Does “Religious Violence” Exist?: An Argument Against Essentialism with Particular Reference to the Conquest of the Americas

• Published in: Politics and religion 2014-09, Vol.7 (3), p.568-589
• Main Author: Osborn, Ronald E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 16th century; Christianity; Conflict; Essentialism; Morality; Religion; Secularism; September 11 terrorist attacks-2001; Slavery; Terrorism; Violence
• ISSN: 1755-0483; 1755-0491
• DOI: 10.1017/S1755048314000078

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, there has been a dramatic increase in social scientific literature on the topic of “religious violence,” much of it arguing that there is a uniquely intense and disturbing connection between religion and political conflict and bloodshed. In this article, I challenge mainstream accounts of “religious violence” with an illustrative example from the 16th century of the theoretical and empirical problems with all such essentialist claims. The terms employed in the construction of “religious violence” might today just as easily be applied to the violence of the putatively “secular” nation-state. Furthermore, framing the debate in these sharp binary terms, as William Cavanaugh compellingly demonstrates, is itself part of a political project that had a very particular historical beginning and that conceals as much as it reveals about the nature of violence, both in the past and in the present.