1st Edition

Religion and Peace Historical Aspects

Edited By Yvonne Friedman Copyright 2018
    214 Pages
    by Routledge

    214 Pages 4 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This volume represents a departure from the prevailing emphasis on religion and war in the medieval and early modern periods. Instead, the book explores the relationship between religion and peace in the context of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, both as an ideal and on the practical level. The Introduction, which proposes a holistic model for analysis of violence/nonviolence-peace, provides a framework for understanding the various aspects of peacemaking during the period in question. The topics covered range from religion and diplomacy, peace movements grounded in religious ideals, the Muslim ideal of peace and actual peacemaking, Muslim-Christian treaties in the Latin East, papal policy in the Middle Ages and the twentieth century, the unique role of holy women who were spokeswomen for peace, the internal pursuit of peace in medieval Jewish society, and what fuelled religious tolerance in sixteenth-century Poland. As a whole, these chapters reflect how different societies reacted to and treated the “Other” in the context of peacemaking and overcame the conceptual gap with their ideology that promoted the belief that they possessed the one and only truth. They demonstrate that religion and religious institutions can serve as a positive influence and agents of peace.

    Introduction  Yvonne Friedman  1. Violence and Nonviolence/Peace: Introduction to a Holistic Approach  Markus Fath  2. Religion and Diplomatic Peacemaking in the Middle Byzantine Period  Nicolas Drocourt  3. The Peace of God: Demotic Millennialism and the Religious Dynamics of the Central Middle Ages  Richard Landes  4. Learning the Religious Concepts of the "Other": Muslim-Christian Treaties in the Latin East  Yvonne Friedman  5. Islam as a Peacemaking Religion: Self-Image, Medieval Theory, and Practice  Yehoshua Frenkel  6. Making Peace with "God’s Enemies": The Muslim Dilemma of Treaty-Making with Christians in the Medieval Levant  Betty Binysh  7. Pursuit of Peace in the Service of War: Papal Policy, 1198-1334  Sophia Menache  8. Holy Women as Spokeswomen for Peace in Late Medieval Europe  Esther Cohen  9. The Pursuit of Peace in Medieval Judaism  Daniel Roth  10. The Development of Religious Tolerance in Poland: From the Medieval Period to the Reformation  Paweł Kras  Epilogue: Theology of Forgiveness and Peace: Christian Culture of Peace in the Roman Catholic Church after Vatican II  Bernard Ardura

    Biography

    Yvonne Friedman is Professor of General History and Land of Israel Studies at Bar-Ilan University.