Propedeutics for the Issue of Religion-and-War

Abstract

The book under review, War and Religion: A Very Short Introduction, by Jolyon Mitchell and Joshua Rey, presents the most general issues on the topic in a popular way. The book consists of six chapters, of which five are dedicated to case studies united by similar problems and the last one to theoretical issues. The authors write about religious memory of war, holy wars, secular wars supported by religions, religious conceptions of just war, and religious pacifism and peacebuilding. The last chapter describes essentialism and functionalism as the two main approaches in studying the relations between religion and war, ignoring social constructivism. The book does not offer any patterns, schemes, or models of connections between religion and war, as the authors take the theoretical position that no such connections can exist because there are no such things as “war” and “religion” per se. The author of this review believes that although the book does not suggest any specific theoretical framework or practical advice on studying religion in wartime, it can nonetheless be a helpful introduction to the topic.