Not in God’s Name. Jonathan Sacks

[Peter Bowden]

Not in God’s Name. Confronting Religious Violence . Jonathan Sacks. A review.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks is an extremely learned man. He has written over 25 books mostly connected with Judaism . He served as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 until 2013. He was elected to the House of Lords in 2009 and took the title Baron Sacks of Aldgate in the City of London, where he sits as a crossbencher. Not in God’s Name is about violence and the three Abrahamic religions Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Sacks sees the world not as one big "us" but as an innocent "us" versus "them". He describes Abraham's immediate descendants resolved their various sibling rivalries, referring back to the bible’s stories
He describes Abraham's immediate descendants resolved their various sibling rivalries, referring back to the bible’s story of the murder of Abel by his brother Cain. This “us vs. them”, he describes as a duality, a common feature of the cause of wars over our history.

Rabi Sacks dwells at length on the anti- Semitism that has been exhibited over the centuries, and attributes this “hatred” to the violence of much war. He does appear apologetic, even defensive of Israel, and would appear to exhibit little sympathy for the Palestinian position. In another context he is also opposed to gay marriage.

Sacks challenges those who claim that religion is intrinsically a cause of violence, and argues that religion must become part of the solution to current violence. Is he correct? Can religion and “turning the other cheek” solve our problems? This reviewer thinks not. It has not in the past – The wars of religion (1562–98) was primarily fought between French Catholics and Protestants. Between 2,000,000 and 4,000,000 people were killed as a result of the wars, and associated famine and disease. Several massacres took place including the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572 , where between 5000 and 30,000 people died. Anti-Protestant massacres of Huguenots at the hands of Catholic mobs continued in cities such as Rouen, Orange and Paris. These were murderous wars, the base cause for which were differing religious beliefs between even sects of the one religion- Christianity. Today we have the barbarism of ISIL and western right wing politicians promulgating the “them” vs “us” This is not to say that we cannot prevent war, but to rely on religion, would appear to expect too much.