When God Stops Fighting

"Mark Juergensmeyer has written yet another brilliant book on religious violence, addressing the fundamental question of how 'imagined wars' come to an end. His profound and enlightening insights are drawn from deep knowledge of the combatants in conflicts in Iraq, the Philippines, and India."--Martha Crenshaw, Senior Fellow Emerita at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University, and Professor Emerita of Government, Wesleyan University "Juergensmeyer has an extraordinary knack for asking great questions at the right time. In this small tome he asks the important questions about how and why religious wars end. Informed by participants who had dedicated themselves to absolutist religious warfare, he discovers and reports that the imaginary of war in their minds has changed. Although core ideas remain, his interlocutors reveal that warfighting might not be the best method, such that they've come to accept that the war must end even if the struggle for righteousness does not."--Monica Duffy Toft, Professor of International Politics, The Fletcher School, Tufts University