Religion And Politics

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RELIGION AND POLITICS STUDENT’S NAME: IZUCHUKWU MBARAONYE COURSE NAME: REAL 3313 INSTRUCTOR’S NAME: CHARLES KIMBALL DATE: 09/29/2011 Critical Essay When Religion Becomes Lethal: The Explosive Mix of Politics and Religion in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam For a long time in the history of mankind, politics and religion have been inextricably linked. This relationship was evident in the earliest of centuries and is still evident in the present times. The Roman Empire of around the 5th century provided a clearer link where the state and the religion were one and the same thing. Medieval period was no different despite resistance from some quotas against the link of the religion and politics. Renaissance and subsequent periods witnessed people who aimed at delinking religion and politics but achieved little success. Religion and politics influence each other in a great way. As a matter of fact, most aspects of religious practices and teachings have direct political messages, and contents that aim at understanding political authority, state, power, peace and war. Over time, aspects of religious practice and behavior have proved to have direct political consequences. In addition, diverse religious groups have often shown to have diverse political positions and attitudes as well. Moreover, religion plays a major role in determining the king of laws that govern a given country or region. In the light of above discussion on religion and politics, it is important to have a critical view on a book on the subject. The book “When Religion Becomes Lethal: The Explosive Mix of Politics and Religion in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, by Charles Kimball” provides a deep insight on religion and politics. It not only shows the relationship between religion and politics and religion but goes further to examine specific religions namely Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and
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