RELIGION AND WAR – THE RETURN OF THE WRITTEN-OFF

SUBOTIĆ Milovan (Naučni saradnik u Institutu za strategijska istraživanja Univerziteta odbrane, Beograd), milovan.subotic@mod.gov.rs

Famous German sociologist and philosopher, Jürgen Habermas, often points out that we not only live in postmodern but in “post-secular society” as well. This post-secular society appears as a significant opposite to the society which we heard about several decades ago, and which was mostly secular or striving towards secularity. Almost all of the 20th century, and especially decades after World War II, was marked with stands that religion and the Holy are losing its significance in contemporary society. However, at the end of the 20th and especially at the beginning of the turbulent 21st century, we are witnessing the fact that religion is not defeated. More precisely, it did not lose its place both in private and public life. It is obvious that religion was “under the radar” for different anticipators from the 20th century, which proved that it is still a complex social phenomenon that cannot be easily explained nor predicted. How did religion come back from “nonsense” to the main stage of important contemporary social phenomena? What are the potentials of religion in causing, and what in the pacification of conflicts? What are the characteristics of religion-inspired conflicts, then and now? How contemporary monotheisms see the (just) war? These are some of the questions we tried to answer in this paper through the review of contemporary literature and content analysis. The author simultaneously analysed if numbers about the increase of believers in the world (absolute) and numbers in the percentage of faithful ones (relative) are valid indicators that religion returned in the context of former importance. Based on trends existing in this field during the last forty years, as well as on historical heritage left behind by contemporary monotheisms, the paper also presents a framework for a prognosis about the future of religion in the context of the upcoming conflicts.

Keywords: religion, war, monotheism, fear, Christianity, Islam