Religious violence in contemporary Japan : the case of Aum Shinrikyō
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Religious violence in contemporary Japan : the case of Aum Shinrikyō
(Nordic Institute of Asian Studies monograph series, no. 82)
Curzon, 2000
- : pbk
Available at 50 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Bibliography: p. 283-293
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The Tokyo subway attack in March 1995 was just one of a series of criminal activities including murder, kidnapping, extortion, and the illegal manufacture of arms and drugs carried out by the Japanese new religious movement Aum Shinrikyo, under the guidance of its leader Asahara Shoko. Reader looks at Aum's claims about itself and asks, why did a religious movement ostensibly focussed on yoga, meditation, asceticism and the pursuit of enlightenment become involved in violent activities?
Reader discusses Aum's spiritual roots, placing it in the context of contemporary Japanese religious patterns. Asahara's teaching are examined from his earliest public pronouncements through to his sermons at the time of the attack, and statements he has made in court. In analysing how Aum not only manufactured nerve gases but constructed its own internal doctrinal justifications for using them Reader focuses on the formation of what made all this possible: Aum's internal thought-world, and on how this was developed.
Reader argues that despite the horrors of this particular case, Aum should not be seen as unique, nor as solely a political or criminal terror group. Rather it can best be analysed within the context of religious violence, as an extreme example of a religious movement that has created friction with the wider world that escalated into violence.
Table of Contents
- Introduction ??
- 1: A Death in the Culture of Coercive Asceticism - Killing for Salvation, Religious Violence and Aum Shinriky? ?
- 2: Compassionate Cruelty and the Cosmic Struggle - The Life and Nature of Asahara Sh?k? ??
- 3: Creation, Preservation and Destruction - The Development and Nature of the Religion of Supreme Truth ?
- 4: The World of the True Victors - The Motivations, Experiences and Practices of Asahara's Followers ?
- 5: Losing the Struggle - From World Salvation to World Destruction, 1988-1990 ??
- 6: Perpetual Conflict, Foreign Excursions and Cosmic Wars - Conspiracies, Retribution and the Right to Kill ??
- 7: The Violence of the Lambs - Murder
- Chaos, Vengeance, Power and Immortality ?
- 8: Concluding Comments - Aum Shinriky? and Religious Violence ?
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