Premium
Religion and World Change: Violence and Terrorism versus Peace
Author(s) -
Silberman Israela,
Higgins E. Tory,
Dweck Carol S.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4560.2005.00431.x
Subject(s) - terrorism , meaning (existential) , status quo , malleability , sword , context (archaeology) , peaceful coexistence , political science , sociology , political economy , social psychology , criminology , environmental ethics , law , psychology , politics , computer security , history , encryption , philosophy , archaeology , ciphertext , computer science , psychotherapist , operating system
Our article portrays religion as a double‐edged sword that can both encourage and discourage world change, and can facilitate both violent and peaceful activism. The article demonstrates how the meaning system approach to religion can shed light on the complicated relationship between religion and world change by illuminating the meaning of world change and the means to achieve it, inherent differences across religious groups, the complexity and malleability of religious meaning systems, and processes that can facilitate either the status quo or violent and peaceful activism. The article discusses context and personality variables that may determine whether religion supports world change and either violent or peaceful activism. It recommends intensive collaboration between researchers, policy–makers, and religious leaders in the contexts of national and international conflicts and religious terrorism.