The Justification of Religious Violence

Do religious justifications for violence differ from secular justifications for violence?  The relationship between religion and violence has long been the subject of intense discussion, and indeed, followers of many different religions have committed violent acts and attempted to justify them by appealing to their religious convictions. Rather than questioning whether religion causes violence, Clarke explores how religious justifications for violence develop and whether or not they differ from secular justifications of violence. Clarke demonstrates that many religiously based justifications for violence are as acceptable as rigorous secular justifications for violence, provided that crucial premises, which religion supplies, are accepted. Religious believers are able to incorporate premises, grounded in the metaphysics of religious world views, in arguments for the conclusion that particular violent acts are justified. This book considers whether and to what extent liberal democratic societies can and should tolerate religious believers who believe that they are justified by their religion in acting violently. In addition, it reflects on our prospects for developing effective policy measures, to persuade those who believe that violent action is justified by religion, to refrain from acting violently.

Steve Clarke is a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, at Charles Sturt University in Australia, a James Martin Research Fellow in the Institute for Science and Ethics in the Oxford Martin School and a Research Fellow in the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford. He has published over sixty academic papers and is the author of Metaphysics and the Disunity of Scientific Knowledge and the co–editor of three books including Religion, Intolerance and Conflict: a Scientific and Conceptual Investigation ,(with Russell Powell and Julian Savulescu, 2013).