For the first time, religious self-identification is on the decline in American and in other Western countries.  Religion analysts have cited as cause a post-9/11 perception: that faith in general is a source of aggression, intolerance, and divisiveness, something bad for society.

While many historians have looked at violence in connection with particular religious manifestations (jihad in Islam or Christianity’s Crusades), Armstrong looks at each faith—not only Christianity and Islam, but also Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Judaism—in its totality over time

Comparative religions expert Armstrong provides a comprehensive study of the history of violence in relation to religion.

She joined Sean Moncrieff to talk about her new book Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence