Throughout history religion and violence have often gone hand-in-hand. Thus the age-old question of whether religion is the cause of violence, or a vehicle for its exercise. Neither—or, perhaps, a little of both—says former Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his new book.
Drawing on psychology, philosophy and evolutionary biology, the original and fascinating early chapters analyse the “othering” that leads to violence between groups with differing identities—an expression of survival instinct, says Sacks. He argues that religion has played a prominent role in this only because “it is the most powerful source of group identity the world has yet known.” The word “religion” comes from the Latin
ligare, meaning to join or bind. But attempts to replace religious identity with something else (race, nationalism, political ideology) also led to conflict; and the alternative, the modern west's attempt to wipe out group identity altogether, has failed.
Sacks focuses on the sibling rivalry between the Abrahamic faiths that have struggled to live peacefully side by side as they fight for the same thing: to be God's chosen ones. A large portion of the book is dedicated to an in-depth analysis of the Hebrew scriptures, arguing that they warn against such rivalry. The obvious flaw is that such an interpretation will be accepted only by those already inclined to do so. And by Sacks’s own account, even if we are able to find a theological solution, inter-group violence would emerge in other ways.
Large parts of this book will be of interest mainly to scholars and practitioners of the faiths Sacks deals with—but it is nonetheless deeply insightful and thought-provoking.
