RELIGION AND

GLOBALIZATION
 Layout

Case Study: Alexander the Great and

Chandragupta Sue for Peace
Section 1: Globalization and Religion Defined
Section 2: Going Beyond Secularization
Section 3: Transnational Religion And
Multiple Glocalizations
Section 4: Thinking Critically
Alexander the Great sues for peace
with Chandragupta.
Case Study: Alexander the Great and
Chandragupta Sue for Peace
In 325 B.C., Alexander the Great and
Chandragupta Maurya talked peace – an event
that combined the expansive powers of two world
religions, trade economy, and imperial armies for
the first time. Though seemingly unrelated to
modern globalization, this marked the
establishment of the first true eastward link among
overland routes between the Mediterranean,
Persia, India and central Asia and has served as a
precursor to how we understand globalization
today.
 Section 1 at a Glance

Globalization and Religion Defined

• Globalization is the process by which societies
around the world become increasingly
interconnected and interdependent.
• Religion is a world view, an ideology, an
organization, an attitude, a set of values, as
moods and motivations, or as an ethical
disposition
• Religion has a deep connection with
globalization, and will continue to have one in the
advent of modernization.
Collective Behavior and Social Change

RELIGION – HAYNES(2006)

In spiritual sense
3 Ways of how Social and Individual Behavior of Believers are
organized:
1. transcendence – supernatural realities
2. sacredness or holiness and system of practice and
language
3. ultimacy – how it relates people to the ultimate conditions of
existence
In material sense – motivating individuals and groups to
collectively mobilize to achieve political goals – suppress mass
actions as a tool of repression

Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Collective Behavior and Social Change

RELIGION IN THE CONTEXT OF

GLOBALIZATION
Main Arguments:
1. Secularization Paradigm
2. Religious Resurgence Thesis

Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Religion as a Vehicle for Globalization
Main Idea
• Religion has worked hand-in-hand with globalization, and
vice-versa and this is evident in the rich history of colonization,
cultural merging, global trade and exchange of ideas.

Questions:
• What historical events exhibit the relationship between globalization
and religion?
• How did religion bolster globalization?
• What effects did the spread of globalization have on religion, and vice
versa?
• What is the state of both today?
Key Things to Remember:

• In discussing the issue of Globalization and its relations to

religion, very little remains outside these two very
significant realms of society.
• Religion is an institution that has existed since the
emergence of the first man and humanity. On the other
hand, globalization, as we perceive it today, has been an
undergoing process for centuries.
• Although the term ‘globalization’ emerged as a buzzword
in the 1990’s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the
process of globalization had been taking place long
before.
Key Things to Remember:

• Another event of note was what transpired in the

first century. Buddhism in makes its first
appearance in China, which consolidated cultural
links across the Eurasian Steppe into India, thus,
establishing the foundations of the Silk Route.
• From the period of 650-850 A.D, there was a vast
expansion of Islam from the Western
Mediterranean to India; thus, this not only saw to
the adoption of the religion of Islam, but all the
cultural, social, and educational aspects brought
about by the Islamic Civilization.
Key Things to Remember:

• Finally, we come to what many scholars see as

the birth of Globalization; the discovery of the
Americas and the travels of East and West by
Columbus and De Gama.
• This not only inaugurated the age of European
seaborne empires, but it also pioneered the
exponential expansion of Christianity in these
conquered regions.
Key Things to Remember:
• With the development of the slave trade in 1650,
marked as a dramatic factor which sustained the
expansion of Atlantic Economy, giving birth to
integrated economic/industrial systems across the
Ocean—with profits accumulating in Europe during the
days of mercantilism and the Enlightenment.
Reading Check

Relate
How did religion aid globalization?

Answer: Past events exhibit the role of religion in

the interconnectedness and interdependence of
states long before globalization became a
buzzword. With spreading particular religions as an
impetus, trade routes, cultural exchange and other
hallmarks of globalization were established and
enhanced.
Religion and Globalization Today
Despite religion being an agent of globalization for
centuries, there is now a prevailing thought that the two do
not mix. This is due to the fact that globalization is now
seen a vehicle for promoting cultural homogeneity.

Effects on Religion Religion vs Secularization

• Religion is being eroded.
• Religion is being
strengthened.
• Religion is declining but it
has developed new
identities of hybridity.
• In order to emerge and spread
religions make good use of the
technologies of globalization.
• The increase of
industrialization, urbanization
and rationalization would bring
about the decrease of religious
faith.
Reading Check

Summarize
What is the contradiction that exists between
religion and globalization today?

Answer: It’s how religion relies on technologies and

advancements brought about by globalization but how in
the same measure, secularization boosted by
globalization threatens religion and its value in people’s
daily lives.
 Section 2 at a Glance
Going Beyond Secularization
•It is important for study of the relationship
between religion and globalization to
critique the traditional secularization
paradigm held by many social sciences.
•One key factor to note is that secularization
is a mainly western construct, and as such
it accords a western bias for research
centered on globalization.
Going Beyond Secularization

Main Idea
Secularization has provided the main focus for social-scientific research
on religion. This has contributed to a Western bias in the field. Since
secularization enjoys entrenched dominance in western scholarly
traditions that 'one major weakness of much modern sociology of
religion is the neglect of globalization.

Questions:
• What are the limitations brought about by the current framing of
secularization in the social sciences?
• What needs to be done in order to strengthen research on
globalization and religion?
The Strength of Secularization

• For most of the twentieth century, the research agenda of

the social sciences has been dominated by the debate
over secularization.
• This resulted into:
– A Western-based concept for development
– A dismissal of religion as mutually exclusive products of
their respective cultures
– The “othering” of non-Western religion
– The relegation of religion as an afterthought rather than a
subject in the social sciences
Effects of Secularism in the Social Sciences
A Western-based concept for
development
• Europe and America were seen as
templates of separation of church
and state.
• Those that operate outside of that
are seen as backward.
Dismissal of Religion
• Since religion is viewed as
unique products of culture
(instead of a driver of it), few
research has been allocated to
the study of it.
The “othering” of
non-Western religions
• As very little scholarship is done
on religion today, there is a
tendency for misinformation and
for on-practitioners to trivialize
religion.
Religion as Afterthought
• If there is a mention of religion
in modern scholarly works, it is
usually is passing. The fact that
the religion arm of the ASA was
fairly recently founded proves
this.
Comprehension Check
Connect
How has secularization affected religion?

Answer: It emphasizes a Western-based concept for

development, a dismissal of religion as a product of
culture, the “othering” of non-Western religions and the
relegation of religion as an afterthought rather than a
subject in the social sciences.
The Need to Reframe Secularization:

• The generalizations discussed from before remain

because of the historical trajectory of the 'West' or the
transatlantic world.
• As such, reconsidering secularity remains a project high
on the agenda of the sociology of religion.
• The conventional frameworks for the study of religion
viewed religion mainly in terms of two dimensions: the
institutional and the individual. No space was left to
contemplate the non-institutional, but collective and
public, cultural dimension of religion.
Check

Reasoning
Why is there a need to reframe
secularization?

Answer: Though it has far-reaching effects, both

in terms of academics and global policy, it has long
been dismissed by Western scholars as a
non-factor due to their biased view stemming from
traditional secularism.
 Section 3 at a Glance

Transnational Religion And Multiple Glocalizations

Transnational studies:
• emerged gradually since the 1990s in connection to the
study of post-World War II where new immigrants or
trans-migrants moved from Third World and developing
countries into developed First World nations.
• no longer assimilated into the cultures of the host
countries but rather openly maintained complex links to
their homelands, thereby constructing, reproducing and
preserving their transnational ties.
Transnationalism

Main Idea
Transnationalism can provide a fresh perspective on
religion in the advent of modern globalization on a scale
that traditional secularism has been unable to give us.

Questions
• What are ways for transnational studies to help us
determine the affects of globalization on religion and
vice-versa?
• Is there a new means to look at globalization given the
trend of transnationalism?
Transnational Religion
As the name implies, it is the establishment of migrant
transnational communities centered on a religion that features
elements of religious universalism and local particularism.

Religious Universalism Local Particularism

• Religion becomes the central
reference for immigrant
communities.
• Their main allegiance is not to
their original homeland but to
their global religious community.
• Transnational national
communities are constructed
and religious hierarchies
perform dual religious and
secular functions that ensure
the groups ' survival.
Check

Summarize
What are the two ends of the transnational
religion continuum?

Answer: Religious universalism and local

particularism.
Glocalization
Main Idea
Transnationalism ask of us to re-evaluate globalization as well – to look
at it from an angle different from the Western conceptualization that
pre-determines a homogenous culture as its culmination. Transnational
religion exhibits the means: glocalization as opposed to globalization.

Reading Focus
• What is glocalization?
• How does it differ from how globalization is understood today?
Four Forms of Glocalization
Indigenization
• Connects specific faiths with ethnic
groups, whereby religion and
culture were often fused into a
single unit.
Vernacularization
• Involves the rise of vernacular
languages endowed with the
symbolic ability of offering
privileged access to the sacred.
Nationalization
• Consolidates specific nations
with particular practices and
beliefs - a popular strategy both
in Western and Eastern Europe.
Transnationalization
• Complements religious
nationalization by forcing
groups to identify with specific
religious traditions of real or
imagined national homelands or
to adopt a more universalist
vision of religion.
Reading Check
Summarize
What are the four forms of glocalization?

Answer: indigenization,vernacularization, nationalization

and transnationalization.
Another Look at the Link Between Culture and Religion

• Religious glocalization made clear that religion and the

multitude of cultural hybrids are made possible by
divergent combinations of the local and the global.
• Religious transnational and cross-cultural connections
become increasingly a feature of everyday life in the
twenty-first century, and that almost guarantees that their
study is going to continue to attract the attention of new
generations of researchers and scholars.
What the Field Demands of its Scholars
It has been established that secularization is a largely Western
construct. As such, though there are libraries of books written about
religion and globalization, most assume the Western perspective in
conducting the research.

Transnational and Religious Religion and Culture

Intersectionality
• Glocal religion involves the
• Given that there are a multitude consideration of an entire range
of combinations for glocalized of responses as outcomes
cultural identity, scholars are instead of a single master
then tasked to discover the narrative of secularization and
significance of religious ties to modernization.
transnational immigrants.
Reading Check
Summarize
What needs to happen in the study of
religion and globalization?

Answer: Find links and uncover intersectionalites between

religion and globalization and to have a renewed interest in
analyzing the relationship between culture and religion.
Modernization

Main Idea
Modernization is the process by which a society’s social institutions
become more complex. Sociologists offer two explanations of this
process: modernization theory and world-system theory.

Reading Focus
• How do sociologists explain the process of modernization?
• What impact has modernization had on social life and the natural
environment?
Thinking Critically: Religion in the Post 911 World
Responding to Terrorism
Although deeply shocked by the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001,
Americans quickly came together in a collective response. Since the attacks,
however, opinions on the appropriate reaction to terrorists have shifted.

Early Response Later Response

• Initial response was shock and
anger.
• Feelings of anxiety for own
safety increased.
• Many felt a sense of unity.
• Most supported military action
against Afghanistan.
• Many supported the war in Iraq
at first.
• As the war continued, it lost
support.
• Half saw war as a stalemate.
• Many stated the nation was not
prepared to prevent another
attack.