Is violence inherent in religion? Most religious traditions include teachings that profess a love of peace, and yet these same traditions have motivated some of the most atrocious acts of violence in human history. This course will explore this issue through a critical and comparative examination of theories of different forms of religious violence (e.g., terrorism, sacrifice, patriarchy, colonialism). This examination will in turn involve considering violence in various historical and contemporary religious texts, practices, beliefs, and events.