Beyond Faith and Fury : Rethinking Religious Violence in the Lebanese Civil War, 1975-90

How, when and in what forms does religion shape violence?

Beyond Faith and Fury invites readers to rethink common assumptions about the role of religion in violence. It calls for a critical approach to one of today’s most pressing issues, shaping how we view—and often misunderstand—conflict in the Middle East. Rather than taking religion’s role for granted or treating it as an isolated factor, Vostermans asks how meaning and mobilisation are constructed within broader political, social and emotional contexts.

Drawing on extensive interviews and primary sources, Vostermans immerses readers in the lived experiences of militants shaped by Lebanon’s civil war, spanning Christian and Islamic militias alongside leftist and rightist movements. It brings to life the stories of the religiously motivated and the politically calculated, the mythical heroes and the unsung fighters, the steadfast militants who remained committed to their causes and those who ultimately defected.

By revealing how, when and in what forms religion becomes salient in violent mobilisation—and how these dynamics compare with secular ones—the book sheds new light on the forces that create and sustain conflict. Moving beyond the reflexive pairing of faith and fury is essential to understanding conflict more clearly and identifying credible paths to peace.


The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by UKRI.