Religion, Violence, Nonsense, and Power

There is currently much discussion regarding the causes of terrorist acts, as well as the connection between terrorism and religion. Terrorism is attributed either to religious \u27fanaticism\u27 or, alternately, to political and economic factors, with religion more or less dismissed as a secondary factor. The Cambridge Companion to Religion and Terrorism examines this complex relationship between religion and terrorism phenomenon through a collection of essays freshly written for this volume. Bringing varying approaches to the topic, from the theoretical to the empirical, the Companion includes an array of subjects, such as radicalization, suicide bombing, and rational choice, as well as specific case studies. The result is a richly textured collection that prompts readers to critically consider the cluster of phenomena that we have come to refer to as \u27terrorism,\u27 and terrorism\u27s relationship with the similarly problematic set of phenomena that we call \u27religion.\u27Unlike other volumes on the subject, this book provides overviews of a series of select theories of religion and terrorism to give readers a clear sense of contrasting approaches to the issue of religion and terrorismFeatures contrasting case studies of religion and terrorism to give readers a clear sense that neither is confined just to MuslimsContributors persuasively argue against the thesis that religion can cause violence while others posit that many terrorists are religiously motivated to prompt readers to confront opposing approaches to the controversial issue of religion and terroris