Avalos (religious studies, Iowa State U.) says he is not offering yet another book about religion and violence, nor is he joining the parade of authors exploiting the 9-11 events. Rather, he claims to present a new theory for religious violence that he has spent many years pondering. The pillars of his thesis are that most violence is due to scarce resources, real or perceived; and that when religion causes violence, it often does so because it has created new scarce resources. He focuses on the Abrahamic religions and on secularism. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)