In his newly published book, The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Religious Conflict, William Cavanaugh challenges conventional definitions of “religion” versus “secular” within the academy and in popular imagination and calls the distinctions “arbitrary.” Yet, in spite of their “incoherence” these distinctions impact our foreign policy and Supreme Court decisions, and ultimately underpin the violence that secular societies inflict on the religious other. To get a snapshot of his perspective, you can hear Cavanaugh speak about his work at Auburn Seminary’s Annual Jack and Lewis Rudin Lecture.
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