In the first years of the third millennium, due to terrorist attacks carried out by Islamic extremists in the Western world, an academic debate on the connection between violence and religion erupted also in Slovenia. In the writings of the German Egyptologist Jan Assmann, we find the development of
thought from the idea that violence is an integral part of monotheism, to the
realization that violence does not belong to monotheism. Part of the Slovene
debaters refers only to the initial position of Assmann and blame monotheism
for all the evil in the world, while others accept the whole development of the thinking of the German. In our paper, we highlight the writings of Iztok Simoniti, who identifies the source of all evil in the Bible. When asked why he does not accept Assmann in full, we answer that the reason for his condemnation of monotheism is in his relationship to the Catholic Church and we support this claim with quotations from Simoniti’s writings reflecting his uncontrolled anger and hatred of the Church.
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