Holy War, Just War: Exploring the Moral Meaning of Religious Violence Book

Preface     xi
Life-Affirming and Demonic Religion: The Option     1
The Power and Danger of Religion     3
Religion Is Powerful     11
Religion Is Dangerous     20
Ultimacy as Absolutism     23
Conclusion     39
Being Religious: The Life-Affirming Option     43
Life-Affirming Religion     49
The Lure of Goodness: Where Religion and Ethics Meet     60
Conclusion     71
Being Religious: The Demonic Option     77
The Demonic as Fanaticism     80
What Is the Demonic?     87
Central Characteristics of the Demonic     90
Features of the Demonic: A Summary     118
Discerning the Demonic and the Domination Ethic     126
Religion and the Restraint of Violence     129
The Pacifist Option     134
Absolutist Pacifism     136
The Nonresistance of Leo Tolstoy     143
A Moral Critique of Absolutist Pacifism     165
Nonviolent Resistance to Evil     170
The Case of Holy War     182
Ancient Israel     183
Christianity     192
Islam     193
Islam and Generic HolyWar     195
Jihad     218
Conclusion     229
The Case of Just War     233
Just War in Historical Perspective     235
A Contemporary Formulation of Just War Theory     242
A Defense of Just War as a Model for Moral Thinking     258
A Life-Affirming Ethic: Presumptions and Exceptions     260
Conclusion     264
Summary of the Argument     264
Absolutism: A Final Moral Reflection     268
Religion as a Moral Project     275
Notes     279
Index     295