Religion und Gewalt. Ein Literaturbericht

Since Samuel Huntington spoke of the clash of civilisations, the political danger of religions has been rediscovered. However, what does the term »religion« mean precisely? And how are religions involved in political struggles? There are some approaches to finding answers to these questions that I present in this review. I consider publications from theology, philosophy, history, political and social sciences from 2014 onwards. In the first part, I discuss publications that deal with the definitions of religion and violence and point to methodological openings and imbalances. In the second part, publications dealing with the relationship between religion and political force as well as violence are taken into account. The differentiation in the political sciences between the primordialists, the instrumentalists and the constructivists is still important and is thus applied. In theology just war and just peace are the main topics of debate. In the third part, I reconstruct the discussions on those topics in religion, primarily in the Christian religion, that seem to be especially closely connected with violence. Here I follow Charles Kimball, who enlisted five patterns of corrupted religions: (1) absolute truth claims, (2) blind obedience, (3) establishing the 'ideal' time, (4) the end justifies any means and (5) declaring holy war. The fourth part includes suggestions on how to deal with religious violence politically, and the fifth chapter leads back to the Christian religion and recognizes the antidotes established there to react against such religious violence.

1. Arnold Angenendt, Toleranz und Gewalt. Das Christentum zwischen Bibel und Schwert. 5. Auflage, Aschendorff, Münster 2014, 799 S. – 2. Karen Armstrong, Im Namen Gottes. Religion und Gewalt, Pattloch, München 2014, 687 S. – 3. Jan Assmann, Exodus. Die Revolution der alten Welt, C.H. Beck, München 2015, 493 S. – 4. Jan Assmann, Totale Religion: Ursprünge und Formen puritanischer Verschärfung, Picus, Wien 2016, 184 S. – 5. Thomas Bauer, Die Vereindeutigung der Welt. Über den Verlust an Mehrdeutigkeit und Vielfalt. 3. Auflage, Reclam Verlag, Stuttgart 2018, 104 S. – 6. Teresa Koloma Beck / Klaus Schlichte (Hg.), Theorien der Gewalt zur Einführung, Junius, Hamburg 2014, 187 S. – 7. Hinnerk Bruhns, Max Weber und der Erste Weltkrieg, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2017, 221 S. – 8. Philippe Buc, Heiliger Krieg. Gewalt im Namen des Christentums, Philipp von Zabern, WBG, Darmstadt 2015, 432 S. – 9. Fernando Enns / Wolfram Weiße (Hg.), Gewaltfreiheit und Gewalt in den Religion