Activity No.

15
"The World of Ideas"

" Globalization of Religion : A Catholic ( or any religion ) Perspective "

Religion has long been a driving force behind the globalization process . In fact , according to
Reza Aslan , no one factor has had a bigger influence on the advancement of globalization than
religion , which has always strived to extend its message beyond the ethnic and physical
borders of its inception . This concept , as will be demonstrated throughout this paper , is neither
contentious nor original thought . The mainstream logic regarding globalization , as espoused by
such famous thinkers as the legendary writer Thomas Friedman , however , places economics
at the center of analysis and skews attention away from the ideational variables at play .
Furthermore , the economic-centric approach to studying globalization is hampered by the
necessity to link the phenomenon 's beginnings to some historically significant moment in
Europe 's colonial - imperial history , such as the so - called Great Discovery . Yet long before
European explorers set sail over the huge Atlantic Ocean on voyages that would eventually
expose the presence of the Americas indeed , much before the term " globalization " was even
coined globalization started . The economic-centric approach to globalization fails in part
because , for millennia , a force more fundamental , more primitive , more lasting , and more
significant has been powering this process religion . In many respects , understanding the tale
of religion and globalization is like comprehending the history of globalization , even if it only
represents a piece of the metaphorical jigsaw . Religion and globalization may appear to be
inextricably linked concepts . Religion , on the other hand , has a much longer history , and with
it , conflicts concerning its meaning . Throughout most of the twentieth century , debates about
the concept of religion occupied sociologists , anthropologists , and religious studies experts .
Attempting to define religion is an important epistemological exercise , but the fact that the
argument continues to this day may indicate that it is basically unresolvable . Indeed , no
definition will satisfy the would - be critic because it will almost definitely be loaded with value
judgments that would prejudice it in favor of one claimed religion at the expense or exclusion of
another . However , one can get around this difficulty by borrowing from the key ontological and
epistemological premises of reflexivity and subjectivism , respectively . However , this method
may make it too difficult to operationalize the idea of religion . To begin with , one must
acknowledge that the Giddensian approach to reflexivity recognizes that the structure of social
existence permits researchers to change what they examine through knowledge generation .
Second , because an individual 's understanding of the world is created in his or her own mind ,
subjectivist epistemology , which is common to social constructivist philosophy , admits that
knowledge of the world can not be totally objective . As a result , religious studies scholars ,
individuals must rely on their own intuition to guide their perceptions of what religion is .