ABSTRACT
Believers do not generally take their religion seriously in its entirety-a fact at times much deplored by those in religious authority, but more to be welcomed by the world at large. For religious commitment can conduce rather readily, and apparently logically and as a matter of principle, to religious extremism. The above quotations are redolent of religious intolerance in general, and holy war, genocide and anti-Semitism in particular.' Or consider the rather different case of Origen, so in thrall to scripture as to be prepared to harm himself, not others, by castrating himself in response to Matthew 19:12 - 'There are eunuchs who have made themselves so for the sake of the kingdom of Heaven. Let anyone accept this who can'. Two contrasting (though not necessarily mutually exclusive) types of response to such phenomena are available. Stated crudely: blame Origen, or blame
Christianity. Anti-religious sceptics apart, there is a strong tendency to plump for the first of these two strategies. Portray Origen and his ilk as 'extremists' and one can then exculpate the religion: extremists do not represent the 'true' religion; they are guilty of deficient understanding and distorted faith.
