The Myth of Religious Violence? Revisiting our Global, National, and Campus Conflicts and the Path to Peace
In 2009 the landmark monograph of William Cavanaugh, The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict, was published by Oxford University Press. In that work, Cavanaugh showed how the term “religious violence” is not just an uncomplicated description of tragic phenomena witnessed all too frequently around the world. On the contrary, he argued, it is a foundational myth of western societies that denigrate religious actors as irrational and their conflicts as intractable while at the same time concealing and legitimating state violence against those same actors.
Now in 2024, fifteen years later, it seems that many of the global conflicts – certainly in Ukraine and the Middle East as well as elsewhere in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the US itself – which have embroiled college campuses and played a role in toppling their presidents, have involved unmistakable religious elements. So how then are we to understand them if not by religious violence? Is “religious extremism” any better or do alternatives like those mobilize new threats against religious liberty? And how might it become possible not only to understand religious communities and their traditions as not primarily responsible for global violence but also to activate them as vital sources of healing and reconciliation?
For Collegium Institute’s annual reception at the Penn Club of New York this April, we are pleased to host a conversation with Professor William Cavanaugh (DePaul University), author of The Myth of Religious Violence, together with two distinguished discussants: (1) Archbishop Borys Gudziak, Ph.D., Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of the United States; (2) Professor Timothy Shah, Distinguished Research Scholar in Politics at the University of Dallas (UD), and Director of UD’s Jacques and Raïssa Maritain Program on Catholicism, Public Life, and World Affairs. This event will be introduced by Dr. Daniel Cheely, Executive Director of the Perry-Collegium Initiative of Penn’s PRRUCS Program and Director of Collegium Institute, who is teaching a Penn History course this fall on Histories of Religious Violence.
Dr. Cavanaugh is Professor of Catholic Studies and Director of the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology at DePaul University. In addition to The Myth of Religious Violence, he is the author of eight other books including Torture and Eucharist (1998), Migrations of the Holy: Theologies of State and Church (2011), and Field Hospital: The Church’s Engagement with a Wounded World (2016) and the just published, The Uses of Idolatry. He is the co-editor of seven volumes, including The Blackwell Companion to Political Theology (2003), and co-editor of the journal Modern Theology. Specializing in the Church’s encounter with social, political, and economic realities, he has published over a hundred journal articles and book chapters, has lectured on six continents, and his books and articles have been published in seventeen languages.
Most Reverend Gudziak was appointed by Pope Francis in 2019 as the Ukrainian Catholic Archbishop of Philadelphia and Metropolitan for the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the United States. He serves as Chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USSCB) Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development. A scholar of Slavic and Byzantine cultural history, he holds a doctorate from Harvard University, founded the Institute of Church History in Lviv, Ukraine, and served as the rector and president of the Ukrainian Catholic University. He travels globally to lecture on theology, history, spirituality, education, society, and current challenges in Ukraine and is the author of several scholarly works and a contributor to “A Pope Francis Lexicon” (2017).
Dr. Shah is a political scientist specializing in religious freedom, religion and global politics, and the history of political thought. He serves as a Distinguished Research Scholar in Politics at the University of Dallas (UD), and Director of UD’s Jacques and Raïssa Maritain Program on Catholicism, Public Life, and World Affairs. With funding from the Templeton Religion Trust, he spearheaded an analysis of the religious freedom landscape as well as viable religious freedom strategies in South and Southeast Asia (2017-2020). He has authored and edited numerous books including God’s Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics; Homo Religiosus?: Exploring the Roots of Religion and Religious Freedom in Human Experience; and Under Caesar’s Sword: Christian Responses to Persecution among others.
This event will be introduced by Dr. Daniel Cheely, Executive Director of the Perry-Collegium Initiative of Penn’s PRRUCS Program and Director of Collegium Institute, who is teaching a Penn History course this fall on Histories of Religious Violence.
Our event opens with refreshments at 6pm, followed by our panel discussion at 6:45pm, then a reception from 8:15pm until 9pm. Early Bird tickets of $50 are available until Friday, March 29, 2024. Tickets are $70 thereafter. Student tickets are $25. If you are a Collegium Institute Student Fellow, please contact Collegium Institute staff directly regarding admission to this event.
We welcome First Things, Portsmouth Institute for Faith & Culture, America Media, and the Thomas Merton Institute for Catholic Life at Columbia University as co-sponsors.
Date: Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Time: 6pm - 9pm
Location: Presidents & Provost Room, 2nd Floor, at The Penn Club of New York (30 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036)
Click the button below to register.