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A common criticism of religion is the violence and persecution which is so often committed in its name and under its jurisdiction. There are many popular examples of such events throughout history, but even those who focus on this issue don't know nearly as much about it as they probably should — and who can? The list would be too long for anyone to fully learn, but at the very least critics should expand their horizons beyond the most obvious examples of the Crusades and the Inquisition.


Summary

Title: In the Name of Heaven: 3,000 Years of Religious Persecution
Author: Mary Jane Engh
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1591024544

Pro:
•  Includes references for more reading on each section for those who want to know more
•  Great deal of information contained in a relatively short book

Con:
•  More would have been nice, but you have to place limits somewhere

Description:
•  Overview of religious violence around the world from the 14 century BCE through the 19th century CE
•  Explains who did what to whom on the basis for religious differences and disagreements

 

Book Review

Of course, that would require a great deal of research on history and religion, right? Not if someone has already done the basic leg work for you — and that's where Mary Jane Engh's In the Name of Heaven: 3,000 Years of Religious Persecution comes in. Given that the subject is so broad, Engh chose to narrow her focus by only writing about religious persecution in which religious or political authorities acted against their own people, rather than religious wars, interreligious conflict, or privately instigated mob violence.

This makes all of the examples of violence "official" in the sense that religious institutions and apologists cannot avoid accepting responsibility for it all.

Engh starts with Akenaten in 14th century BCE Egypt and continues through North and South America in the 19th century. She doesn't try to cover the 20th century, given just how much there would be to say about that, and there is already tremendous amount of ground to cover in just 250 pages. Engh's book is thus necessarily superficial in some ways — she can't go into all of the details about who did what to whom and, most importantly, why. Politics and religion are always complicated, and even the most obviously religious conflict has plenty of non-religious elements.

Despite this, there is a wealth of information in Engh's book about the ways in which religious leaders have harmed sincere religious believers in the quest to impose both orthodoxy and orthopraxy on others. It's a story that is consistently repeated from one era to the next, one culture to the next, and one religion to the next. There are no religions or cultures which have been exempt and just about all of them get at least some attention.

For people broadly familiar with religious violence, this brevity might make the book seem not worth the price. For the general reader, though, there will be a lot here they aren't familiar with — and new details are added to stories they already think they know. Each chapter ends with a short "Source and Further Reading" section which explains where the reader can learn more if they would like. This more than makes up for the brevity of each section — the book is perfect as a basic introduction for people who don't have any other means for getting started.

Mary Jane Engh's writing is clear, easy, and informative. She doesn't act like she has an axe to grind or is simply out to bash religion. That may be the perception of religious apologists, but that's unfortunate because Engh is simply presenting factual, objective history here. It's not her fault that religion and religious institutions have been so violent, and there's no excuse for religious believers to pretend to ignore this state of affairs.