This book provides case studies which together show students and researchers alike the benefit of taking beliefs about the supernatural as an important factor in accounting for political authority and beliefs about warfare. Although contributions mainly focus on medieval and early modern Europe, the early chapters reach into antiquity and the later ones into modernity exploring how these claims continue to influence military epistemology, the interpretation of conflict and the decision that life-taking is just. This book provides medieval and early modern history students and researchers with an understanding of religion and conflict and of the enduring role of beliefs about the supernatural in the construction of authority and the conduct of war.

This book provides case studies which together show students and researchers alike the benefit of taking beliefs about the supernatural as an important factor in accounting for political authority and beliefs about warfare. Although contributions mainly focus on medieval and early modern Europe, the early chapters reach into antiquity and the later ones into modernity exploring how these claims continue to influence military epistemology, the interpretation of conflict and the decision that life-taking is just. This book provides medieval and early modern history students and researchers with an understanding of religion and conflict and of the enduring role of beliefs about the supernatural in the construction of authority and the conduct of war.

This volume seeks to increase understanding of the origins, ideology, implementation, impact, and historiography of religion and conflict in the medieval and early modern periods. The chapters examine ideas about religion and conflict in the context of text and identity, church and state, civic environments, marriage, the parish, heresy, gender, dialogues, war and finance, and Holy War. The volume covers a wide chronological period, and the contributors investigate relationships between religion and conflict from the seventh to eighteenth centuries ranging from Byzantium to post-conquest Mexico. Religious expressions of conflict at a localised level are explored, including the use of language in legal and clerical contexts to influence social behaviours and the use of religion to legitimise the spiritual value of violence, rationalising the enforcement of social rules. The collection also examines spatial expressions of religious conflict both within urban environments and through travel and pilgrimage. With both written and visual sources being explored, this volume is the ideal resource for upper-level undergraduates, postgraduates, and researchers of religion and military, political, social, legal, cultural, or intellectual conflict in medieval and early modern worlds.

This volume seeks to increase understanding of the origins, ideology, implementation, impact, and historiography of religion and conflict in the medieval and early modern periods. The chapters examine ideas about religion and conflict in the context of text and identity, church and state, civic environments, marriage, the parish, heresy, gender, dialogues, war and finance, and Holy War. The volume covers a wide chronological period, and the contributors investigate relationships between religion and conflict from the seventh to eighteenth centuries ranging from Byzantium to post-conquest Mexico. Religious expressions of conflict at a localised level are explored, including the use of language in legal and clerical contexts to influence social behaviours and the use of religion to legitimise the spiritual value of violence, rationalising the enforcement of social rules. The collection also examines spatial expressions of religious conflict both within urban environments and through travel and pilgrimage. With both written and visual sources being explored, this volume is the ideal resource for upper-level undergraduates, postgraduates, and researchers of religion and military, political, social, legal, cultural, or intellectual conflict in medieval and early modern worlds.