ABSTRACT
A glance at virtually any morning paper or evening TV news reminds us that now is also an important time to study religion for grimmer reasons. In the post-Cold War world, religion, often linked to passionate nationalism, appears as a major factor in many of the planet’s tragic conflicts. Reports from India, the Middle East, the Balkans and, after September 11, 2001, New York and Washington, remind us of this terrible reality over and over. While the religions invoked in these often-bloody disputes cannot usually be solely blamed for them, no full comprehension of the Earth’s current crises is possible without an in-depth understanding of the faiths involved. In assessing our own attitudes toward religious belief, we are forced to deal with the fact that religion is not always a good thing by ordinary human values.
