Discussion on the State of Literature about Faith-Based Violence.
As the world turns and time passes, perceptions and opinions drastically change. At one point in history, the vast majority of the world"s population was under the control of religious groups. In the Middle Ages, Europe, the world"s financial and cultural center, was controlled by the two Christian realms, Byzantium and the Holy Roman Empire. Kathleen Parrow highlights some historical events in her book, From Defense to Resistance: Justification of Violence During the French Wars of Religion. The Byzantines controlled all of Eastern Europe and parts of the Near East [commonly known as the Middle East] from 867-1453 with immense military strength and strong religious fervor (Parrow 45). The Romans controlled the rest of Europe and influenced much of the world for approximately the amount of time. In the eighth century, the Arab/Islamic Empire spread and entered into Europe through Spain. With this entrance, the Islamic Ottoman and Saffavid Empires controlled the entire Near East, northern Africa, Spain and parts of central Asia. Only in the early twentieth century did their religious reign come to an expected end (Parrow 67). These empires were, for the most part, respected and admired by their citizens. However, over time, the perception of religion has taken an abrupt twist. Since the middle of the twentieth century, religion has been viewed by a large portion of the world as an extreme view of the creation of the world and, to some extent, violent (de Vries 191). The recent rash of religious clashes and violence has created a violent connotation of religion. The most recent example of this phenomenon is Islam and terrorism in the Near East, while one of the earlier examples is Christianity and the Crusades. However, the three major [Abrahamic] faiths of the world (Abrahimic faith refers to those which claim to have some root in Abraham and his preaching), including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all share many common beliefs.