Not in God's name : confronting religious violence

Despite predictions of continuing secularisation, the twenty-first century has witnessed a surge of religious extremism and violence in the name of God. Sacks explores the roots of violence and its relationship to religion, focusing on the historic tensions between the three Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. From Darwinian evolution to game theory, Sacks shows how the common human problem - that we pass on our genes as individuals, but can only survive in groups - drives a tendency to violence which can subvert even the most loving of religions; but as he explores the biblical stories that underpin monotheism he uncovers the hidden truth that even as God establishes his own chosen people, so his sympathies and his protection are as much or more upon the losers and the apparently disadvantaged.