Faith, Conflict, and Human Rights (AR3050Z)

Content

Religious faith continues to influence and shape modern twenty-first societies. While some may regard religion as the cause of conflict, terror, and war, others locate in it the transcendent source of ethics, justice and human rights. Yet religion itself is notoriously difficult to define, let alone understand. In this unit, students will explore the significance of religious faith, and its relationship to conflict and human rights.

Learning outcomes

Unit sequence

No prerequsites

Pedagogy

Lectures/seminars and student-led tutorials

Indicative Bibliography

• Asad, Talal. Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam. Baltimore and London: John Hopkins, 1993.
• Cavanaugh, William T. The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the roots of Modern Conflict. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
• Eaton, Heather. Ecofeminism and Globalisation: Exploring Culture, Context, and Religion. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.
• Gross, Rita. A Garland of Feminist Reflections: Forty Years of Religious Exploration. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.
• Juergensmeyer, Mark. Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence. 4th Ed. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press., 2017
• Nietzsche, Friedrich. On the Genealogy of Morality. Translated by C. Diethe, Edited by K. Ansell-Pearson. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
• Nongbri, Brent. Before Religion: A History of a Modern Concept. New Haven and New York: Yale University Press, 2015.
• Possamai, Adam, and David Tittensor. Religion and Change in Australia. London and New York: Routledge, 2021.
• Woodhead, Linda; Christopher Partridge and Hiroko Kawanami (eds). Religions in the Modern World: Traditions and Transformations. 3rd ed. London and New York: Routledge, 2016.

Assessment