on religious grounds. The third proposition was regarded as the most convincing, for it argues that the link between religion and violence is contingent. Some situations do seem to make the use of violence inevitable; however, religions should refrain from justifying the use of violence and maintain a preferential option for nonviolence.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS)
Date 2011-11-18
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Systematic Reflection
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ve.v32i2.581
 
Source Verbum et Ecclesia; Vol 32, No 2 (2011); 8 pages 2074-7705 1609-9982
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/581/883 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/581/897 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/581/884 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/581/860
 
Coverage democratic South Africa; globalised world Modernity —
Rights Copyright (c) 2011 Wolfgang Huber https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
ADVERTISEMENT