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http://hdl.handle.net/1974/7421
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| Title: | Cavanaugh's Myth-Appropriation of Ideology: A Critical Review of The Myth of Religious Violence |
| Authors: | Anthony, Charlotte Rae |
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| Keywords: | Cavanaugh, William
The Myth of Religious Violence
Religion
Violence |
| Issue Date: | 5-Sep-2012 |
| Abstract: | In The Myth of Religious Violence, William Cavanaugh deconstructs the category of “religion” in
an attempt to undermine the distinction between “religious” violence and “secular” violence, and
to examine the way in which this construction manifests itself in the conceptual apparatus of
contemporary Western society. This paper focuses on how Cavanaugh uses the categories “myth”
and “ideology.” Cavanaugh’s given definition and employment of “myth” is sensitive to broader
conceptions of the category in myth-studies. Unlike “myth,” Cavanaugh does not offer a
definition “ideology,” but he employs the term in two ways: (1) as an all-encompassing category
that seems to override definitional issues with “religion” and; (2) pejoratively to signal the falsity
of putatively “secular ideology” that is responsible for the creation and maintenance of the “myth
of religious violence.” In particular, Cavanaugh does not recognize the “mythic” dimension of his
use of the concept of “ideology.” Cavanaugh’s use of “ideology” appears to replace the general
argument that “religion causes violence” with the equally general argument that “ideology causes
violence” without informing his reader what he means by “ideology.” |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/1974/7421 |
| Appears in Collections: | Religious Studies Graduate Theses
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