Sanctified Violence

"With Andrea and Holt as sure-footed guides, Sanctified Violence tackles a vast subject: the global history of holy war in its many forms across the millennia. From cosmic struggles between forces of good and evil at the dawn of mythic time to apocalyptic battles at history’s end, this book explores the transcendental impulses and religious ideologies that fuel and shape collective violence in virtually every culture and age. Modern military chaplains and armed Buddhist monks keep company with medieval Templars and Aztec Flower warriors. Sanctified Violence never pretends to have all the answers to difficult questions about warfare and the sacred, but rather invites reflective readers to appraise their complicated relationship for themselves. Richly illustrated, each chapter offers a detailed commentary on its major historical sources and poses questions for further analysis, making the volume ideal for the classroom."
—Brett E. Whalen, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
"It is one of the great conundrums of religious scholarship that holy wars not only exist but in some ways dominate the life and times of so many cults, religions, and spiritual communities in human history. . . . This good book does a stellar job of laying out the horror that some humans commit in the name of their gods. Andrea and Holt’s book is a dark but necessary tale of the story of how humans justify the murder of their enemies and the defense of their territory for the sake and in name of these deities."
—James K. Wellman, Jr., University of Washington
“This revealing and sensitive book helps us understand why warmongers routinely abuse religion as a pretext, and why religions sometimes make adherents seek sanctification in violence.”
—Felipe Fernández-Armesto, University of Notre Dame