Religious Terrorism has become a scourge of the modern world. What
causes a person to kill innocent strangers in the name of religion? As both a Clinical Psychologist and an authority on comparative
religion, James W. Jones is uniquely qualified to address this increasingly urgent question. Research on the Psychology of
Violence shows that several factors work to make ordinary people become dangerous to others. These include feelings of humiliation
or shame, a tendency to see the world in black and white, and demonization or dehumanization of other people. Authoritarian
religion, Jones shows, is a particularly rich source of such ideas and feelings, which he finds throughout the writings of
Islamic Jihadists, such as the 9/11 conspirators. Jones goes on to apply this model to two very different religious groups
that have engaged in violence: Aum Shinrikyo, the Buddhist splinter group behind the Sarin gas attacks in the Tokyo Subway
System, and members of the extreme religious right in the U.S. who have advocated and committed violence against abortion
providers. Jones notes that not every adherent of an authoritarian group will turn to violence, and he shows how theories
of personality development can help us understand why certain individuals are easily recruited to perform terrorist acts.
Contents
- Introduction:
Religion, Psychology, and Terrorism
- Chapter
One: Religion and Terrorism - The Need for a Multidimensional Model
- Chapter Two: Jihadism in Comparative Perspective - Psychological Themes in Religiously Motivated Terrorism
- Chapter Three: Aum Shinrikyo – Violence and Terrorism in Japanese Buddhism
- Chapter Four: The Divine Terrorist – Religion and Violence in American
Apocalyptic Christianity
- Chapter Five: The Role
of the Individual - Toward a Clinical Psychology of Religious Terrorism
- Chapter Six: What Does This Tell Us About Religion?
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