In the long history of the monotheistic tradition, violence — often bloody violence and warfare — have not just been occasional but defining activities. Do religions, and especially the Abrahamic tradition, encourage violence in the imagery of their sacred writings, in their theology, and in their tendency to see the world as a cosmos divided between powers of good and forces of evil? Is such violence a historical condition affecting all religious movements, or are some religions more prone to violence than others?

The articles collected in this volume represent the independent and considered thinking of internationally known scholars from a variety of disciplines concerning the relationship between religion and violence, with special reference to the theories of "just war" and "jihad," technical terms that arise in connection with the theology of early medieval Christianity and early Islam, respectively.

The contributors include Hector Avalos, Charles K. Bellinger, Bahar Davary, Carol Delaney, J. Harold Ellens, Reuven Firestone, R. Joseph Hoffmann, Judith Lichtenberg, Pauletta Otis, Gabriel Palmer-Fernandez, Laura Purdy, Joyce E. Salisbury, Regina M. Schwartz, and Robert B. Tapp.
In the present global and political climate, the significant conversation about why religions provoke conflict and whether any religion is truly "harmless" cannot be ignored.