Finding peace within the history books and the holy texts
THE NEW YORK TIMES
By David Brooks
It’s easy to think that ISIS is some sort of evil, medieval cancer that somehow has resurfaced in the modern world. But in his book “Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence,” the brilliant Rabbi Jonathan Sacks argues that ISIS is in fact typical of what we will see in the decades ahead. Sacks emphasizes that it is not religion itself that causes violence. Rather, religion fosters groupishness, and the downside of groupishness is conflict with people outside the group. That’s what we saw in Paris...Sacks’s great contribution is to point out that the answer to religious violence is probably going to be found within religion itself, among those who understand that religion gains influence when it renounces power. [link]
By David Brooks
It’s easy to think that ISIS is some sort of evil, medieval cancer that somehow has resurfaced in the modern world. But in his book “Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence,” the brilliant Rabbi Jonathan Sacks argues that ISIS is in fact typical of what we will see in the decades ahead. Sacks emphasizes that it is not religion itself that causes violence. Rather, religion fosters groupishness, and the downside of groupishness is conflict with people outside the group. That’s what we saw in Paris...Sacks’s great contribution is to point out that the answer to religious violence is probably going to be found within religion itself, among those who understand that religion gains influence when it renounces power. [link]
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