The Cambridge Companion to Religion and Terrorism

James R. Lewis

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN:
  9781108515399
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

There is currently much discussion regarding the causes of terrorist acts, as well as the connection between terrorism and religion. Terrorism is attributed either to religious 'fanaticism' or, alternately, to political and economic factors, with religion more or less dismissed as a secondary factor. The Cambridge Companion to Religion and Terrorism examines this complex relationship between religion and terrorism phenomenon through a collection of essays freshly written for this volume. Bringing varying approaches to the topic, from the theoretical to the empirical, the Companion includes an array of subjects, such as radicalization, suicide bombing, and rational choice, as well as specific case studies. The result is a richly textured collection that prompts readers to critically consider the cluster of phenomena that we have come to refer to as 'terrorism,' and terrorism's relationship with the similarly problematic set of phenomena that we call 'religion.'

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Series information
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Table of contents
• List of Contributors
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Does Religion Cause Terrorism?
• 2 Religion, Violence, Nonsense, and Power
• 3 Discounting Religion in the Explanation of Homegrown Terrorism: A Critique
• 4 Religion, Radicalization and the Causes of Terrorism
• 5 The Role of the Devoted Actor in War, Revolution, and Terrorism
• 6 Girard on Apocalypse and Terrorism
• 7 Rational Choice and Religious Terrorism: Its Bases, Applications, and Future Directions
• 8 Terror as Sacrificial Ritual?: A Discussion of (Neo-)Durkheimian Approaches to Suicide Bombing
• 9 Imitations of Terror: Applying a Retro Style of Analysis to the Religion-Terrorism Nexus
• 10 The LTTE: A Nonreligious, Political, Martial Movement for Establishing the Right of Self-Determination of Īlattamils
• 11 The Role of Religion in al-Qaeda’s Violence
• 12 Meanings of Savagery: Terror, Religion and the Islamic State
• 13 Where’s Charlie?: The Discourse of Religious Violence in France Post-7/1/2015
• 14 Understanding the Threat of the Islamic State in Contemporary Kyrgyzstan
• 15 Terror and the Screen: Keeping the Relationship of Good and Bad Virtual
• 16 Understanding Falun Gong’s Martyrdom Strategy as Spiritual Terrorism
• Index