THE

GLOBALIZATION
OF RELIGION
By: NoBootsWarwick
Learning Objectives :
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

 Explain how globalization affects religious practices

 Identify the various religious responses to
globalization; and
 Discuss the future of religion in a globalized world

By: NoBootsWarwick
 RELIGION AND GLOBALISM

RELIGION GLOBALISM
 concerned with the  places value on material
sacred wealth
 follows divine  Abides by human-made
commandments laws
 Assumes that there is  Yardstick is how much of
“the possibility of humans action can lead to
communication between the highest material
humans and the satisfaction
transcendent”
By: NoBootsWarwick
 RELIGION AND GLOBALISM
RELIGIOUS PEOPLE
 Aspire to become a saint.
 Detest politics and the
quest for power for they
are evidence of humanity’s
weakness.
 Evangelization is in itself a
form of globalization.
 Concerned with spreading
holy ideas globally.
GLOBALIST
 Trains to be a shrewd
business person.
 Values politics and the quest
for power as both means
and ends to open up further
the economies of the world.
 Focused on the realm of
market.
 Wishes to spread goods
and services.
By: NoBootsWarwick
ISOLATION JUSTIFICATION
 The followers of the Dalai Lama established Tibet to
create impenetrable sanctuaries where they can
practice their religion without the meddling and
control of the state authorities.
 Buddhist monasteries located away for civilization
so that hermits can devote themselves to prayer and
contemplation.
 Rizalistas of Mount Banahaw and the Mormons of
Utah.
These groups believe that livig among “non-believers” will distract them
from their mission or tempt them to abandon their faith and become
sinners like everyone else
By: NoBootsWarwick
 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RELIGION AND
GLOBALIZATION IS MUCH MORE COMPLICATED

 PETER BERGER
 Argues that far from being secularized the
contemporary world is furiously religious.
 There are veritable explosions of
religious fervor, occurring in one form of
another in all the major religious
traditions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam,
Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism).

Religions is the foundation of modern republics

By: NoBootsWarwick
 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RELIGION AND
GLOBALIZATION IS MUCH MORE COMPLICATED

 The Malaysian government places religion at the

center of the political system.

 Its constitution explicitly states that “Islam is the

religion of the federation”, and the rulers of each
state was also “The head of religion of Islam”

By: NoBootsWarwick
 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RELIGION AND
GLOBALIZATION IS MUCH MORE COMPLICATED

 AYATOLLAH RUHOLLA KHOMEINI

 Late Iranian religious leader
 “there is no fundamental distinction
among constitutional despotic,
dictatorial, democratic and communistic
regime”
 All secular ideologies were the same—
they were flawed—and Islamic rule was
the superior form of government
because it was spiritual.

By: NoBootsWarwick
 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RELIGION AND
GLOBALIZATION IS MUCH MORE COMPLICATED
By: NoBootsWarwick

 NAHDLATUL ULAMA

a traditionalist Sunni(largest denomination) Islam

movement in Indonesia.
 Has Islamic school(pesantren) where students are taught
not only about Islam but also about modern science,
social science, modern banking, civic education, rights
of women, pluralism, and democracy.

Religion was the result of a shift in state policy

 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RELIGION AND
GLOBALIZATION IS MUCH MORE COMPLICATED
By: NoBootsWarwick
 ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE
 “not only do the Americans practice their religion out of
self-interest but they often even place in this world the
interest which they have in practicing it.”
 JOSE CASANOVA
 “historicallyreligion has always been at the very center
of all great political conflicts and movements of social
reform… but also on both sides of the political
barricades.

It remains the case until today with the power of the Christian
Right has on the Republic Party.
RELIGION FOR AND AGAINTS
GLOBALIZATION
 CHRISTIANITY and ISLAM or the so-called “old world
religions” see globalization less as an obstacle and
more as an opportunity to expand their reach all over
the world.
 Globalization has “freed” communities from the
constraints of the nation-state but in the process also
threatened to destroy the cultural system that bind them
together.
 Religion seeks to take the place of these broken ties to
either help communities cope with their new situation or
organize them to oppose this major transformation of
their lives.

By: NoBootsWarwick
RELIGION FOR AND AGAINTS
GLOBALIZATION
 Religion is not the “regressive force” that steps or slows
down globalization; it is a “pro-active force” that gives
communities a new and powerful basis of identity.
 Religion is an instrument with which religious people can
put their mark in the reshaping of this globalizing
world.
 Religious fundamentalism may dislike globalizations
materialism, but it continues to use “the full range of
modern means of communication and organization” that
is associated with economic transformation.

By: NoBootsWarwick
RELIGION FOR AND AGAINTS
GLOBALIZATION
 Religious fundamentalism has tapped “fast long-
distance transport and communication, the availability
of English as a global vernacular of unparalleled
power, the know-how of modern management and
marketing”, which enabled the spread of “almost
promiscuous propagation of religious forms across the
globe in all sorts of directions.”
 These fundamentalist organization are the result of the
spread of globalization and both find ways to benefit
or take advantage of each other.

By: NoBootsWarwick
RELIGION FOR AND AGAINTS
GLOBALIZATION
 While religions may benefit from the process of
globalization, this does not mean that its tension
with globalist ideology will subside.

 Some Muslims views “globalization” as a Trojan horse

hiding supporters of Western values like secularism,
liberalism, or even communism ready to spread these
ideas in their areas to eventually displace Islam.
 The World Council of Churches—an association of
different Protestant congregations—has criticized
economic globalization’s negative effect.

By: NoBootsWarwick
RELIGION FOR AND AGAINTS
GLOBALIZATION
 “we as churches make ourselves accountable to the
victims of the project of economic globalization”, by
becoming the latter’s advocates inside and outside “the
centers of powers.”

 TheCatholic Church and its dynamic leader, Pope

Francis, likewise condemned globalization’s “throw-
away culture” that is fatally destined to suffocate hope
and increased risk and threats.”

By: NoBootsWarwick
RELIGION FOR AND AGAINTS
GLOBALIZATION
 What Catholics call “preferential option for the poor” is
a powerful message of mobilization but looks substance
when it comes to working out a replacement system that
can change the poor condition in concrete ways.
 The traditionalism of fundamentalist political Islam is no
alternative either. The terrorism of ISIS is unlikely to
create a “Caliphate” governed by justice and stability.
 In Iran, the unchallenged superiority of a religious
autocracy has stifled all freedom of expressions,
distorted democratic rituals like elections and tainted
the opposition.

By: NoBootsWarwick