ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the nature and implications of the paradox, focusing for the most part on the place of violence in the religious of ‘primitive’ or pre-state societies. From a vantage point inside the Western religious tradition, religion may be perceived as inherently antithetical to violence, making religious violence a paradox from the point of view of the religion itself. In the absence of strictly determined forms, the sacrificial channeling of violence against violence is always in danger of spilling over into renewed revenge cycles of violence against violence, ultimately resulting in the confusion of ritual and history. The chapter addresses the question of violence in a non-Western ‘world religion’, Islam, within the comparative context. Emile Durkheim identified religion with the principle of social cohesion, and social cohesion requires in turn that a check be imposed on the centrifugal force of social violence.
