Introduction

This introductory chapter reviews the idea that religion promotes violence and secularism ameliorates the problem. Concentration on or simply assuming religion's inclination toward violence insouciantly glides past a glaring reality of the twentieth century: namely, that regimes committed to secularism have not infrequently possessed just as much capacity for violence as, and often much more than, those tied to religious identity. In terms of sheer numbers, the misery, deaths, and destruction visited on religious communities by secularist regimes in the twentieth century vastly exceed the violence committed during early modern European wars of religion, which are routinely invoked to legitimize the necessity of the modern secular nation-state. The chapter then presents three different forms of secularism: passive secularism, combative secularism, and eliminationist secularism. It also considers in detail the concepts of religion, secularism, and violence.