This volume of outstanding essays begins with the master-question 'Does religion cause violence?' and ends with a careful look at the case of Islamic terrorism. In between it explores modern forms of containing violence. René Girard's mimetic theory is invoked, questioned, criticized and stretched as the writers respond to vexing question of how religion seems to both invite and defer violence. We learn about the ways in which religion and the sacred, politics and spirituality, Christianity and Islam all intersect with each other and with the problem of violence in our modern world, and in so learning we are invited to take steps to undo the knots that disfigure love into hate.
