Analysis of Religion and Globalization by Peter Beyer Essay

Mircea Eliade’s The Sacred and the Profane analyzes a wide variety of components that are found within various world religions. Eliade uses the history of religion to support his ideas as the the book itself is a brief introduction to religion as a whole, particulary the religions of primitive societies. Nonetheless, when looking to the past one can see that mankind’s desire to associate itself with the sacred has been occuring for thousands of years. From temples to passages of intiation, religious man is a unique microcosm that follows and repeats the structure of the religious macrocosm, the creation of the cosmos. One can conclude that Eliade views religion as the “paradigmatic solution for every existential crisis.” (p210) and

In a process begun in the nineteenth century and accelerated in the twentieth, the great religions of the world became truly global in the geographic distribution of their adherents and so

Clifford Geertz, in his essay “Religion as a Cultural System”, presents what he considers to be the definition of religion. According to him, religion is about symbols and people use these symbols as a guide for their view of the world and how they should behave in that world. Religion, states Geertz is “a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic” (Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, page 90). What he is trying to do in this essay is provide the reader with a way of understanding religion by

The main idea in Eitzen and Zinn’s article is that religion is shaped by society. The social groups that shares the same norms are connected as they are taught what society portrays as the acceptable way to behave. However, religion is also the leading cause of separation in communities due to believes being imposed upon non-believers whose preferences differ from the mainstream.

Brodd, Jeffrey, Layne Little, Bradley Nystrom, Robert Platzner, Richard Shek, and Erin Stiles. Invitation to World Religions. First Ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2013. Print

Religion is a particular faith and worship by a group of individuals. Religion can vary by location, type of theism, group of individuals, leaders, and many other characteristics. When reviewing religion, it is important to consider how the religion began and the various factors that contributed to the formations of the religion to its current state. The leaders of a religion shape the religion from one state to the next; hence, creating possible transitions in the religion. The situation of the communities/society during the religion’s era also assists in shaping the direction and success of the religion.

In Miroslav Volf’s book Flourishing: Why We Need Religion in a Globalized World, he argues that global religions are needed to help guide a globalized world. He believes that world religions provide morals to help stop injustices that comes from the capitalistic society that ushers globalization to every corner of the earth. He also states that globalization is mutually beneficial to the global religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism because it “can help free world religions from troubling alliances with particular communal identity and politics and nudge them to rediscover their genuine universality.” For Volf, these religious practices “are not ‘by nature’ violent; being tightly associated with political power and functioning as markers of identity, the main reason why they become violent, is “unnatural” for world religions.” With respect to Volf, I agree that the teachings of these main global religions are one of peace, love, reconciliation, and justice; however, all religions are communal. Religions and spiritual practices are identity builders more so than geographical awareness.

The major trend or more over, paradigm shift, in the last quarter century is globalization. From the time that the internet made its way onto the world stage in the late 1990’s its effects have been nothing less than world changing. People in rural China can now see in live action what is happening in Downtown London, Africans in the bush can live stream the great migration of the Serengeti, and school children in America can “Google” anything at any time. This technologically driven movement is known as globalization. It has become a major blessing in areas of education and science yet at the same time its blessings can lead to a “moral curse”. The purpose of this chapter is to make the missionary and average Christian aware of this paradigm

Religion can be described as a social institution built up around the idea of a supernatural being or beings, and the relation of human beings to them. In addition, religion provides individuals a belief to which they understand their existence as well network of emotional support during times of distress. Moreover, religious institutions provide individuals a proper perspective of life and establish values. Religion involves three major aspects: A conception of the nature and character of divinity (2) A set of principles concerning the duties and obligations between divinity and humanity. (3) A set of behavior patterns designed to conform to God’s will (Thorman, 154). The theme of panopticisim is to assert and maintain power by being

Globalization implies distinctive things to diverse individuals. To the individuals who support it, it speaks to less explanations behind outfitted clashes, more open doors for getting away from the bounds custom and bias, a higher expectation for everyday comforts, and more access to the great things of life; so, private enterprise and majority rules system. To the individuals who doubt it or disdain it, it implies the submersion of national power, the elimination of territorial societies, the advancement of multinational enterprises and the chapter 11 of corner stores, the undermining of religion, and the defilement of profound quality; to put it plainly, private enterprise and popular government.

In Miroslav Volf’s book Flourishing, the idea is presented that religion will play a significant role in contributing to a better globalized world. In order for this to happen, however, world religions would need to be at peace. When Volf makes this claim, he is operating under the assumption that exclusive religions can and should adopt a postmodern view in order to eliminate acts of religious violence, provide people with a purpose, as well as close the prosperity gap.

In my initial position paper, I differentiated between faith, works, and religion, and concluded that the academic study of religion is similar to the academic study of other cultural identities, such as race and gender. What I failed to understand, however, was how complex the boundary between religious institutions and personal devotions really was. Popular religion, as I have come to learn, assumes qualities of both public and private worship and belief and illustrates a far greater struggle than I was able to detect. This struggle is that between the individual person, the community, and the institution. Therefore, the anthropology of religion is a field that seems to be characterized largely by studies of self, collective, and power, rather than the more simplistic set, as I defined it originally, of self, other, and ritual.

Globalization is the “trend toward a single, integrated, and interdependent world” (Lee 3). According to Richard E.Lee, globalization began with the Treaty of Tordesillas , which was signed on June 7, 1494, splitting the world in half (6). The land to the east of the line was designated for Portugal and the land to the west was Spain’s. The Pope, in his efforts to end the brutality of the war between Spain and Portugal, assumed a power he did not yet have , in order to create the Treaty of Tordesillas( Lee 15). The Pope’s assumed power resembles the power that western culture and western forces often wield, in modern society.

Undoubtedly, globalization has contributed to the growth of religious fundamentalism. As a rule, Christianity and Islamic religion form the basis for religious divide each being driven by varying beliefs that collectively guide the lives of the people (Williams, 1970). Concisely, religious fundamentalism seeks to hold on to traditions and cultural concerns that are

In addition, a scientific attitude towards the world (Leaman, 2005) is another understanding. The outcome of globalisation is that of modernisation through the concept of secularism, separating state from religion (Al-Roubaie & Alvi, 2005). Removal of religious principles has introduced a conception of man-made rules (Al-Roubaie & Alvi, 2005, p. 140) this is evident through deep-seated disbelief (Reed, 2005). It’s a spiritless world that is branded by economical and military power (Al-Roubaie & Alvi, 2005 & Nursi cited in Leaman, 2005). Whatsoever we accept, there lays a paradox that our heterogeneous society is being groomed towards homogeneity. It seems quite the task but progressing well per the elites at the top of the global hierarchy. An individual’s religion allows a freedom of expression into who they are, what globalisation brings is an individualistic approach on setting important social, legal and political views by a few individuals onto others (Al-Roubie & Alvi 2005).