Religious Faith as Knowledge Conflict

Interwoven with cultural, economic, and political factors, it is difficult to identify religion faith leading to human conflicts worldwide. This chapter tries to explore the nature and origins of religious faith, belief, and spiritual awakening that contribute to human conflicts in the Middle East and the rest of the globe. Based on Alfred Schutz’s contribution, this chapter also presents an analytical framework for religious commitment process. In terms of sociology of knowledge, this chapter argues that religious faith and belief arises from everyday religious experience taken for granted. Hence, the confrontation between Islam and Christianity is largely due to the conflict of knowledge or, more precisely, conflict of collective stock of knowledge between ingroup and outgroup.