Religion, Terror and Violence

'"Religion, Terror, and Violence" is a timely collection on an urgent set of issues. Paul Christopher Johnson's essay, skillfully combining theory, intellectual history, ethnographic observation and social criticism is, by itself, more than worth the price of admission. Maureen Korp's descriptive meditation on art and artists in response to 9/11 extends the intense interest by a number of contemporary students of religion in memorialization and memory to include other media, along with the architectural- a pioneering contribution, enriching this nascent field.' Jonathan Z. Smith is Robert O. Anderson Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, USA 'The 9/11 attacks catapulted questions about the relation of religion to violence into the center of public discourse. What is the role of the religion scholar in that public conversation? This superb collection of twenty essays by engaged scholars and renowned public intellectuals--comparativists, historians, theologians, experts in myth and method as well as social and political thought--addresses this important question. The contributors offer unique perspectives on the religion-violence connection by attending not only to history, social dynamics and religious traditions, including Islam and Buddhism, but by poking around in less often visited areas of investigation: rhetoric, pedagogy, and aesthetics. This broad-minded, methodologically diverse collection of first-rate essays is a welcome addition to an expanding literature on religiously inspired violence, which is certainly among the preeminent issues of our time.' Lloyd Steffen is Professor of Religious Studies at Lehigh University, USA, and author of "Holy War, Just War: Exploring the Moral Meaning of Religious Violence "