Form vs. substance
In a book review in this week's Times, Robert Wright raised some questions for me in his discussion of the role of fundamentalism in promoting violence. In his review of the new book, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, by Jon Krakauer, he says,

"Krakauer writes that 'as a means of motivating people to be cruel or inhumane … there may be no more potent force than religion.' But sheer instinctive self-righteousness may ultimately be a bigger part of the problem. It is a common denominator of crimes committed in the name of religion, nationalism, racism – even, sometimes, nihilism."

I think this is true, and I'd like to think out loud why. Is it because religion is just a form – a way in which we organize our thinking about the universe, life, ourselves? If so, does it simply seek to describe substance without containing any substance itself? Is not substance entirely in the experiencing of what religion seeks to describe? Religion can certainly evoke experience, which is then substance, as when the reading of scripture enraptures the reader. But still religion is at best the vehicle, and not the experience itself. The experience is the substance.

I think Wright is making the point that violence is born of substantive experience. Self-righteousness is a more immediate precursor to violence than whatever form motivates the self-righteousness (in the case of the book, it is Mormon fundamentalism). In a free society, we will always have to suffer the existence of forms that we detest – exclusionary fundamentalism, racism, nationalism, etc. – and we will embrace forms that others detest. But we will also always be responsible for the substance of our response to them, and to the rest of society.

In that sense, is it more effective to preach non-violence than it is to preach Christianity or Buddhism? I imagine it depends on the audience; Christians will find non-violence more palatable if it is served along with Christian principles. But Christianity is the form, and non-violence the substance. We will build bridges if we remember that non-violence is a substantive act of will and is not dependent on any particular form. Non-violence can be embraced by all.