The Globalization of Religion

WRITTEN REPORT

Submitted by:
Gaspar, Vanessa
Gregorio, Wynona Jean
Guaro, Guia Mae
Manabat, Meloufel

1BSA-2

Submitted to:
Prof. Bigornia

May 6, 2019
RELIGION AND GLOBALISM
 Religion is concerned with the sacred, while globalism places value on material wealth.
 Religion assumes that there is “the possibility of communication between humans and the
transcendent.”
 Globalism, however, is how much of human action can lead to the highest material
satisfaction and subsequent wisdom that this new status produces.

RELIGIOUS VS. GLOBALIST

Religious persons are:
 Less concerned with wealth
 Main duty is to live a virtuous and sin-less life
Globalist people are:
 Less worried whether they will go to heaven or hell
 Their skills are more pedestrian

Finally, Religion and Globalism clash over the fact that religious evangelization is in itself a
form of globalization.

 Because of these philosophical indifference, groups of different religions believe that

living among “non-believers” will distract them from their mission or tempt to abandon
their faith and become sinners like everyone else.

REALITIES

Peter Berger argues that far from being secularized, the

"contemporary world is...furiously religious. In most of the world,
there are veritable explosions of religious fervor, occurring in one
form of another in all the major religious traditions and in many
places in imaginative syntheses of one or more world religions with
indigenous faiths.”

 Religions are the foundation of modern republic. In recent years, some people have used
the concept of “separation of church and state” as a principle to eliminate religious
perspectives from public places and public education.
  These people emphasize that ours is a “pluralistic” society. However, others contend that
religion, and specifically the Bible and Christianity, has an important role to play in our
political system and public issues.

Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini led the Iranian revolution that turned

the country into a theocracy. For him, all secular ideologies were the

same and Islamic rule was the superior form of government because it

was spiritual.

 Moreover, religious movement do not hesitate appropriate secular themes and practices.
In fact, there are many communities like the moderate Muslim association Nahdlatul
Ulama in Indonesia, which has Islamic schools that teaches students not only about Islam
but also about other subjects or courses like modern science, banking, the social sciences
and etc.
 Religion being a result of a shift in state policy. A good example of this is the Church of
England which is shaped by the rationality of modern democratic culture.
 In the United States, religion and law were fused together to help build this “modern
secular society”.
 Jose Casanova stated that “historically, religion has always been at the very center of all
great politics.”

RELIGION FOR AND AGAINST GLOBALIZATION

 The relationship between globalization and religion is one with new possibilities and
furthering challenges.
 Religion has tremendously benefited from technological advancements.
 Religions must use the communication easily available through advanced technology to
focus more on the humane and pluralistic forms of their teachings—values such as
human dignity and human freedom—as means to manage religious diversity and avoid
violence.
 Globalization brings a culture of pluralism, meaning religions “with overlapping but
distinctive ethics and interests” interact with one another.
 Globalization is considered as “the first truly world revolution,” “all revolutions disrupt
the traditions and customs of a people”—that is, “people’s very security, safety, and
identity.”
  Globalization breaks down traditional communities and replaces them with larger,
impersonal organizations.
 Although globalization allows for crisscrossing borders, it also leaves individuals
worrying about losing work, status, or other privileges.
 In face of rapid changes in the globalized world, to regain the sense of certainty, many
individuals turn to religion for a clear explanation of what is going on in the world.

CONCLUSION
For a phenomenon that “is about everything,” it is odd that globalization is seen to
have very little to do with religion. As Peter Beyer and Lori Beaman observed, “Religion, it
seems, is somehow ‘outside’ looking at globalization as a problem or potential. Religion,
being a belief system that cannot be empirically proven is, therefore, anathema to
modernization.
It was just because of “moral” arguments that religious people were able to justify
their political involvement. Finally, as explained earlier, religious leaders have used religion
to wield influence in the political arena, either as outsiders criticizing the pitfalls of pro-
globalization regimes, or as integral members of coalitions who play key roles in policy
decision-makings and the implementation of government projects.
In short, despite their inflexible features-the warnings of perdition, the promises of
salvation, and their obligatory pilgrimages-religions are quite malleable. Globalists,
therefore, have no choice but to accept this reality that religion is here to stay.