Ruelland, Jacques G.

Dr. Jacques G. Ruelland currently teaches philosophy at the Collège Édouard-Montpetit (Longueuil, Quebec) and history of science, medicine, and museology at the Department of History at the Université de Montréal. He completed three M.A. degrees (Philosophy, History, and Museology) and earned his Ph.D. in the History of Science from the Université de Montréal. Dr. Ruelland is the author of over twenty books, including his most recent publications L’Empire des gènes: histoire de la sociobiologie (Éditions de l’École normale supérieure, 2004) and La Pierre angulaire: histoire de la franc-maçonnerie régulière au Québec (Point de fuite, 2002).

Holy War

2007 0-7734-5548-5
Though the wise know that history will inevitably repeat itself, mankind keeps on making the same mistakes. It is never an easy task to write about war and religion, and Dr. Jacques G. Ruelland has managed to do so clearly and without prejudice. Through his exposé of the holy wars, this philosopher-historian traces a not-so-holy picture of civilization by analyzing the semantics of “sacredness” inherent to monotheistic religions. With the compassionate eye of the humanist, he helps us understand the origins of the justifications of wars waged in the name of the Almighty. Will we ever learn to eradicate this ancient practice? Not really, the historian believes, unless humanity can succeed in redefining the very notion of peace by assigning a new mission to science which would, ultimately, be dedicated to its real and ever-lasting pursuit.