Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan: The Case of Aum Shinrikyo
Ian Reader, "Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan: The Case of Aum Shinrikyo "
English | ISBN: 0700711082 | 2000 | 320 pages | PDF | 9 MB
English | ISBN: 0700711082 | 2000 | 320 pages | PDF | 9 MB
The Tokyo subway attack in March 1995 was just one of a series of criminal activities including murder, kidnapping, extortion, and the illegal manufacture of arms and drugs carried out by the Japanese new religious movement Aum Shinrikyo, under the guidance of its leader Asahara Shoko. Reader looks at Aum's claims about itself and asks, why did a religious movement ostensibly focussed on yoga, meditation, asceticism and the pursuit of enlightenment become involved in violent activities?
Reader discusses Aum's spiritual roots, placing it in the context of contemporary Japanese religious patterns. Asahara's teaching are examined from his earliest public pronouncements through to his sermons at the time of the attack, and statements he has made in court. In analysing how Aum not only manufactured nerve gases but constructed its own internal doctrinal justifications for using them Reader focuses on the formation of what made all this possible: Aum's internal thought-world, and on how this was developed.
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