Religion, fundamentalism, and violence

To illuminate a set of issues that have become increasingly vexatious in our time, Andrew L. Gluck gathers a group of once informed and sensitive to global affairs, "capable of critiquing their respective traditions but who are also appreciative of them and understand them from the inside" ... Can a concerted exchange like the one laboriously executed here offer any illumination to realities daily bowdlerized by a sound-bite media in an ostensibly "enlightened world?" The answer to this passionate query is manifested in the work itself, which promises to equip readers with a set of tools to unravel, if not answer, the tangled queries they bring to it. - From the Foreword by David Burrell, C.S.C., Hesburgh Professor Emeritus in Philosophy and Theology, University of Notre Dame. This is a fine collection of high-quality essays centered on a topic of continuing concern and relevance. The interactive-dialogical style is particularly valuable since it integrates the collection as a whole. In his introduction Andrew Gluck's heuristic approach frames the questions and issues well, preparing the reader for the main chapters. Not only will this work interest scholars, but it could also serve as an excellent interdisciplinary reader for a course on "Religion and Terror" in a cross-cultural setting, for example, in the context of comparative religions or topics in the history of religions. - Alan M. Olson, Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Boston University --Book Jacket.