Overview

Though the wise know that history will inevitably repeat itself, mankind keeps on making the same mistakes. It is never an easy task to write about war and religion, and Dr. Jacques G. Ruelland has managed to do so clearly and without prejudice. Through his expose of the holy wars, this philosopher-historian traces a not-so-holy picture of civilization by analyzing the semantics of ""sacredness"" inherent to monotheistic religions. With the compassionate eye of the humanist, he helps us understand the origins of the justifications of wars waged in the name of the Almighty. Will we ever learn to eradicate this ancient practice? Not really, the historian believes, unless humanity can succeed in redefining the very notion of peace by assigning a new mission to science which would, ultimately, be dedicated to its real and ever-lasting pursuit.

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"""We are indebted to Dr. Jacques G. Ruelland for revealing the variety of meaning pertaining to the sacred throughout history. He succeeds in revealing the ideas behind holy war by examining the speeches and events of many eras and cultures. By showing their differences and resemblances, he criticizes the sacred character of the wars between Jews and Moslems, jihads and crusades, the religious and Byzantine wars, the two World Wars of the twentieth century, and finally the Gulf War."" - Professor Eric Volant Departement des Sciences de la Religion Universite du Quebec a Montreal ""There can be no doubt about the worth of Dr. Ruelland's essay on the so-called ""holy war,"" especially now as we face the reality of religion's overwhelming presence in the political arena. To the same extent as this presence signifies that we are not living in a global society and that the new ideology of political and economic neo-liberalism has not yet achieved the status of universal acceptance, it is more urgent than ever to denounce the confusion of all self-sanctified crusades of the Good against the Evil... This incredibly well-informed manner of scholarship is what we need most."" - Professor Gerard Raulet Universite de Paris Sorbonne"""

We are indebted to Dr. Jacques G. Ruelland for revealing the variety of meaning pertaining to the sacred throughout history. He succeeds in revealing the ideas behind holy war by examining the speeches and events of many eras and cultures. By showing their differences and resemblances, he criticizes the sacred character of the wars between Jews and Moslems, jihads and crusades, the religious and Byzantine wars, the two World Wars of the twentieth century, and finally the Gulf War. - Professor Eric Volant Departement des Sciences de la Religion Universite du Quebec a Montreal There can be no doubt about the worth of Dr. Ruelland's essay on the so-called holy war, especially now as we face the reality of religion's overwhelming presence in the political arena. To the same extent as this presence signifies that we are not living in a global society and that the new ideology of political and economic neo-liberalism has not yet achieved the status of universal acceptance, it is more urgent than ever to denounce the confusion of all self-sanctified crusades of the Good against the Evil... This incredibly well-informed manner of scholarship is what we need most. - Professor Gerard Raulet Universite de Paris Sorbonne

Author Information

Dr. Jacques G. Ruelland currently teaches philosophy at the College Edouard-Montpetit (Longueuil, Quebec) and history of science, medicine, and museology at the Department of History at the Universite de Montreal. Ms. Cornelia Fuykschot, a native of Amsterdam, is a retired language and history teacher who currently resides in Ontario, Canada, where she translates various works from Dutch and French for English publication. Ms. Jeanne Poulin is a bilingual writer who specializes in socio-political and cultural issues and has written pieces for publications based in Montreal, Toronto, and New York.

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