Lesson 9 Globalization For Religion

GLOBALIZATION and RELIGION
LEARNING OUTCOME
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
1. Define Religion
2. Identify some of the greatest religions of the world
3. Explain how globalization affects religious practices and beliefs;
4. Analyze the relationship between religion and global conflict, and conversely, global peace.
Define Religion
1. A set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when
considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional
and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human
affairs.
2. A specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of
persons or sects: the Christian religion; the Buddhist religion.
3. The body of persons adhering to a particular set of beliefs and practices:
World Religions and its members

1. Hinduism and its beliefs
Hindus worship one Being of ultimate oneness (Brahman) through infinite representations of
gods and goddesses. These various deities become incarnate within idols, temples, gurus,
rivers, animals, etc.
Hindus believe their position in this present life was determined by their actions in a
previous life. Hinduism therefore provides a possible explanation for suffering and evil in this
life. If a person’s behavior before was evil, they might justifiably experience tremendous
hardships in this life. Pain, disease, poverty or a disaster like a flood is deserved by that person
because of their own evil actions, usually from a previous lifetime. A Hindu's goal is to become
free from the law of karma...to be free from continuous reincarnations. Only the soul matters
which will one day be free of the cycle of rebirths and be at rest.
2. Buddhism and its beliefs
Buddhists do not believe in any God. They do not worship any gods or God. People outside of
Buddhism often think that Buddhists worship the Buddha. However, the Buddha (Siddhartha
Gautama) never claimed to be divine, but rather he is viewed by Buddhists as having attained
what they are also striving to attain, which is spiritual enlightenment and, with it, freedom from
the continuous cycle of life and death.
3. New Age Spirituality and its beliefs
New Age Spirituality promotes the development of the person's own power or divinity.
When referring to deity, a follower of this type of spirituality is not talking about a
transcendent, personal God who created the universe, but is referring to a higher
consciousness within themselves. A person pursuing spiritual development would see
themselves as deity, the cosmos, and the universe. In fact, everything that the person sees,
hears, feels or imagines is to be considered divine.
4. Islam and its beliefs
Muslims believe there is the one almighty God, named Allah, who is infinitely superior to
and transcendent from humankind. Allah is viewed as the creator of the universe and the
source of all good and all evil. Everything that happens is Allah's will. He is a powerful and strict
judge, who will be merciful toward followers depending on the sufficiency of their life's good
works and religious devotion.
5. Christianity and its beliefs
Christians believe in one eternal God who is creator of all that is. He is viewed as a loving
God who offers everyone a personal relationship with himself now in this life. In his life on
Earth, Jesus Christ did not identify himself as a prophet pointing to God or as a teacher of
enlightenment. Rather, Jesus claimed to be God in human form. He performed miracles,
forgave people of their sin and said that anyone who believed in him would have eternal life.
How distinct are these major religions?

1. Hindus acknowledge multitudes of gods and goddesses.
2. Buddhists say there is no deity.
3. New Age Spirituality followers believe they are God.
4. Muslims believe in a powerful but unknowable God.
5. Christians believe a loving God who created us to know him.
Religion in Global Conflict
Religious ideas, values, symbols and rites relate to deep issues of existence, it should not be
surprising when religion enters the picture in times of crisis.
The era of globalization brought with it 3 enormous problems, namely:
1. Identity
2. Accountability
3. Security
Religion provides answer to these problems
1. It provides a sense of identity
2. Traditional religious leadership provides a
sense of accountability.
3. Religion offers a sense of security.
Effects of globalization on religion

There’s been a counter reaction to globalization which has taken the form of increasing
nationalism and cultural retrenchment. This occurs in countries where liberal western culture
has challenged traditional religious and cultural sensibilities. Examples include Islamic
fanaticism and a rise of religious fundamentalism (Christian, Muslim, and Hindu.) in many
countries, including the U.S. Additionally, this rise in nationalism has caused pushback again
international trade agreements, the movement of labor and increasing racism stoked by
security concerns.
The rise of fundamentalism and its leveraging for political purposes i.e. ISIS has caused
widespread conflict across large parts of the world. This is causing another diaspora of people
fleeing from conflict zones into areas that are perceived as ‘safer’. These movements of people
further compound the rise of nationalist xeno-phobic movements as people feel culturally
threatened and physically less secure.
So, the effects on religion of globalization can be seen in the following areas:
1. Rising religious fundamentalism as people feel culturally threatened by an influx of ‘strange’
cultural factors resulting from the increasingly multicultural societies triggered by globalization.
2. Conversely, the movement of people and information across national borders increases the
rate of social and cultural liberalization resulting in potential loosening of traditional religious
structures.
3. The rise of nationalism as a counter pressure to globalization may put pressure on
ethnic/religious diversity in some countries. Particularly, countries that do not have long
histories of multiculturalism or where there has been historical conflict between
ethnic/religious groups that had been suppressed due to the rise of globalization.
4. Same cause as #2 above, but, different effect. The ease of information flow also allows the
rapid movement of religious proselytizing across the world. So, the converts to regionally non-
traditional religions i.e. Mormonism and Fundamentalist Christianity in Latin America have
increased dramatically.
Since globalization, according to many scholars, is aimed at the hybridization of the world
cultures around the pattern of the Western culture; and since it entails liberal values and
norms, religion (particularly Islam) constitutes a challenge to it. This is because Islam’s norms
and values are incompatible with the liberal values of globalization.
Challenge of religion
Though religion is strengthened and fortified by globalization, it represents a challenge to its
(globalization’s) hybridizing effects. Religion seeks to assert its identity in the light of
globalization. As a result, different religious identities come to the fore and assert themselves.
Such assertions of religious identities constitute a defensive reaction to globalization. Scholte, in
this respect, maintains that “At the same time as being pursued through global channels,
assertions of religious identity have, like nationalist strivings, often also been partly a defensive
reaction to globalization’’.
Globalization is associated, as an American or a Western project, with westernization and
Americanization. The dominance and hegemony exerted by these two processes, particularly
on the Third World countries, makes religions-related cultures and identities take defensive
measures to protect themselves. In this respect, Islam takes caution and resists the
encroachment of globalization forces on its cultures and livelihoods in many ways.
Islam cannot contribute to the hybridizing consequences of globalization not only because it
is always resistant to and defiant of globalization but also because the Islamic culture and
identity in general are incompatible with the norms and the values that are related to
globalization and to other distinct religions (such as Christianity, Judaism, etc). It has been
difficult for religion to cope with values that accompany globalization like liberalism,
consumerism, rationalism, etc. Such phenomena advocate scientism and secularism.
Islamic norms and values contradict those advocated by globalization. For Muslims,
globalization is a source of the loose Western morals, according to the writer. The imperialist
aspirations of globalization and its incompatibility with Islam make the former completely alien
to the Muslim realities. In this respect, the leading Islamic scholar, Salim Al-Awwa, maintains, as
paraphrased by Ehteshami, that globalization is an invasion. Since it is a cultural construct at
its heart and its meaning is the Western discourse, Al-Awwa adds, promoting and engaging with
it on the part of Muslims is like accepting and promoting Western cultural values and their
dominance.
To put it in other words, while religion takes caution against the norms and the values
related to globalization, it challenges the latter since it (religion) does not approve its
hybridizing effects. The idea of de-hybridizing effects of religion is approved also by Samuel
Huntington Clash Theory which maintains that such de-hybridising upshots spring also from the
religious partitioning and clashes.
http://www.summerschooles.uni.lodz.pl/wgrane_pliki/the-influence-of-globalisation-on-
religious-issues.pdf
https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2013/01/75121/religion-and-globalisation-benefits-and-
challenges/
The Sage Handbook of Globalization

Religion and Globalization by: David Lehman
PERFORMANCE TASK 2
Activities:
Film to be watched
“The Rise of ISIS”
Link:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/rise-of-isis/
Guide Questions for Group Discussions:

How did religion unite people around the world?
How can globalization be a problem for different religions of the world?
What is the role of religion in global conflict?
Instructions:
1. The teacher will be the one to facilitate and provide materials for the video presentation of
the ‘RISE OF THE ISIS’
2. The students’ are required to submit a reflection paper the next meeting in class based on
the guide questions enumerated above.
3. The reflection paper must be computerized in 1 bond paper only, font is 12, aerial, single
space and make it sure that the whole bond paper is filled up.
4. Copying from classmates’ work is cheating and strictly prohibited

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GLOBALIZATION and RELIGION

World Religions and its members

How distinct are these major religions?

Effects of globalization on religion

The Sage Handbook of Globalization

Guide Questions for Group Discussions:

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