Reviewed by Eduard van der Merwe, Department of Economics
When God Stops Fighting: How Religious Violence Ends is the culmination of Mark Juergensmeyer's 3-year study on the rise of religious violence in select parts of the world, and is the completion of a trilogy of books that includes Global Rebellion--which explores the rise of movements of religious nationalism--and Terror in the Mind of God--which explores the violence associated with some of these movements. When God Stops Fighting explores which factors--internal and external--contribute to the downfall of some of the most violent religious movements, and is essential to any scholar studying religious movements and for members of INOGOs focused on human rights or disaster relief efforts, as understanding how some of the most violent wars can develop into "a cessation of hostilities, a state of non-war" (p. 15) is the first step towards peace.
Juergensmeyer meticulously chooses three religious movements where active warfare has (mostly) ended--the Islamic State, based in Iraq and Syria, the Moro Movement for a Muslim Mindanao in the southern Philippines, and the Khalistan movement for Sikh separatism in the northern Indian state of Punjab. Readers are acquainted with ordinary civilians supporting the movements for economic and social gain. These hardened militants have "not lost faith in the idea of a Caliphate" (p. 52), nor those who joined "for fun," since "it was what everyone was doing" (p. 108).
Juergensmeyer provides sufficient and valuable conditions that can lead to the cessation of some of the most violent movements. Whether these factors also contribute to the downfall of violent, non-religious movements is interesting to contemplate. It is clear that religion is very difficult to extract as something with its own engine, and all these factors can be seen as social, economic, or political within a religious framework. All this attests to is the complexity of Juergensmeyer's work and helps the readers understand that peace might be out of reach, but a state of non-war is possible.
Read the full review, originally published in the Review of Religious Research.
Juergensmeyer, Mark. When God Stops Fighting: How Religious Violence Ends, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2022.