`Ours is the Way of God': Religion, Identity, And Intergroup Conflict
| Published date | 01 September 1999 |
| Author | Jeffrey R. Seul |
| Date | 01 September 1999 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0022343399036005004 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
‘Ours is the Way of God’: Religion, Identity, and
Intergroup Conflict*
JEFFREY R. SEUL
Harvard Law School
journal of
peace
R
ESEARCH
© 1999 Journal of Peace Research
vol. 36, no. 5, 1999, pp. 553–569
Sage Publications (London, Thousand
Oaks, CA and New Delhi)
[0022-3433 (199909) 36:5; 553–569; 009491]
According to social identity theory, identity competition plays a central role in the inception and esca-
lation of intergroup conflict, even when economic and political factors also are at play. Individual and
group identity competition is considered a byproduct of individuals’ efforts to satisfy basic human needs,
including various psychological needs. Religions often serve these psychological needs more compre-
hensively and potently than other repositories of cultural meaning that contribute to the construction
and maintenance of individual and group identities. Religions frequently supply cosmologies, moral
frameworks, institutions, rituals, traditions, and other identity-supporting content that answers to
individuals’ needs for psychological stability in the form of a predictable world, a sense of belonging, self-
esteem, and even self-actualization. The peculiar ability of religion to serve the human identity impulse
thus may partially explain why intergroup conflict so frequently occurs along religious fault lines.
Introduction
Examples of violent conflict between reli-
gious groups – the Balkans, Sudan, East
Timor, and Sri Lanka, to name but a
few – spring readily to mind. This article
offers a partial explanation of the frequent
appearance of religion as the primary cul-
tural marker distinguishing groups in con-
flict. The approach is interdisciplinary. In
the first major section, I provide a general
explanation of individual and group identity
dynamics, and their role in intergroup con-
flict, from the perspectives of social psy-
chology and psychologically-informed
international relations theory. Subsequent
sections draw from the disciplines of reli-
gious studies and the sociology of religion to
demonstrate the ways in which religion pow-
erfully serves individual and group identity
needs and to explain how this fact may
account for the frequent entanglement of
religion with intergroup conflict.
A Social–Psychological Perspective on
Identity and Identity Conflict
Psychologists and other social scientists
of diverse orientations have developed a
variety of theories regarding the develop-
ment and functions of individual and group
* I thank Cynthia Chataway, Sue Cross, Fr. Thomas
Keating, OCSO, Herbert Kelman, David Little, Michael
Moffitt, Kathleen Pakos, Tim Seul, Thomas Hylland
Eriksen, and the anonymous JPR referees for their helpful
comments. Responsibility for the article, however, rests
entirely with the author. The author can be reached by
e-mailat jseul@law.harvard.edu. The quoted material in the
title is from a statement made by Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev,
President of the Chechnyan separatists (Specter, 1996).
553
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identity – that is, the more or less ‘enduring
aspects’ of a person’s or group’s self-defi-
nition (Kelman, 1998: 3). In particular,
much social psychological research sheds
light on the ways in which individuals’
efforts to establish and maintain secure iden-
tities can produce conflict between groups.
A Framework for Understanding Identity:
Why, What, and How
Within social psychology, it is common to
distinguish between individual and group
identity. The two levels of analysis are inte-
grally and reciprocally related, with the pur-
poses and processes of individual identity
formation influencing and informing those
of group identity formation, and vice versa.
I make use of this distinction for analytical
purposes, briefly exploring individual and
group identity by subjecting each to the
three simple interrogatives why, what, and
how. With respect to individual identity, I
ask:
•Why do so many individuals strive to
develop and maintain a secure sense of
self?
•What is the content of an individual’s
identity?
•How is individual identity constructed
and maintained?
Similarly, with respect to group identity, I
ask:
•Why do so many groups strive to posi-
tively distinguish themselves from other
groups?
•What is the content of a group’s identity?
•How is a group’s identity constructed,
maintained, and transmitted among its
members?
This why, what, and how framework serves as
an organizing principle throughout my dis-
cussion of individual and group identity, on
the one hand, and the relationship between
religion, identity, and conflict, on the other.
Individual Identity
‘Individual identity’, as I use it here, refers to
the relatively stable elements of an indi-
vidual’s sense of self.
•Why do so many individuals strive to
develop and maintain a secure sense of
self?
Many theorists link the initial impulse to
construct a secure sense of self to the survival
instinct of the infant, as did Freud and Mead
(Bloom, 1990; Breakwell, 1986). As one
develops, and assuming one gains in confi-
dence that physical needs will be met,
increasing energy is devoted to the satisfac-
tion of the higher-order needs first system-
atically identified and discussed by Abraham
Maslow (1954/1970). These needs include
the need for psychological security in the
form of a predictable world, and the need for
love (or belonging), self-esteem, and self-
actualization. Needs theory has become a
cornerstone of much theoretical and applied
work in the field of conflict resolution (see
Mitchell, 1990).
Individuals seek ‘continuity across time
and situation’ (Breakwell, 1986: 24) to
reduce uncertainty in social affairs (Stein,
1996), which contributes to psychological
stability. People generally wish to regard
themselves favorably (Eiser & Smith, 1972;
Goffman, 1963). Efforts to achieve a sense
of connection or belonging, self-esteem and
even self-actualization help people establish
and maintain positive, secure identities
(Bloom, 1990; Breakwell, 1986; Stein,
1996). Failure to establish or maintain a
relatively secure identity produces severe
psychological discomfort, or even a total
personality breakdown, which may be
experienced by the individual as a threat to
survival (Bloom, 1990).
•What is the content of an individual’s
identity?
Each of us carries the psychological equiv-
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