religion, conflict and violence: patterns east and west, past and present kyoko tokuno, james...

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Religion, Conflict and Violence: Patterns East and West, Past and Present Kyoko Tokuno, James Wellman, Comparative Religion Program, Jackson School of International Studies Website for the project: http://depts.washington.edu/religion/violence ; includes a Call for Papers for May 12-14 Spring Symposium SPONSORS: The Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, The College of Arts & Sciences, Department of Near East Languages and Civilization, Comparative Religion Program, East Asia Center, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, China Studies, and private donors.

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Page 1: Religion, Conflict and Violence: Patterns East and West, Past and Present Kyoko Tokuno, James Wellman, Comparative Religion Program, Jackson School of

Religion, Conflict and Violence: Patterns East and West, Past and Present

• Kyoko Tokuno, James Wellman, Comparative Religion Program, Jackson School of International Studies

• Website for the project: http://depts.washington.edu/religion/violence; includes a Call for Papers for May 12-14 Spring Symposium

• SPONSORS: The Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, The College of Arts & Sciences, Department of Near East Languages and Civilization, Comparative Religion Program, East Asia Center, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, China Studies, and private donors.

Page 2: Religion, Conflict and Violence: Patterns East and West, Past and Present Kyoko Tokuno, James Wellman, Comparative Religion Program, Jackson School of

Clifford Geertz’s Definition of Religion: Classic Definition in the Field

• Religion is

– a system of symbols

– which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men

– by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and

– clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that

– the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.

Page 3: Religion, Conflict and Violence: Patterns East and West, Past and Present Kyoko Tokuno, James Wellman, Comparative Religion Program, Jackson School of

Talal Assad’s Critique of Geertz

– Search for universal essence of religion separates religion from power and inoculates religion from conflict/violence

– No universal definitions because the definition itself is an historical product of discursive processes

– Socioeconomic conditions are the independent variable shaping religion rather than religion shaping specific dispositions/social structures

Page 4: Religion, Conflict and Violence: Patterns East and West, Past and Present Kyoko Tokuno, James Wellman, Comparative Religion Program, Jackson School of

Wellman/Tokuno Response to Asad:

– Agree, mistake to separate religion from power, as a legitimating force of state power

– Mistake in Asad’s analysis to assume that religion is always at the mercy of political/state forces

– Religion:

• Becomes the state/shares power w/state to coerce its values

• Uses ‘sacred violence’ to legitimize demands on individual/group

– Conflict/power are not separate from religion but is endemic to it

– Conflict can induce violence but can become a dynamic, creative force

Page 5: Religion, Conflict and Violence: Patterns East and West, Past and Present Kyoko Tokuno, James Wellman, Comparative Religion Program, Jackson School of

Is a Universal Definition of Religion Possible?

• Yes; otherwise, the field becomes a miasma of confusion

• Universal definition cannot offer an essence, but can provide a revisable approximation and guide

– Dangers in the definitional game:

• too ambiguous or figurative;

• too narrow or broad;

• redundant or negative

– Definitions must also be judged on the basis of their own context and historical period

Page 6: Religion, Conflict and Violence: Patterns East and West, Past and Present Kyoko Tokuno, James Wellman, Comparative Religion Program, Jackson School of

Working Definition of Religion

• Religion is a system of symbols, composed of beliefs and practices, developed in a communal setting, often institutionally legitimated, which negotiates and interacts with a power or force that is experienced as within and beyond the self and group; this power or force is most often referred to as god/spirit or gods/spirits. The symbolic and social boundaries of religion mobilizes group identity and, at times, conflict and even violence within and between groups.

– System of Symbols (Story)– Beliefs (Doctrines)– Practices (Rituals)– Communally reproduced (Tradition)– Institutionally legitimated (Authority)– Power transcending individual and group (Transcendence)– Boundaries create identity, conflict and potential violence (Conflict)

Page 7: Religion, Conflict and Violence: Patterns East and West, Past and Present Kyoko Tokuno, James Wellman, Comparative Religion Program, Jackson School of

Advantages of Wellman/Tokuno Definition over Geertz’s

• Overcomes Geertz’s focus on symbols as chief carrier of religious power

• Emphasizes the importance of practices/rituals as shaping tools

• Focuses on the communal and institutional legitimating processes

• Avoids the negativity of “aura of factuality” in estimating religious experience

• Religion (most often) about spirits/gods, which distinguishes it and makes it a subset of a general definition of culture

• Underlines that conflict (and potentially violence) are not marginal to religion but are often the intended and unintended consequences of religion

Page 8: Religion, Conflict and Violence: Patterns East and West, Past and Present Kyoko Tokuno, James Wellman, Comparative Religion Program, Jackson School of

What is the Cause of Religious Violence?Is it Monotheism?

• Argument: Monotheism’s “particularism” ‘We are the only true faith,’ becomes the agent of violence

• Problems:

– Not all Monotheists are actively violent

– Non-monotheistic religions have been actively violent, using particularism and killing or initiating conflict in the name of faith

– Not all Monotheistic faiths act in the same way—their actions are quite fluid relative to circumstance/leadership

Page 9: Religion, Conflict and Violence: Patterns East and West, Past and Present Kyoko Tokuno, James Wellman, Comparative Religion Program, Jackson School of

What is the Cause of Religious Violence?Is it fundamentalism?

• American Protestant origin of the term

• Scott Appleby’s recent work: Strong Religion, based on the mid-1990s Chicago Fundamentalist Project, continues to use fundamentalism

– Why let the word burden the field with all of its pejorative and dogmatic meanings?

– Appleby believes that the term best applies to Abrahamic religions and not for religions from the East

– Appleby defines fundamentalism: Reaction to modernism

• Religion, conflict and violence in premodern periods

Page 10: Religion, Conflict and Violence: Patterns East and West, Past and Present Kyoko Tokuno, James Wellman, Comparative Religion Program, Jackson School of

Internal Relations of Religion and Culture:Minimalist and Maximalist Religion

• Terms adapted from Lincoln’s work, Holy Terror

• Minimalist Religion:

– Religion that focuses on the inner, subjective lives of its followers; beliefs and practices defend the individual/group from culture and state

– Religion that adapts well to modernity in the West with greater social differentiation of cultural spheres (open religious market)

– Minimalist religion is not simply a function of modernity, premodern precursors

– Minimalist religion is passively aggressive toward state/cultural powers, believing that they have a secret knowledge that is a transcendental force to overcome all powers

Page 11: Religion, Conflict and Violence: Patterns East and West, Past and Present Kyoko Tokuno, James Wellman, Comparative Religion Program, Jackson School of

Maximalist Religion

• Maximalist religion:

– Religion that believes in a continuous line between metaphysical worldview and concrete relations politically and culturally

– Maximalist religion has exemplars in premodern period, ancient world; religion struggles with modernity and becomes the “enemy” of Enlightenment critics in the West

– Maximalist religion is what is most often called fundamentalism– Maximalist religion most often rationalizes state enforced religious

morality, or wants to dominate the state

• A proposition: The more a religion becomes maximalist, the greater the tendency for conflict to move to violence

Page 12: Religion, Conflict and Violence: Patterns East and West, Past and Present Kyoko Tokuno, James Wellman, Comparative Religion Program, Jackson School of

External Relations of Religion and Culture

• Established Religion:– Orthodoxy, orthopraxy; mainstream; clerical; public and open;

conformed to wider status quo morality• Sectarian Religion:

– Heterodoxy, heteropraxy; peripheral; lay led; syncretic; private or secret; millenarian and subversive to status quo

Page 13: Religion, Conflict and Violence: Patterns East and West, Past and Present Kyoko Tokuno, James Wellman, Comparative Religion Program, Jackson School of

Theories of Conflict and Violence

• Social/religious life creates conflict: tension with others; however, not all conflict escalates to violence

• Violence: to afflict physical or emotional harm on the self, other/group

• Question: What moves religious conflict from tension to violence?

– Motivations based on worldview and leadership, discussed below

Page 14: Religion, Conflict and Violence: Patterns East and West, Past and Present Kyoko Tokuno, James Wellman, Comparative Religion Program, Jackson School of

Types of Violence

• Types of violence, using Stevan Harrell’s typology:

– Vertical violence, from above (dominance), from below (resistance)

– Horizontal violence, competition/conflict within/between individuals/groups over restricted economic/cultural resources

Page 15: Religion, Conflict and Violence: Patterns East and West, Past and Present Kyoko Tokuno, James Wellman, Comparative Religion Program, Jackson School of

Types of Religious Violence

• Vertical Violence:

– Dominance (from above):

• Holy War: crusade, jihad (Religious group against the other)

• Sacrificial rites (Religious leaders against vulnerable members)

– Resistance (from below):

• Millennial movements (Protest movements)

• Martyrdom, self-immolation, asceticism (Protest/self-repression)

Page 16: Religion, Conflict and Violence: Patterns East and West, Past and Present Kyoko Tokuno, James Wellman, Comparative Religion Program, Jackson School of

Types of Religious Violence

• Horizontal Violence:

– Internecine conflict: internal group violence to establish leadership

– Violence between groups; competition in open religious market over limited cultural/economic capital

Page 17: Religion, Conflict and Violence: Patterns East and West, Past and Present Kyoko Tokuno, James Wellman, Comparative Religion Program, Jackson School of

What is the Source of Religious Violence?Motivation: Worldview, Leadership and Context

• Complex mixture of religious worldview and religious leadership. – Worldview: Motivation is shaped by symbolic resources– Leadership: Groups are galvanized by dynamic/charismatic leaders– Context: Dominant religion/culture weaken/becomes oppressive

Page 18: Religion, Conflict and Violence: Patterns East and West, Past and Present Kyoko Tokuno, James Wellman, Comparative Religion Program, Jackson School of

What is the Source of Religious Violence?Worldview

– Religious Worldview that creates violence:• Religious worldview has symbolic resources that point at a utopist

vision of total religious world• Religious worldview can be this-worldly or other-worldly, though

most often related to a wider, normative transcendental vision • The transcendental demand (hope) that the cosmic religious vision

become embodied, politically/culturally

Page 19: Religion, Conflict and Violence: Patterns East and West, Past and Present Kyoko Tokuno, James Wellman, Comparative Religion Program, Jackson School of

What is the Source of Religious Violence?Leadership

– Religious Leadership

• Most often led by young and aggressive male leadership that is educated (modicum of status) and has some access to material resources

• Belief that they have become agents of the vision

• Belief that the vision demands human initiative

• Belief and actions that the cosmic visions rationalizes the use of violence for a larger moral imperative

Page 20: Religion, Conflict and Violence: Patterns East and West, Past and Present Kyoko Tokuno, James Wellman, Comparative Religion Program, Jackson School of

What is the Source of Religious Violence?Cultural Context

– Cultural Context that facilitates/shapes violence (i.e. our assertion is that violence relative to religion is not a function of a context, but the context shapes the contours of the conflict that occurs):

• Weakening of familial/social ties, no more constraint on conflict

• Secular/religious state becomes more oppressive against minority religions/sectarian groups