 |
| Mary Jane
Engh, left, speaks with MU graduate
research assistant Xiang Ji after
her lecture. |
April 18, 2007 - MU's Center
for Religion, the Professions &
the Public hosted Mary Jane Engh,
author of the book, In the Name
of Heaven: 3,000 Years of Religious
Persecution, on April 18 for
a lecture, discussion and book signing.
Engh talked about how not paying attention
to social and historical context can
distort understanding of events, including
religious persecution in her lecture,
"What
Gets Left Out: Religious Persecution
in Context."
"We don't get the whole picture,"
Engh said, speaking to about 41 people
in Gannett Hall's Tucker Forum. "What
you get (when looking at this history)
is the patterns that someone saw ....
and that made sense to that person."
A thorough understanding of history
and social context is vital when trying
to discern cases of religious persecution,
Engh said.
She urged those trying to achieve
a contextual view of religious persecution
to closely look "for role of
religion in cases where people don't
say there is a role for religion"
as well as for factors other than
religion in events of persecution
defined as religious.
"Religion is such an inherent
part of human life that it is very
artificial to separate it out,"
Engh said. She urged people to "look
at the context - what else is there?"
For her studies, Engh defined religious
persecution as "repressive actions
initiated or condoned by authorities
against their own people on religious
grounds." Her book covers religious
persecutions from Asia, Africa, Europe,
the Middle East and North America
and presents her belief that awareness
makes persecution predictible, and
possibly preventable.
Engh identified two conditions that
can provide "fertile ground"
for religious persecution.
The first is a close association
between government and religion, which
"tends to make religious dissent
a crime. It doesn't necessarily produce
religious persecution," she said,
"but it sure makes it easier."
The second condition is monotheism,
a type of faith that is usually exclusionary
by nature, assuming its believers
are right and others are wrong. In
answer to an audience member's question
about whom she would identify as the
"most valuable persecutor,"
Engh named the three main monotheistic
traditions of Christianity, Islam
and Judaism for this reason.
Still, it is possible for secular
governments to persecute religion,
such as in the 20th-century Communist
states, and for polytheistic faiths
to persecute, such as in ancient Greece
or with modern militant Hinduism.
In general, persecution tends to
breed persecution, Engh said, and
those that are persecuted are likely
- should they rise to power - to persecute
others.
She emphasized the importance of
understanding the context of religion,
in history and the present day, leaving
it up to "educated people to
get along with each other."
Engh was introduced by Dan Cohen,
a visiting assistant professor with
the MU Department of Religious Studies
and an affiliated faculty of the Center.
 |
| Peggy Baum,
left, buys a copy of Engh's book
from University Bookstore employee
Logan Howard after Engh's presentation.
Engh signed books at the event;
her books were also for sale at
the University Bookstore. |
An independent scholar, novelist
and poet, Engh won a National Endowment
for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship
Grant and the 1999 Women's Classical
Caucus Oral Paper Award. She
is currently working on an extensive
reference work on ancient Roman women.
She is also the author of three novels,
a children's novel, shorter fiction,
articles and poems.
The
event was sponsored by the MU Center
for Religion, the Professions &
the Public.
|
