Holy War
Uploaded by doell7 on Mar 25, 2014
Doell 1
Religious War in Judaism, Christianity and Islam
Religious Studies
Throughout history, humans have had a tough time accepting other cultures and ways of life foreign to their own. The human race is a brutal and uncompromising species and when people do not respect what they do not understand, they have tended to take matters into their own hands using Gods will as an excuse to exact war. The only means of justifying their hatred and misguided perceptions is to validate that God is on their side. When one reads the Torah, Bible or the Qur’an, they can ‘choose’ to see texts under a completely different light compared to the person right beside them. The words of all three sacred scripts can be twisted and be completely taken out of context to vindicate ones feelings towards other races, ethnicities and cultures. History has provided many examples of monotheistic religious war and conquering, from the day Joshua and his army brought down the walls of Jericho all the way to where the world finds itself now with war in the Middle East. This paper will set out to answer the question of whether or not the Holy Wars that have taken place throughout history were sanctioned by God himself, or rather just the works of men who felt the need to take innocent lives to satisfy their own greed. In the words of American comedian Steve Allen “If there is a God, the phrase that must disgust him is - holy war.”1 This paper will compare these claims of divinely sanctioned warfare between the three powerhouse monotheistic religions that are driving the world today: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Doell 2
Judaism has seen its fair share of war in its long history and it can be argued that the legacy of the wars the Jews partook in live on today. Judaism has experienced both incredible victories and unspeakable defeats. The whole theme of Judaism had been exile and return, not only physically being taken from their promised land but also on a spiritual level, their relationship with God. Judaism saw its people turn away from God, worshipping other deities and idols, only to return to God once again.
So all Israel was recorded by genealogies, and indeed, they were inscribed in the Book of the Kings of Israel. But Judah was carried away captive to Babylon because of their unfaithfulness. 2
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