CHAPTER 8:

THE GLOBALIZATION OF RELIGIONS

GECC 107 | THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

 MEREDITH MCGUIRE (1992)

“When religion is shared with others, it can be one of the

most powerful, deeply felt, and influential forces in society.”
 SCIENCE VERSUS RELIGION

• True enough, in an age when science explains so much

about the workings of our world, why do people in virtually
all societies continue to believe in supernatural beings and
forces?
 WHAT IS RELIGION?

• Emile Durkheim:
It is a system of socially shared symbols,
beliefs, and rituals that is directed toward a
sacred, supernatural realm and addresses the
ultimate meaning of human existence.
VARIETIES OF RELIGION

Animatism

Animism

Theism

Ethical Religions
 SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS OF RELIGION

New Religious
Denomination or
Ecclesia Sect Movements
Church
(Cults)
• large, formally • tolerant • small, less • loosely
organized relations in the formally organize and
religious body context of organized transient
• supported by religious group religious
the state pluralism • usually has organization
• religious • bureaucratic separated from • often form
monopoly structures – a around
interests if denomination charismatic
church and and is in a leaders but
state are negative their followers
always tension with a usually have
intertwined larger society low levels of
commitment
RELIGION AND SOCIETY

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
FUNCTIONALIST VIEW OF RELIGION

Promotes social solidarity through symbols, beliefs,

norms and collective rituals

Provides individuals ad groups with emotional comfort

and support, morale and motivation, and a sense of
individual and group identity

Necessary for the survival of all societies

THE CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE OF RELIGION

Upper Class “Religion is the sigh of the

oppressed creature, the
Middle sentiment of a heartless
Class world, and the soul of
soulless conditions. It is the
Lower opium of the people.”
Class
 A TRANSFORMATIONALIST VIEW OF
RELIGION

Religious Social
Values Change
 SECULARIZATION THESIS

RISING Modernization; Religion being

rational and disengaged
pragmatic from the
approaches to dominant
life political and

DECLINING
economic
institutions
 RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN A
GLOBAL CONTEXT

• Religious movements – NOT a rejection of modernization

• Blurring lines between RELIGION and POLITICS

• Context of the Philippines: Christian base communities

El Shaddai, Jesus is Lord, Ang Dating Daan and other sects
SOCIAL CORRELATES OF RELIGION

age

annual political
income preference

Membership
to a
religious
institution
GLOBALIZATION OF WORLD
RELIGIONS

Effects of the revolution in information and communications to

ecclesiastical religions of the world
 CROSS-FERTILIZATION OF RELIGIOUS
BELIEFS AND PRACTICES

• “a hodgepodge of beliefs”
• Lamon and Brown (1999): As many as 40 million people
in Japan are now practicing “new religions” which involve
blending of the two major religions in Japan (Buddhism
and Shintoism) with elements of Confucianism.
Shamanism, Animism, ancestor worship, Protestantism,
and Catholicism
• DILEMMA: leaders of nation-states see this as a threat to
their national identity
REVITALIZATION IN THE AGE OF
GLOBALIZATION

Economic Crisis

Religious
Revitalizatio
n

Problem of
Cronyism
RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM

Religion
Religious
Nationalism
(Islamic
Nationalism in
the Middle
East)
Government
THE CHANGING NATURE OF
RELIGION

How will information technology affect our religious life?

“churchless religion”