 | The Warrior and the Pacifist: Competing Motifs in Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam This book looks at two contradictory ethical motifs--the warrior and the pacifist--across four major faith traditions--Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam--and their role in shaping our understanding of violence and the morality of its use. The Warrior and the Pacifist explores how these faith traditions, which now mutually inhabit our life spaces, bring with them across the millennia the moral teachings that have traveled from prehistoric humanity, embedded in the beliefs, rituals, and institutions socially constructed by humans to deal with ultimate concerns, core aspects of daily personal and social life, and life transitions. Lester R. Kurtz is Professor of Sociology at George Mason University, South Korea. He is the editor of the Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict (2nd ed., 2008), co-editor of Women, War, and Violence (2015), The Paradox of Repression and Social Movements (2018), Nonviolent Social Movements (1999), and The Web of Violence (1997), and author of books and articles including Gods in the Global Village (4th ed., 2016), The Politics of Heresy (1988), and The Nuclear Cage (1988). |
