Belief and Bloodshed: Religion and Violence across Time and Tradition discusses how the relationship between
religion and violence is not unique to a post-9/11 world-it has existed throughout all of recorded history and
culture. Belief and Bloodshed makes clear the complex interactions between religion, violence, and politics to
show that religion as always innocent or always evil is misguided, and that rationalizations by religion for political
power and violence are not new. Chronologically organized, the book shows religiously motivated violence across
a variety of historical periods and cultures, moving from the ancient to the medieval to the modern worlds, and
ending with an essay comparing the speeches of an ancient king to the speeches of the current U.S. president.