Terror and Religion - GENL1063
Faculty: Faculty of Law
School: Faculty of Law
Course Outline: See below
Campus: Sydney
Career: Undergraduate
Units of Credit: 6
EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)
Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 3
CSS Contribution Charge: 1 (more info)
Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule
Further Information: See Class Timetable
Available for General Education: Yes (more info)
View course information for previous years.
Description
The aim of Terror and Religion is to explore the historic and contemporary links between religion and terror and to help students understand the complexity of religious violence in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, especially in relation to terrorism and the so-called “war against terror”. The course addresses the re-emergence of religious nationalism and the threats it presents to modern states.
The course investigates legal and other definitions of terrorism and the development of modern doctrines of terror. It examines topics such as religious motivation, and the justification and legitimisation of the use violence in a number of major religious belief systems. It identifies the differences between mainstream and extremist teachings. It analyses significant acts of religiously motivated violence, and explores background issues such as secularisation, modernism and globalisation, as well as more personal ones, such as the nature of religious conviction and its influence on behaviour.
The course will take an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating insights from history, philosophy, psychology, sociology, studies in religion, politics and the law.
Main Topics
• Historic and contemporary examples of violence in religions such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Buddhism and new religious movements;
• The evolution of modern doctrines of terror and their influence on religiously motivated violence;
• Similarities and differences between religious and other forms of terrorism;
• Interpretation of religious teachings on violence by extremist thinkers in a number of religions and their significance for contemporary terrorism
• Analytical tools for understanding contemporary religious violence, including an understanding of personal, contextual and environmental factors.
• The influence of local and global politics and secularisation on the spread of religiously motivated violence
• Alternative forms of governance suggested by religious extremists, including the transnational entities such as a caliphate or theocracy
• The threat that contemporary terrorism poses to democracy
• Recent developments in terrorism studies and the measures taken to counter it
More information can be found on the Course Outline Website.
The course investigates legal and other definitions of terrorism and the development of modern doctrines of terror. It examines topics such as religious motivation, and the justification and legitimisation of the use violence in a number of major religious belief systems. It identifies the differences between mainstream and extremist teachings. It analyses significant acts of religiously motivated violence, and explores background issues such as secularisation, modernism and globalisation, as well as more personal ones, such as the nature of religious conviction and its influence on behaviour.
The course will take an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating insights from history, philosophy, psychology, sociology, studies in religion, politics and the law.
Main Topics
• Historic and contemporary examples of violence in religions such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Buddhism and new religious movements;
• The evolution of modern doctrines of terror and their influence on religiously motivated violence;
• Similarities and differences between religious and other forms of terrorism;
• Interpretation of religious teachings on violence by extremist thinkers in a number of religions and their significance for contemporary terrorism
• Analytical tools for understanding contemporary religious violence, including an understanding of personal, contextual and environmental factors.
• The influence of local and global politics and secularisation on the spread of religiously motivated violence
• Alternative forms of governance suggested by religious extremists, including the transnational entities such as a caliphate or theocracy
• The threat that contemporary terrorism poses to democracy
• Recent developments in terrorism studies and the measures taken to counter it
More information can be found on the Course Outline Website.
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