Continuing Our Blogging Adventures: the Myth of Religious Violence.
A long time ago in what feels like a galaxy far away I began to blog through William Cavanaugh's ground breaking book The Myth of Religious Violence. Dr. Cavanaugh is currently Research Professor at the Center for World Catholicism and InterCultural theology at DePaul University, Chicago (PhD from Duke; M.A. from Cambridge; B.A. from Notre Dame). Unfortunately, despite my good intentions school caught up with me and I ended up only blogging through about 2/3 of the first chapter. I have decided to start up again right where I left off, however, as I think this is an important book and it will give me an excuse to re-read and revist many of the paradigm-shattering arguments that he puts forward. If you are interested in catching up, here are links to the first three posts:
The Myth of Religious Violence: Introduction
The Myth of Religious Violence Chapter One (Part One): The Anatomy of a Myth
The Myth of Religious Violence Chapter One (Part Two): The Anatomy of a Myth
My intention for these posts is to be almost entirely descriptive, so I will save my own commentary on the text for a later time perhaps, as I just want to get at the meat of Cavanaugh's analysis. These posts will also be a little pedantic rather than generalized. I have two justifications for this: the first is that this is such a highly charged subject I feel that the more data, the better. Far too often our animosity sustains itself through unsustainable generalities, and often details are the cure for this paradox. The second reason for a more pedantic, page-by-page (ish) analysis is that Cavanaugh's thesis will no doubt sound counter-intuitive to many, especially in our day and age when it is an unreflected trusim that "religion causes violence." Beyond data, Cavanaugh's account is attacking and altering the very paradigms that are so ingrained in our daily habits of thought that a detailed presentation is justified by the simple fact that these new paradigms may take only through repetition.
For those worried about losing the forest for the trees however, I offer this video of Cavanaugh giving a 50 minute lecture on the Myth of Religious Violence, which is an incredibly lucid and engaging summary (in which Cavanaugh is surprisingly funny) of the more detailed versions of his arguments in the book. So if you are interested in his thought but have no interest in slogging through my blog posts I highly recommend this video! Enjoy:
The Myth of Religious Violence: Introduction
The Myth of Religious Violence Chapter One (Part One): The Anatomy of a Myth
The Myth of Religious Violence Chapter One (Part Two): The Anatomy of a Myth
My intention for these posts is to be almost entirely descriptive, so I will save my own commentary on the text for a later time perhaps, as I just want to get at the meat of Cavanaugh's analysis. These posts will also be a little pedantic rather than generalized. I have two justifications for this: the first is that this is such a highly charged subject I feel that the more data, the better. Far too often our animosity sustains itself through unsustainable generalities, and often details are the cure for this paradox. The second reason for a more pedantic, page-by-page (ish) analysis is that Cavanaugh's thesis will no doubt sound counter-intuitive to many, especially in our day and age when it is an unreflected trusim that "religion causes violence." Beyond data, Cavanaugh's account is attacking and altering the very paradigms that are so ingrained in our daily habits of thought that a detailed presentation is justified by the simple fact that these new paradigms may take only through repetition.
For those worried about losing the forest for the trees however, I offer this video of Cavanaugh giving a 50 minute lecture on the Myth of Religious Violence, which is an incredibly lucid and engaging summary (in which Cavanaugh is surprisingly funny) of the more detailed versions of his arguments in the book. So if you are interested in his thought but have no interest in slogging through my blog posts I highly recommend this video! Enjoy:
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