Holy War, Martyrdom, and Terror: Christianity, violence, and the West
PHILIPPE BUC

Can violence ever be justified in the name of religion? This is a question as relevant today as it was to the zealots of first-century Palestine, to St Augustine preaching against the Donatists, or to the Christian fundamentalists supporting American interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and now Syria.

The French historian Philippe Buc’s survey of faith-sponsored terrorism spans 2,000 years, from Josephus’ first-century histories of the Jews to the suicide bombers of the Islamic State. In part, Holy War, Martyrdom, and Terror is Buc’s valediction to the US, where he taught for many years at Stanford, and for which he expresses both admiration and contempt. Juxtaposing the rhetoric of George W. Bush with that of earlier religious enthusiasts, Buc demonstrates that in fanaticism there is no east nor west. Claims that America’s wars were fought for the general good of mankind by freedom’s martyrs, men willing to be ­sacrificed in order to build a brave new world, chime inexorably with the claims advanced by fanatics of all persuasions since the dawn of time. Donatists and Catholics, Hussites and Lutherans, reformers and counter-reformers, revolutionaries and the powers of counter-revolution – all have at one time laid claim to a holy mission of vindication or revenge. Even the Venerable Bede could imagine the saints as eagles, feasting upon the horde of Antichrist.