New and Improved? : The processes of globalisation on spiritual practices; illustrated by the global spread of Reiki.

Never has a communications system played so many roles in our lives--or exerted such broad influence over our thoughts--as the Internet does today.

Molloy, Michael (2008) Experiencing the World’s Religions: Tradition Challenge, and Change. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Seeking tradition and spirituality has always been prime through the course of this life. Believing and finding truths of the spirt realm’s unknown gives comfort while living. With so many people coming and settling in America, there begins to be a shift of different religions and spiritual practices emerging. America's founders established a civilization that would embrace the differences that countless cultures would bring to the United States. But here lies the challenges with this concept. It has been hard even in the late 1800s when the Native Americans did not want to conform to new Christianity; it created a rift that is still president here today with not only the natives but different cultures and ethnic backgrounds. In an article

Since the beginning of mankind, every society has looked to religion to give meaning to life. From a good harvest, to understanding the purpose of our existence; the belief in the divine provides a platform on which many people can develop answers to universal questions. Through the Shinto and Nordic religions, communities have been able to connect to the divine through their traditions, experiencing their spirituality through worshipping a deity, engaging in festivals and even undertaking pilgrimages. Although their distinctive cultures result in differing religious practices for the Japanese and Norse societies, both strive to make sense of our world, and seek the meaning to human existence.

Although the first use of the term ‘globalization’ can be traced back to the 1940s, it was only after half a century that this concept stormed the public consciousness. The buzzword ‘globalization’ exploded into the ‘Roaring nineties’ because it captured the increasingly interdependent nature of social life on this planet. Earlier the concept of globalization was viewed as a techo-economic juggernaut spreading western culture and the intellection of capitalism and quashing local beliefs and national traditions. Thus, it was viewed as a ripple of Americanization. One corollary of the propagation of this perspective created fears in the minds of people, who had utter love and affection towards their own culture.

Fifteen or twenty years ago, no one would have been able to predict the magnitude of the impact that the evolution of computer internetworking technologies has had on the world. The advancement of computers and networking technologies, as well as the constant flow of new innovations has forever changed the way the human race communicates. People across the globe have been given a medium through which they can express their ideas and beliefs freely…for the most part. Many cultures span this great planet of ours, each with different cultural, spiritual and governmental beliefs. Some of these cultures share common beliefs, but

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.

Tennent also discussed the importance of culture and church with the category of ecclesiology. As the majority world church is facing the non-Christian world and culture, it is pivotal to develop a more engaged theology in the midst of a social and cultural landscape that is always changing (7581/8686).

Religions do not only relate to the past but also to the future: beliefs about resurrection or further rebirths, hopes of a better future, or even fears of apocalyptic tribulations. In this essay, various religious ‘futures’ will be investigated: the evolution towards spiritual individualism and consumerism, the success of yoga and the Christian speculations about the end of times. It will be easily demonstrated that each of these ‘futures’ is highly controversial – but are they controversial primarily because of the way in which they reinterpret the past? The essay will argue that the reinterpretation of the past should better seen as a legitimating force rather than the primary cause of the controversy.

world’s religious and spiritual views in a way that is broadly appealing to the way

The psychologist researchers should give more concern to those aspect of globalization that may have been associated with potentially damaging trends, such as the rise of religious fundamental-ism. Moghaddam (2012) offered a solution for these

The evolution of religion in world history has been a fascinating journey to say the least. So many of us profess to be a part of a certain religion but yet we don’t understand how it came to be. By unraveling the beginnings of today’s major religions, we can gain a better understanding and appreciation of religions around the world. Just as everyone is special and unique - so too are the various religions. It’s important to understand and respect whatever beliefs others may have - no matter if we agree with them or not.

Globalization has allowed people all over the world to connect with others and share their views freely. Volf claims that although it may seem that the emergence of globalization has been beneficial to religion, religion was actually the harbinger of globalization. “Globalization was first a reality in the religious imagination before it became an economic and political project. In sum, world religions are the original globalizers ––culture-shaping forces with distinctive accounts of what they deem to be universal human values–– and are major roots of contemporary globalization” (Volf

In today’s world, there are many religions and, they all practice and worship in different ways. They all have certain beliefs, certain rituals and, traditions that they carry. This paper will explain how religious traditions describe and encourage the relationship with the divine; the relationship with the sacred time; the relationship with sacred space or the natural world; and the relationship with each other. This paper will also identify key critical issues in the study of religion.

Throughout this semester we focused on numerous different religious practices and traditions. Focusing now on these new religious ideals and practices has provided many different suggestions towards spirituality: “”Spirituality” is personal, unique, self-validating, authentic, and authoritative, whereas “religion” is institutional, bureaucratic, social, inflexible hierarchical, and authoritarian” (Anderson and Young 295). Many of these new practices involve women, healing methods, and alternative divine figures. Overall, it is a common theme from many of these spiritual practices to not have a set textual religious book such as a Bible or Torah. In addition, they do not look up to a spiritual figure, or have set rituals or practices: “New Age