Theorising the ‘Sanctification' of Violence
As the majority of those interested in the Bible consider it a ‘religious' document and associate it with so-called ‘biblical religions', meaning modern Judaism, Christianity and Islam, it is essential to be clear about relationships between ‘religion' and ‘violence'.
While much of the violence featured in biblical literature is not particularly ‘religious', biblical themes, typologies and passages have been utilised to justify violence throughout the past 2,000 years. Various authors, interpreters and agents of violence have utilised biblical notions to ‘sanctify' particular instances and types of violence. By ‘sanctify' and ‘sanctification', I mean the rhetorical use of religious or specifically biblical notions to justify violence and present it as legitimate. Such a rhetorical strategy holds purchase by appeal to the notion that divine beings have communicated standards or directives that agents claim to be or consider themselves to be enacting. Contemporary theorisation of violence convincingly shows that social factors are the root motivations for violent acts, such as economics, education, resources, social standing, political agency, group issues including constructing and maintaining a sense of an ingroup us versus out-group them(s) as well as dehumanising others, and racial, ethnic, gender, nationalistic and religious aspects of identity constructs. Thus, religion, and within that category biblical tradition, is one among many sources of rhetoric.Anthropologists and sociologists such as Anton Blok, Bettina Schmidt, Ingo Schroder, Goran Aijmer, Jon Abbink and David Riches have observed that we tend to respond to tragic events by labelling them ‘senseless violence'.[1160] This is a means to express shock and our rejection of the perpetrators' motivations. It is a means to offer comfort and affiliation through mourning, which is important in modern times as it was in ancient times.
However, we must directly investigate the ‘sense' embedded in the perpetrators' view. Adopting current theories of violence as strategic, meaningful, context based and communicative facilitates our parsing out of the role of religion as distinct from social causes.4 Religious traditions and ‘sacred' texts, especially the Bible, may be a source of rhetoric, a source for evaluating aspects of behaviour as ‘values', a source for shared views of authority, group self-understanding and a sense of rallying around a deity as a shared cause. These notions are utilised to frame motivations for violence that is ultimately rooted in the immediate social context. This is not an apologetic distinction, but rather an insistence on unpacking religious rhetoric as such, as rhetoric with implicit truth claims that are subject to critical enquiry rather than divinely authorised prerogatives. Religious and biblical rhetoric is prominent and seemingly useful for justifying violence because it appeals to notions of universal or divine authority. Violence is ritualised, and this changes standard reactions and consequences.5 David Riches' ‘triangle of violence' includes agent(s), victim(s) and witness(es). Their perspectives may differ on interpretation of the acts of violence. For ‘religious violence', victims and witnesses especially may reject the agent's justification through ritua- lisation and appeals to divine authorisation.
More on the topic Theorising the ‘Sanctification' of Violence:
- Violence against the Self, State Violence and Interpersonal Violence
- Within the world history of violence the Bible is relevant for our reconstructions of the lived experience of violence among ancient Israelites and Judeans;
- The theme ‘religion and violence' or ‘religious violence' gained worldwide attention after the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon in 2001.1
- The Interwar Moment: Violence versus Non-Violence
- Violence and representations of violence abound in the literature of ancient and late antique Judaism and Christianity.
- The advent of the Early Historic period in northern India in the sixth and fifth centuries bce saw the emergence of monarchical and oligarchic states and the beginnings of a sustained discussion of the relationship of kingship with violence and non-violence.
- Chapter IV Growing Up with Violence in Northern Ireland: Making Meaning of Institutionalized Violence
- The archaeological evidence for violence and for the symbolic representation of violence in Iron Age Europe is abundant and complex.
- Violence, Non-Violence, the State and the Nation: India, 1858-1958
- Imperial Chinese society accepted and even lauded certain types of violence. Fundamental views of sanctioned violence developed in reaction to that culture's particular views of masculinity.
- This chapter examines the diverse communities of Britain from the ninth century bce to the early fifth century ce, and uses a Web of Violence model to examine the archaeological and primary source evidence for violence in both periods.
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