The course examines the dynamics of violence as it is engendered and enacted in human collectivities, be they religious, ethnic, or political. The course covers theoretical analyses of social violence and historical instantiations of the social processes by which victims are targeted and attacked. We focus on violent movements in religious traditions and the manner in which religious warrants, discourse, texts, and practices are marshaled in the sacralization of a campaign of atrocity against an enemy perceived as a profane threat to the perpetrating society. Attention is also given to practical means of impeding and interfering in the dynamics of sacralized violence.