What is the role of religious aspects in legitimizing or delegitimizing violence? The articles
of this volume provide an important contribution to this crucial social and scholarly debate.
Analysing a broad spectrum of case studies from antiquity they focus on religious
justifications or evaluations of recommended performed or forbidden acts of violence -
regardless of the question of their historicity. Not only late antiquity and Christianity are
considered but also pre-Christian Greek and Roman civilizations Judaism literary myth and
atheism. The case studies cover the period from the fifth century BCE to the fifth century CE
and a broad geographical scope extending from Gaul to Israel and Egypt. This volume offers new
insights into a highly topical issue.
