Religious Responses to Globalisation

2013

Presently, religions have found a fertile ground and a paved road to flourish and extend their scope globally. Thanks to globalisation, religions, particularly Islam, like cultural patterns, have been able to extent tremendously beyond their original birthplaces. However, while religion gets its strength from globalisation, it does challenge the latter's continuous hybridising upshots. In the light of the aforementioned, the present article shows that religion, taking Islam as a case, which has gained a considerable significance as a result of globalisation, defies the hybridising effects brought about by the latter. It shows that globalisation-related technologies fortify religion which, in turn, challenges globalisation in the sense that it does not cope with such globalisation values as liberalism, consumerism, rationalism, etc.

2011

Modernization and secularization theories in the post war period have been key to the marginalisation of religion in the context of globalisation. This has changed with the domination of globalisation and religion in the area of social science since the 1980s. This article recognises the economic and political impact of Islamism, both domestically and globally. It draws together the key themes of globalisation, religion and development. It refutes simplistic notions of linear development, particularly neo-liberalism, and rejects any assumption that religion is incompatible with development. The article thus seeks to determine a course of action that encourages the social significance of religion to be recognized and handled in a constructive manner.

2010

This book examines the relationship between globalization and religion from a variety of perspectives. After establishing working definitions for both core concepts, it considers certain conceptual homologies between globalization and religion, but also several points of divergence. The universalist and universalizing dimensions of both notions are compared alongside some reflections on the differences between religion and ideology—two terms often used interchangeably. The central theme is globalization and religion in the contemporary era, beginning with the historical role of religion in the emergence of the global system of empires, markets, and eventually nation-states, examining how world political powers have at times articulated their claims within and through religious frameworks. As we enter the most immediate period of globalization following World War II, we consider religious responses to various dimensions of globalization as expressed through new social movements and new theologies. We also consider the views of those who have argued that contemporary globalization, representing as it does a relative decline in the importance of the nation-state as an actor on the world stage, paves the way for non-state forces—such as cultures and religions—to dominate global affairs.

(Co-Author, Galina Lindquist) In, Religion, Politics, and Globalization: Anthropological Approaches, New York: Berghahn, 2011, pp. 1-66

This book offers a range of case-studies from around the globe-India, Indonesia, the Middle East, North Africa, Spain, the United States-that take up the tangled relationships between religion and politics in the presentness of this globalizing age. Mostly by anthropologists, the chapters exemplify how a relevant anthropology concentrates especially on the ethnographic and the factual. The case-studies illuminate the fi ner details of confl icts in the entanglement and the diffi culties of resolving these. They add to the current understanding in the social sciences of just how mistaken were the claims of a generation and more ago that with modernization, religion withered away while much of the world's people secularized, thereby becoming heirs of the Western Enlightenment. Such claims maintained that as heirs of the Enlightenment, people should have a greater appreciation of the very metaphysics of science-based knowledge, and not only of the uses of technology. This appreciation should inspire confi dence in rational decision making whose premises and outcomes are transparent and explicitly accountable for in terms of linear cause-and-effect relationships, without any irrational, mystifying mumbo-jumbo. 1 Nonetheless, states that can best be called "theocratic"-religious-political systems that modernity sought to relegate to history-proliferate all over the globe and claim their say in international affairs. In avowedly secular states including those that Notes for this chapter begin on page 55.

Religion, 2016

This article discusses the current situation of religion caused by the forces of globalization by analyzing the developing phenomenon related to religion in contemporary society. It argues that globalization has a mixed impact on religion in ways that lead to the opposing view of secularist scholars that religion will be diminished. Apparently, religion has experienced a revival in many parts of the world, mainly in the form of religious fundamentalism. Problems and challenges posed by globalization, such as the environmental crisis and secular society have provided the opportunity and the power to religion to revitalize itself and to transform themselves into a religion with a new form that has a role and a new identity. Furthermore, globalization may lead to the decline of organized religion in modern society and certain intellectual subculture, but it does not cause the death of religion in private life. This is in line with the emergence of the phenomenon of " believing without belonging ". In short, globalization has helped to transform the religion itself and changed its strategy to address the problems and challenges of globalization to create " world de-secularization ". [Artikel ini membahas keadaan mutakhir agama yang diakibatkan oleh kekuatan-kekuatan globalisasi dengan melakukan analisa atas fenomena yang sedang berkembang terkait agama dalam masyarakat kontemporer. Ia berargumen bahwa globalisasi memiliki dampak yang beragam terhadap

When discussing religion in a globalized world, scholars usually proceed from several standard assumptions. First, they proceed from the modern notion that religion should be separate from the state and, therefore, should not participate in public discourse, limiting its sphere of influence to personal faith and spirituality. Second, scholars often discuss established religious traditions that have evolved over the centuries, paying less attention to new religious movements because their numbers are relatively small, as is their influence on the world stage. Third, they focus their analysis on "religious disrupters," that is, those sects and groups that challenge social norms and pose a threat to civilization. In my essay, I challenge all those assumptions and discuss the impact of the Baha'i Faith and its teaching on the unfolding global social order.

Millah, 2013

Materialisme, konsumerisme, dan individualisme dikampanyekan berasal dari Barat dan mengancam karakter moral masyarakat beragama, terutama kaum muda dari berbagai penganut agama. Benarkah demikian? Perlu dicatat bahwa globalisasi berdampak luas pada identitas budaya dan agama, namun tidak berarti selalu bermakna dampak negatif dan disintegrasi. Globalisasi dapat juga memiliki efek memperkaya, memperkuat dan membuat budaya lokal lebih fleksibel. Untuk itu perlu dicarikan metode dan mekanisme yang menjadikan globalisasi berdampak positif terhadap identitas suatu agama, terlebih lagi, memang beberapa agama berasal dari sumber yang sama, yakni agama yang dikenal dengan abrahamic religion (Islam, Nasroni, dan Yahudi).

2020

Globalization is the interconnectedness of people and ideas across the globe. It involves the scaling of borders and the creation of a global society where events in far-flung areas reverberate uninhibited across great distances and geographical locations. Its agents are the information and communication technology (ICT), and the revolution in the modern transportation system. Globalization has affected everything and everybody and changed the traditional ways of doing things such that no region of the world can again boast of impermeability. Accompanying it are the values now known as modernism which includes a preference for change rather than continuity, freedom rather than restriction. This has led to the development of a secular culture which religious enthusiasts view as crude, sacrilegious, unacceptable and socially dangerous, and as threatening the very existence of traditional religious values. This paper attempts an analysis of the interplay between religion and globaliza...