This volume brings together 11 experts from a range of religious backgrounds, to consider how each tradition has interpreted matters of violence and peace in relation to its sacred text. The traditions covered are Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Sikhism.

The role of religion in conflict, war, and the creation of peaceful settlements has attracted much academic attention, including considerations of the interpretation of violence in sacred texts. This collection breaks new ground by bringing multiple faiths into conversation with one another with specific regard to the handling of violence and peace in sacred texts. This combination of close attention to text and expansive scope of religious inclusion is the first of its kind.  

Maria Power, FRHistS, is a Senior Research Fellow in Human Dignity at the Las Casas Institute for Social Justice, Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford.  She is the author of Catholic Social Teaching and Theologies of Peace in Northern Ireland (2020) and From Ecumenism to Community Relations: Inter-Church Relationships in Northern Ireland 1980-2005 (2007). She is editor of Building Peace in Northern Ireland (2011). 

Helen Paynter is a UK Baptist Minister, tutor in Biblical Studies at Bristol Baptist College, and Director of the Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence, Bristol Baptist College. She is the author and editor of a number of books, including Telling Terror in Judges 19: Rape and Reparation for the Levite's Wife (2020), God of violence yesterday, God of love today? Wrestling honestly with the Old Testament (2019), and Reduced Laughter: Seriocomic Features and their Functions in the Book of Kings (2016).