Religion, Intolerance, and Conflict

The relationship between religion, intolerance and conflict has been the subject of intense discussion, particularly in the wake of the events of 9-11 and the ongoing threat of terrorism. This book contains original papers written by some of the world's leading scholars in anthropology, psychology, philosophy, and theology exploring the scientific and conceptual dimensions of religion and human conflict.Authors investigate the following themes: the role of religion in promoting social cohesion and the conditions under which it will tend to do so; the role of religion in enabling and exacerbating conflict between different social groups and the conditions under which it will tend to do so; and the policy responses that we may be able to develop to ameliorate violent conflict and the limits to compromise between different religions. The book also contains two commentaries that distill, synthesize and critically evaluate key aspects of the individual chapters and central themes that run throughout the volume.The volume will be of great interest to all readers interested in the phenomenon of religious conflict and to academics across a variety of disciplines, including religious studies, philosophy, psychology, theology, cognitive science, anthropology, politics, international relations, and evolutionary biology.

1 Russell Powell and Steve Clarke: Religion, Tolerance and Intolerance: Views from Across the Disciplines; 2 Harvey Whitehouse: Religion, Cohesion, and Hostility; 3 Robin Dunbar: The Origin of Religion as a Small-Scale Phenomenon; 4 Dominic Johnson and Zoey Reeve: The Virtues of Intolerance: Is Religion an Adaptation for War?; 5 C. Daniel Batson: Individual Religion, Tolerance, and Universal Compassion; 6 Anna-Kaisa Newheiser, Miles Hewstone, Alberto Voci, Katharina Schmid, Andreas Zick and Beate Kupper: Social-Psychological Aspects of Religion and Prejudice: Evidence from Survey and Experimental Research; 7 Will M. Gervais and Ara Norenzayan: Religion and the Origins of Anti-Atheist Prejudice; 8 Joshua C. Thurow: Religion, 'Religion', and Tolerance; 9 Roger Trigg: Freedom, Toleration and the Naturalness of Religion; 10 C.A. J. Coady: Religious Disagreement and Religious Accommodation; 11 Owen Flanagan: The View from the East Pole: Buddhist and Confucian Tolerance.; 12 Walter Sinnott-Armstrong: How Religion Undermines Compromise; 13 Ingmar Persson and Julian Savulescu: The Limits of Religious Tolerance A Secular View; Commentaries; John Perry and Nigel Biggar: A: Religion and Intolerance: A Critical Commentary; Steve Clarke, Russell Powell and Julian Savulescu: B: Religion, Intolerance and Conflict: Practical Implications for Social Policy