By Brook Wilensky-Lanford
Published 6:10 pm, Wednesday, November 19, 2014
... Why begin with the literal definition of a “scapegoat”? Because Armstrong believes that whenever we say that “religion has been the cause of all the major wars in history,” we do the same thing: place the blame where it does not belong. This argument, most often advanced by New Atheist writers like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, is simplistic, historically uninformed, and worse — useless.
Armstrong describes “the impossibility of describing any religious tradition as a single unchanging essence that will always inspire violence.” Whether we like it or not, writes Armstrong, religion is inherently political, and vice versa. “Not only does religion affect policy, but politics can shape theology.” The two are deeply embedded, and it’s time we realize it ...
To argue against the tautology that religion causes wars with such a vast, sweeping history seems at first a foolhardy maneuver. To claim, as Armstrong does for Crusader-era anti-Semitic violence, that a given event “was certainly inspired by religious conviction, but social, political and economic elements were also involved,” is not to make that big a claim. Someone who actually believes that religion causes violence is unlikely to sit down and read a 500-page book showing that the reality is much more complicated. To realize that violence is inherent in human nature and that religion, as a human creation, is entangled with violence, as is politics, and every other human endeavor, leaves us at a dead end.
But actually the form of Armstrong’s book is itself the argument. It is more complicated, and we must acknowledge that complexity, and its implications for our shared humanity, before we can have any hope of creating a viable world where we are not trying to destroy each other. How do we do that? We must “take responsibility for the world’s pain and learn to listen to narratives that challenge our sense of ourselves. All this requires the 'surrender,’ selflessness and compassion that have been just as important in the history of religion as crusades and jihads.” We oversimplify the relationship between religion and violence at our peril. That scapegoat, resentful and festering, will turn back to the city that drove it out.
http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Fields-of-Blood-by-Karen-Armstrong-review-5905094.php
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