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 `fanaticism` 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, from the theoretical to the empirical, to the topic, 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 `terrorism,` and terrorism`s relationship with the similarly problematic set of phenomena that we call `religion.`

Unlike 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 terrorism
Features contrasting case studies of religion and terrorism to give readers a clear sense that neither is confined just to Muslims
Contributors 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 terrorism

Description
Contents
Resources
Courses
About the Authors
Table of Contents

1. Does religion cause terrorism? Mark Juergensmeyer
2. Religion, violence, nonsense, and power William T. Cavanaugh
3. Discounting religion in the explanation of homegrown terrorism: a critique Lorne L. Dawson
4. Religion, radicalization, and the causes of terrorism Tom Mills and David Miller
5. The role of the devoted actor in war, revolution, and terrorism Scott Atran
6. Girard on apocalypse and terrorism Espen Dahl
7. Rational choice and religious terrorism: its bases, applications, and future directions Stephen Nemeth
8. Terror as sacrificial ritual? A discussion of (neo-) Durkheimian approaches to suicide bombing Lorenz Graitl
9. Imitations of terror: applying a retro style of analysis to the religion-terrorism nexus James R. Lewis
10. The LTTE: a non-religious, political, martial movement for establishing the right of self-determination of Īlattamils Peter Schalk
11. The role of religion in al-Qaeda`s violence Pieter Nanninga
12. Meanings of savagery: terror, religion, and the Islamic State Pieter Nanninga
13. Where`s Charlie? The discourse of religious violence in France post 7/1 2015 Per-Erik Nilsson
14. Understanding the threat of the Islamic State in contemporary Kyrgyzstan Meerim Aitkulova
15. Terror and the screen: keeping the relationship of good and bad virtual Christopher Hartney
16. Understanding Falun Gong`s martyrdom strategy as spiritual terrorism James R. Lewis and Nicole S. Ruskell.

Editor

James R. Lewis, Universitetet i Tromsø, Norway
James R. Lewis is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Tromsø, Norway. A scholar of New Religious Movements, he currently edits or co-edits three book series and is the general editor for the Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review. Recent publications include Violence and New Religious Movements (2011), Sacred Suicide (2014, with Carole Cusack), Cults: A Reference and Guide (2014), The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements: Volume II (2015, with Inga B. Tøllefsen), and The Invention of Satanism (2016, with Asbjørn Dyrendal and Jesper Petersen).

Contributors

Mark Juergensmeyer, William T. Cavanaugh, Lorne L. Dawson, Tom Mills, David Miller, Scott Atran, Espen Dahl, Stephen Nemeth, Lorenz Graitl, James R. Lewis, Peter Schalk, Pieter Nanninga, Per-Erik Nilsson, Meerim Aitkulova, Christopher Hartney, Nicole S. Ruskell