God of Battles: Holy Wars in Christianity and Islam
Published Jan 2010
What makes a war ‘holy’, and who decides that it is? In this wide-ranging and though-provoking book, Peter Partner examines the origins of holy war, the ways in which it acquired its symbolic power, and how it still affects the modern world. From the pre-Christian era to the Gulf War, from Deuteronomy to The Satanic Verses, God of Battles places the jihad of the East and the crusade of the West in their historical context, and warns against allowing views that ultimately derive from crusading war propaganda to affect our judgements today.
