Evans Lindsey Gods of Battles: Holy Wars of Christianity and Islam By Peter Partner Reading Notes #13 History of holy war, from the Biblical Hebrews to our own times, is a history of texts belonging to scriptural religious; it is also a history of human behavior. The violence that men do, they seek to justify Holy war is special case; others wars may claim the benefit of divine approval, but holy war is one that God requires the faithful to fight The question of whether holy war is now a disused medieval idea that exerts no influence at all upon modern people who think of themselves as ,,westerners is important when we consider the judgments that they make about people of other faiths, and about Muslim fundamentalist in particular Holy war, which we think of as obsolete and archaic, is an extreme example of the politicization of cultural and religious conflict Dominant nations are not themselves free from aggressive nationalism makes their fears even keener Demonization of the adversary is not the way best of conducting international relations, whether it is done on the basis of the United States being describe as "the great Satan" or of non Christian states being described by Western governments as ,,terriost In modern life holy war tends to be regarded as a form of irregular warfare Religion is often invoked when the justice or injustice of a war is debated, and although Westerns do not normally qualify their wars as holy, they frequently appeal to their clergy to endorse the supposed justice of their cause The main argument for the propriety of the holy war is the holy land was in a manner similar to that argued by Zionist nine centuries later one of divinely authorized property right Once taxation under clerical authority to finance the crusade had been established, there was a powerful inducement to persuade the princes to go to the popes, and to use them as political go betweens and financiers for crusading policies
Reading #14 Intimations of Ancient Growth By E. L. Jones