Seeking a Solution to the Problematic of Religious Othering in Theory and Action: From the First Crusade to Hizmet and Seeds of Peace

Charismatic and authoritative individuals can have and have had enormous impact on directing sometimes large groups of followers toward war—or toward peace. One may see this from the “just war” theory of St Augustine to the era of the Crusades and the Age of Religious Wars and from the writing of Grimmelshausen and Spinoza to the contemporary accomplishments of the Hizmet Movement and the Seeds of Peace Programs.