12th November 2008

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Is religion a bad thing or is bad religion the root cause of many internecine conflicts in the world today?

Philosopher and theologian Professor James Mackey hopes to answer these and other questions when he delivers this week’s inaugural Magee Special Lecture hosted by the University of Ulster.  

The intriguingly titled lecture, 'Does Religion Cause Wars (or Troubles)?' takes places in the Great Hall at the Magee Campus on Thursday November 13 at 7 pm.

Outlining the crux of his argument, Professor Mackey says it is misleading to describe the Troubles as a conflict between Protestants and Catholics – both of which are religious terms.

“The Troubles should really be described as an on-going conflict between Unionists, who are in large part descendants of the Planters dating back to the Elizabethan era and Nationalists, who are in large part descendants of the indigenous population of Northern Ireland.”

Admitting that confusion over the terminology used to describe the conflict presented an interesting conundrum; Professor Mackey said it also raised questions about the possible relationship between religion and conflict.

“I plan to approach this question through an analysis of sectarianism in religion, taking a scenic tour round world religions and looking back through history, to consider whether the sectioning off of religions from each other, in other words, sectarian processes, or the sectioning off of sects or churches within particular religions, reveal some basic religious endorsement of conflict.

“Since these processes occur very widely in world religions, this raises the question - as many humanists would assert – is religion itself a trouble-maker and generally speaking a bad thing? Or is it bad religion that helps at least to cause such internecine conflicts between or within human societies?

He adds that it could be argued that not only would good religion not cause such divisions, but it would actually help to heal divisions.

Born in Waterford, Professor Mackey is a retired Lecturer of Philosophy and Professor of Theology.  He holds a doctorate in Philosophy from QUB and has taught on various courses including ethics, human rights and philosophy of religion.  

In 1979 he was appointed Thomas Chalmers Professor of Theology at the University of Edinburgh and held this chair for 20 years.  In 1999, he was appointed Visiting Professor, School of Religions and Theology, Trinity College Dublin, a post he still holds today.

In 1992 he organised a major international conference in Derry as part of the IMPACT 92 celebrations. The aim of the conference was to address the conflict in Northern Ireland in the context of influences to and from Europe and the USA.    From this conference he introduced and edited a volume of papers entitled The Cultures of Europe: the Irish Contribution, which was published in 1994.  He scripted and presented two ten-programme television series on world religions for Channel 4: The Hall of Mirrors (1985) and The Gods of War (1987); and two six-programme television series for BBC Northern Ireland on Northern Ireland’s divided society: Perspectives (1986) and Perspectives II (1987).

Professor Mackey was a Member of Independent Assessment Panel to report on the Northern Ireland Policing Board (2005) and he is currently a member of the Consultative Group on the Past (NI).  

Following Professor Mackey’s lecture, there will be a question and answer session chaired by Dr Brandon Hamber, Director of INCORE.

For further information, please contact:

Trina Porter
Telephone: 028 71675511
Email: Trina Porter