Violence As Worship

Hans G. Kippenberg is Wisdom Professor for Comparative Religious Studies at Jacobs University, Bremen. His books in English include Discovering Religious History in the Modern Age (2002) and The 9/11 Handbook: Annotated Translation and Interpretation of the Attackers' Spiritual Manual(2006, edited with Tilman Seidensticker).

"Hans Kippenberg's Violence as Worship: Religious Wars in the Age of Globalization offers an insightful and fresh perspective using a historically detailed sociology . . . Well-written and historically-robust case studies make this book a valuable addition to the growing literature on religion and violence."—Melissa Mathes, Politics & Religion "In Violence as Worship, an expertly researched and excellently translated book, Kippenberg has offered a completely new interpretation of religious cum political conflicts in the contemporary world. This is a must-read book for government leaders, law enforcement officers, and religious personalities who advise presidents and other foreign politices."—Kofi Asimpi, Missiology "Kippenberg's handling of violence as a religious act has broader applications for how analysts consider religion, agency and causation. The book is enormously useful for the analysis of religious and civic activity."—Ipsita Chatterjea, Bulletin for the Study of Religion "This book is both one of the best contributions to the study of contemporary world conflicts and an impressive new approach to research on religiously inspired political conflicts in general. Kippenberg's approach is directed against all attempts to essentialize 'religion' and 'violence:' instead, he focusses on religious motivations and interpretations of violent acts by individuals and collectivities."—Hans Joas, Max Weber Center, University of Erfurt, Germany, and Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago "What makes Violence As Worship so engaging is Kippenberg's consistently brilliant use of social theory to explain the story behind the headlines. No one else has laid bare the extent to which religious advocates are also actors in civil society, empowered through the vast expansion of the public domain during the past half-century."—Bruce Lawrence, Duke University