"War has existed throughout the course of human history. And while the root causes vary, religion has played its part in provoking and fueling some of our bloodiest conflicts while some clerics attempted at the same time to control or channel the violence. This history of war and religion begins with the concurrent emergence of the great empires of the Mediterranean and the great polytheistic religions. Allied by circumstances and working together, clerics, statesmen and soldiers established during the first centuries of the Common Era the norms that would define politics and international relations in Europe and the Greater Middle East for more than a thousand years, with armies often pitted against one another claiming to uphold their faith or to impose it on others. In this book, Arnaud Blin argues that religion has not only fueled a great number of the conflicts that took place during the period, it has also determined how these conflicts were fought. Spanning millennia, religion has not only defined the art of war, it has also exerted a great influence in molding the ways and means in which societies either partook in or were affected by them. Between the 4th and 17th centuries, religion was the greatest driver of the wars that took place in Europe, the greater Middle-East, and even in the Americas during the initial phase of European colonization. This book takes a panoramic view of the history of war and religion which sprung out of Europe and the Mediterranean, starting with late Antiquity and moving through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Modern Era, concluding with an analysis of recent trends and how we might understand them in light of our shred past"--Provided by publisher.