Jonathan Spencer is Regius Professor of South Asian Language, Culture and Society at the University of Edinburgh. He is the co-author of Checkpoint, Temple, Church and Mosque (Pluto, 2014).

List of Illustrations
Series Preface
Acknowledgements
Glossary and Acronyms
1. Introduction
2. The East as a Complex Religious Field
3. Land and Water, War and not War
4. Making Sacred Space
5. Conflict in the Plural
6. Boundary Politics, Religion and Peace-Building
7. Afterword: War's End
8. Reflections
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Is religion best seen as only a cause of war, or is it a source of comfort for those caught up in conflict? In Checkpoint, Temple, Church and Mosque six senior figures in Anthropology, Sociology, Geography and Development Studies set out to answer this question.
Based on fieldwork conducted in Sri Lanka's most religiously diverse and politically troubled region during the country's civil war (1983-2009), it provides a series of new and provocative arguments about the promise of a religiously based civil society, and the strengths and weaknesses of religious organisations and religious leaders in conflict mediation.
The authors argue that for people trapped in long and violent conflicts, religion ultimately plays a contradictory role, and that its institutions are themselves profoundly affected by war - producing a complex picture in which Catholic priests engage with Buddhist monks and new Muslim leaders, and where Hindu temples and Pentecostal churches offer the promise of healing.