Violence in Civil Society : Monotheism Guilty?

The idea that monotheistic religions have aggravated the problem of violence in public life has gained ground during the last decades. It is currently said that whoever claims to be convinced of a truth on a subject as significant as religion, runs the risk of trying to impose it on society, disregarding certain rights such as freedom of thought and of religion. It is held, moreover, that there is an intrinsic correlation between monotheism and violence and that monotheistic religions have resulted in the rise of a new type of violence, a religious one. In this book, the authors (Christians, Jews and Muslims) affirm that religions -- and particularly the Abrahamic monotheisms, are in themselves sources of peace. Although there have certainly been many cases of violence perpetrated "in the name of God", this is neither restricted to monotheism nor exclusive to it. On the other hand, there have been many historical accounts of peace and harmony in monotheistic societies. These facts require an analysis of the internal logic of monotheisms to see up to what point they lead to one type of conduct or another. This is the challenge that this book addresses.