this volume explores theoretical discourses in which religion is used to legitimize political
violence. It examines the ways in which Christianity and Islam are utilized for political ends
in particular how violence is used (or abused) as an expedient to justify political action.
This research focuses on premodern as well as contemporary discourses in the Middle East and
Latin America identifying patterns frequently used to justify the deployment of violence in
both hegemonic and anti-hegemonic discourses. In addition it explores how premodern arguments
and authorities are utilized and transformed in order to legitimize contemporary violence as
well as the ways in which the use of religion as a means to justify violence alters the nature
of conflicts that are not otherwise explicitly religious. It argues that most past and present
conflicts even if the discourses about them are conducted in religious terms have origins
other than religion and or blend religion with other causes namely socio-economic and
political injustice and inequality. Understanding the use and abuse of religion to justify
violence is a prerequisite to discerning the nature of a conflict and might thus contribute to
conflict resolution.
