Description
Checkpoint, Temple, Church and Mosque
Is religion best seen as only a cause of war, or is it a source of comfort for those caught up in conflict? This book is based on fieldwork in Sri Lanka’s most religiously diverse and politically troubled region in the closing years of the civil war. The authors provide a series of new and provocative arguments about the promise of a religiously-based civil society, and the strengths and weaknesses of religious organisations and religious leaders in conflict mediation. Together they show how religion plays a contradictory role, often acting as a comforting and stabilising force but also, in certain situations, acting as a source of new conflict. It will be of great interest to students of anthropology, development studies, religious studies and peace/conflict studies.
Jonathan Spencer is Regius Professor of South Asian Language, Culture and Society at the University of Edinburgh. Jonathan Goodhand is Professor of International Development at the University of Melbourne and Professor in Conflict and Development Studies at SOAS, University of London. Shahul Hasbullah is Professor of Geography at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Bart Klem is Lecturer in Development Studies at the University of Melbourne. Benedikt Korf is Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Zurich. Kalinga Tudor Silva is Senior Professor of Sociology at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.
