Religion And War Index
Hub
Religion and war — the interpenetration of religious belief, ritual, and authority with armed conflict — runs as a continuous thread through human history, even as the precise relationship has shifted dramatically across eras and traditions. The subdomain covers religion-and-war as a research domain across every era and civilisation: ancient Vedic war-ritual (the rajasuya, ashvamedha) and divine-sanctioned conflict in the Mahabharata and Iliad; Mesopotamian and Egyptian war-gods and theological warrant for imperial conquest; the long Hebrew and early-Christian engagement with violence (herem, the Maccabean revolt, the just-war tradition’s patristic origins); Roman religious rites surrounding war (the fetial procedure, devotio); Byzantine theological reflection on war and military sainthood; the long Islamic discourse on jihad (kabir, asghar, fard ayn vs fard kifaya) and Ottoman gaza ideology; the medieval European Crusade movement and the long history of holy war in Latin Christendom; the religious wars of the European Reformation (Schmalkaldic, French Wars of Religion, Thirty Years’ War, English Civil War’s New Model Army religiosity); early-modern colonial religious warfare across the Americas, Africa, and Asia; the eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century providentialism the current vault focus visits; the Mahdist, Wahhabi, Boxer, and Taiping religious-political movements; twentieth-century religious nationalism, religious terrorism, and the Israel-Palestine and Hindu-Muslim and Buddhist-Muslim violences; and contemporary debates over religion’s role in armed conflict. Notes treat doctrine (just war, holy war, pacifism), ritual (prayer, oath, sacrifice, chaplaincy), and the social psychology of religion in combat. Adjacent to MOC_Religion_Church, MOC_Conflicts, MOC_Politics_Governance, and MOC_Culture_Society.
Primary Notes
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Roadmap
(planned notes as red-links — add as research identifies gaps)
Methodology
- Just War, Holy War, Pacifism — The Conceptual Map of Religion and Violence
- Religious Sanctification of Combat — Cross-Cultural Patterns
- Chaplaincy as Institution — Forms, Functions, and the Religious-Military Hybrid
Ancient
- Vedic War Ritual and Divine-Sanctioned Conflict in the Indian Tradition
- Greek and Roman Religious Rites of War — Fetial Procedure, Devotio, Trophy
- Hebrew Bible, Herem, and the Maccabean Tradition
- Early Christian Engagement with Violence — From Pacifism to Augustine’s Just War
Medieval
- The Crusade Movement — Theology, Mobilisation, and the Long Western Aftermath
- Jihad in Classical Islamic Thought — Kabir, Asghar, and the Schools of Law
- Byzantine Military Saints and Theological Reflection on War
- Mongol Tengrist Conquest Ideology and the Yasa
- Buddhist Warrior Monks — Sohei, Shaolin, and the Asian Religious-Military Hybrid
Early Modern
- The Reformation Wars — Schmalkaldic, French Wars of Religion, Thirty Years’ War
- Cromwell and the New Model Army — Puritan Religiosity in Combat
- Ottoman Gaza Ideology and the Frontier Holy War
- Sengoku Japan — Ikko-Ikki, Buddhist Warrior Bands, and Religious Conflict
- Mughal-Sikh Conflicts — Religious Identity and Eighteenth-Century South Asian War
- Colonial Religious Warfare in the Americas, Africa, and Asia
Age of Sail (current vault focus)
- Nelson’s Prayer Before Trafalgar — Text, Context, and Providential Belief
- The Jihad Dimension — Ottoman Religious Mobilisation Against the French in Egypt
- Protestant Britain and Catholic France — Confessional Identity in War Propaganda
- Death at Sea — Burial Ritual, Mourning Practice, and the Theology of Sacrifice
- Evangelical Revival and the Navy — Wilberforce, Hannah More, and Naval Moral Reform
Modern
- The Mahdist Movement — Sudan, Religious Politics, and Anti-Imperial War
- Wahhabi-Saudi State Formation and the Religious Politics of Arabia
- The Boxer Uprising and Chinese Anti-Foreign Religious Mobilisation
- The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom — Heterodox Christianity and Mass Religious War
- Twentieth-Century Religious Nationalism — Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Islamic
- Religious Terrorism — From Anarchist Roots to Twenty-First-Century Forms
- Contemporary Religion-and-War — The Long Debate Over Causation and Pretext
Cross-Cutting
- See also: MOC_Religion_Church
- See also: _Home