The Just War and Jihad: Violence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
R. Joseph Hoffman, ed., New York: Prometheus Books, 2006. 303 pages.
The fifteen chapters of this book bring together scholars from a variety of fields to examine and analyze what they perceive to be a relationship between religion and violence. Generating a feeling of déjà vu, they rehash previously developed assumptions, arguments, and biases that tend to ignore underlying causes related to the “existence of the sacred,” for reasons apparently beyond the domain of secular comprehension. The articles reiterate conventional secular arguments about the dangers of religious convictions on “peace” and tend to vary in quality and consistency, which reflects on the book’s overall merit.