BS Environmental Science 2

GLOBALIZATION
OF RELIGION
GROUP 4
Introduction

Globalization has played a tremendous Globalization has also allowed religion on faith
role in providing a context for the to gain considerable significance and
current revival and the resurgence of importance as a non-territorial touchstone of
religion. Today, most religions are not identity. Being a source of identity and pride,
relegated to the countries where they religion has always been promoted by its
began. Religious have, in fact, spread practitioners so that it could reach the level of
and scattered on a global scale. globality and be embraced by as many people as
Globalization provided religions a fertile possible.
milieu to spread and thrive.
Religion
Universal Definition of
“Religion”
● It is derived from the Latin word: “religare”,
meaning, to bind together again that which was
once bound but has since been torn apart or
broken.
● known primarily to be the “system of beliefs and
practices”
● It is also a human relationship with the Absolute.
Universal Definition of
“Religion”
Specified Definition on the concept of “Religion” along
the two (2) aspects:

a. On spiritual sense,
In accordance to Haynes (2006), he
defined religion in three (3) ways, which is based
primarily on how social and individual behavior of
believers are organized:
● 1. It involves the idea of transcendence (that
refers to “supernatural realities”);
● 2. It relates with sacredness or holiness and
system of practice and language; and
● 3. It concerns ultimacy (on how “it relates people
to the ultimate conditions of existence”).
Universal Definition of
“Religion”
Specified Definition on the concept of “Religion” along
the two (2) aspects:

b. On material sense
Haynes (2006) states that religious beliefs
are capable of motivating individuals and groups to
collectively mobilize to achieve political goals and
consequently, suppress mass actions as a tool of
repression.
Different Forms
of Religion
 4,300
religions of the world according to Adherents

(NOTE: Adherents are independent, non-religiously affiliated organization that monitors the
number and size of the world’s religions.)
There are nearly 75% of the world’s population practices the five (5) most influential
religions of the world namely the following:

1. Buddhism 2. Christianity 3. Hinduism

Christianity, major religion stemming Hinduism, major
Buddhism, religion and philosophy
from the life, teachings, and death world religion originating on the Indian
that developed from the teachings subcontinent and comprising several
of Jesus of Nazareth. It has become
of the Buddha, a teacher who lived the largest of the world’s religions and varied systems of philosophy, belief,
in northern India between the mid- and, geographically, the most widely and ritual.
6th and mid-4th centuries. diffused of all faiths.

4. Islam 5. Judaism
is a religion promulgated by the Judaism, monotheistic religion develope
Prophet Muhammad in Arabia in the 7th d among the ancient Hebrews. Judaism
century CE. The Arabic term islām, literally is the complex phenomenon of a total
“surrender,” illuminates the fundamental way of life for the Jewish
religious idea of Islam—that the believer people, comprising theology, law, and
accepts surrender to the will of Allah. innumerable cultural traditions.
CHRISTIANITY & ISLAM are the two religions’ most widely spread across the world and they
both cover the religious affiliation of more than half of the world’s population.
Distribution of the Different Religions throughout the Globe
Distribution of the Different Religion throughout the Globe

Country Blue
Christianity dominates in the
Americas, Europe and the
southern half of Africa.

Country Green
Islam is the top religion in a
string of countries from northern
Africa through the Middle East to
Indonesia.

Country Dark Orange

India stands out as a huge Hindu
bloc.
Distribution of the Different Religion throughout the Globe

Country Light Orange

Buddhism is the majority religion
in South East Asia and Japan.

Country Grey , Yellow

China is the country with the
world's largest 'atheist/agnostic'
population as well as
worshippers of 'other' religions.
What are the MOST RELIGIOUS COUNTRIES?

Israel

Saudi Arabia

India
United Arab Emirates

Egypt

In some countries, religion isn't just a way of life – it's the law.
What are the MOST RELIGIOUS COUNTRIES?

Jordan

Turkey

Qatar
Oman

Lebanon

In some countries, religion isn't just a way of life – it's the law.
The Jewish homeland of
Israel is again perceived to
be the most religious in the
world, according to data
from the 2020 Best Countries
Saudi Arabia and India rank
rankings.
No. 2 and No. 3, respectively,
in terms of perceived
religiosity.
What are the LEAST RELIGIOUS COUNTRIES?

China (7% feel religious)

Japan (13% feel religious)

Estonia (16% feel religious)

Sweden (19% feel religious)

Norway (21% feel religious)
What are the LEAST RELIGIOUS COUNTRIES?

Czech Republic (23% feel religious)

Hong Kong (26% feel religious)

Netherlands (26% feel religious)

Israel (30% feel religious)

United Kingdom (30% feel religious)

China is the least religious country
in the world, with 90% of residents
claiming no religious affiliation.
Sweden is also one of the least religious
Though the Chinese state officially
countries in the world, with 73% of
recognizes the five religions of
Swedes denying that religion has any
Buddhism, Islam, Catholicism,
involvement in their everyday lives
Protestantism, and Taoism, the
state claims to permits its citizens
to practice any religion of their
own while also encouraging
The Czechs are considered to be one of the least
atheism.
religious populations in the world, with
concurrently very low church attendance and
lack of formal affiliation within the greater part
of the Czech population to any church.
RELIGION AND
GLOBALISM;
RELIGIOUS AND
GLOBALIST
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RELIGION AND GLOBALISM

Religion Globalism
❖ It is concerned with the sacred; ❖ It places value on material
wealth;

❖ It follows divine ❖ It abides human-made laws;

commandments; and and

❖ It assumes that there is “the ❖ It serves as a yardstick on how

possibility of communication much of human actions can
between humans and the lead to the highest material
transcendent”. satisfaction.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RELIGIOUS AND GLOBALIST PERSONALITIES
Religious Globalist
❖ They aspire to become saints; ❖ They train to be shrewd
business persons;

❖ They detest politics and the ❖ They value politics and the
quest for power for they are quest for power as both
evidence of humanity’s means and ends to open up
weakness; further the economies of the
world;
❖ They treat evangelization is in ❖ They focused on the realm of
itself a form of globalization; market: and
and
❖ They are concerned with ❖ They wish to spread goods
spreading holy ideas globally. and services.
 STATE OF
RELIGION IN THE
CONTEXT OF
GLOBALIZATION
State Of Religion In The
Context Of Globalization
Listed below the succeeding parts of this
academic paper, are its two (2) broad and main
arguments:

1) Secularization Paradigm,
o where religion has been viewed to have lost
its influence to some extent with the advent
of modernization; and belief that religion
would lose its significance with economic
development and modernization.
State Of Religion In The
Context Of Globalization
Listed below the succeeding parts of this
academic paper, are its two (2) broad and main
arguments:

2) Religious Resurgence Thesis

o where modernization has caused a backlash
and urged society to seek refuge in religion
due to the imposition of liberal and Western
values that are incompatible with people’s
culture, beliefs and identity.
SECULARIZATION:
THE CONSEQUENCE
OF MODERNIZATION
 Secularization - declining importance of religion
in a society.
Wilson (1966) defined secularization as “the process whereby religious
thinking, practices and institutions lose social significance”.

It is important to recognize that although many theorists for have explored the concept of secularization over
a century, there is no single theory of secularization. Likewise, scholars tend to have different perspectives on
why secularization occurs in society.
 Contributors (or Scholars) of the Different Classical Theories about
Secularization Paradigm:
1. Auguste Comte
• One of the first theorists of secularization.
• He posited that society undergoes three (3) stages: Theological Stage, Metaphysical Stage, and
Positivist Stage

i. Theological Stage,
➢ It refers to the explosion by personified deities
ii. Metaphysical Stage, and
➢ It is the extension of the theological stage and refers to the
explanation by impersonal abstract concepts.
iii. Positivist Stage
➢ It is also known as the “scientific stage” and efers to the
scientific explanation based on observation, experiment and
comparison.
➢ This is the highest, most evolved behavior from among the
other two stages according to him (Comte).
Contributors (or Scholars) of the Different Classical Theories about
Secularization Paradigm:
2. Max Weber
• argues that men will undergo modernization, which is a “process of the
disenchantment of the universe with the replacement of bureaucratization,
rationalization and secularization over the magical, the metaphysical and the religious”
3. Emile Durkheim
• argues that the individualization of the societies break the bonds of community.
4. Karl Marx
• believed that religion would have no place in a communist society where all individuals
are treated equally with the eradication of class division and the existence of the state.
 Contributors (or Scholars) on the General Overviews of Secularization Paradigm
Development (and Convergences and Divergences of the Classical Theories):

1. Tschannen (1991)
• provides a systematic overview of theories that would constitute the secularization paradigm (since
1963), which is based on three (3) core “concepts”:

i. Differentiation,
➢ religion becomes differentiated and autonomous from other institutions, “which thus, loses its power of
social control and guidance over the rest of society”
ii. Rationalization
➢ views this process based from the following aspects: 1) scientization , emergence of science that would
compete with religious worldviews; and 2) sociologization where social life is determined in a scientific
and rational fashion that is free from religious influence.
iii. Worldiness
➢ is the impact of the processes of differentiation and rationalization on religion is its loss of specificity and shift to
worldliness where religious organizations begin to cater to their members’ psychological needs.
 In its entirety, he also views the secularization paradigm as standing under two (2)
preliminary assumptions:
❖ “some roots of the secularization process can be found within religion itself”; and
❖ “religion is related to human conduction”
and thus, will not completely disappear.
 Contributors (or Scholars) on the General Overviews of Secularization Paradigm
Development (and Convergences and Divergences of the Classical Theories):

2. Gorksi (2000)
• follows the same emphasis on differentiation as the uniting concept across the paradigm of secularization.
• provides an understanding of theories into four (4) basic positions:

i. Disappearance of religion thesis (as espoused by Comte) where it is supplanted by science;

ii. Decline of religion thesis (as advocated by Weber) where there is the decline of the religious
but not the complete triumph of the scientific worldviews, thus the possibilities of revival of
new gods or religions;
iii. Privatization thesis (as argued by Luckmann) where institutionalized religions are
replaced by new and personalized faiths; and
iv. Transformation thesis (as set forth by Parsons) where religion is viewed to undergo
generalization across social systems, with the sacred of becoming more fragmented but not
less public.
“Gorski’s Schematic View of the Secularization Paradigm”
 Contributors (or Scholars) on the General Overviews of Secularization Paradigm
Development (and Convergences and Divergences of the Classical Theories):

2. Goldstein (2009)
• focuses on and questions the uni-linear conception of the secularization process
• dentifies three (3) different camps within the old secularization paradigm which are:

i. Functionalists (namely):
Talcott Parsons,
Robert Bellah, and
Niklas Luhmann;
ii. Phenomenologists (such as): and
Peter Berger,
Thomas Luckmann, and
Alfred Schutz
iii. Dialectic Theorists (involving):
Bryan Wilson,
David Martin,
Richard Fenn, and
Goldstein (who he associates himself with).
 HISTORICAL (OR KEY)
EVENTS THAT LEAD TO THE
RESURGENCE OF RELIGION
IN THE GLOBALIZED ERA
HISTORICAL (OR KEY) EVENTS THAT LEAD TO THE RESURGENCE OF
RELIGION IN THE GLOBALIZED ERA

Iranian Revolution
01 The Islamic Revolution in 1979 in Iran, led by Ayatollah Khomeini, was a significant event in the
country's history. The revolution, sparked by opposition to the Shah's authoritarian policies,
led to the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was criticized by the West for its
authoritarian nature.
Solidarity and the Polish Revolution
02 Solidarity in Poland originated in 1976 when a Workers' Defense Committee (KOR) was
founded by dissident intellectuals. The KOR supported imprisoned workers, provided legal and
medical aid, and published a Charter of Workers' Rights. In 1980, Gdańsk became a hotbed of
resistance to government decrees, leading to the establishment of the Interfactory Strike
Committee in 1980. The government and strikers reached agreements in August 1981.

03 September 11, 2001 Tragedy

On September 11, 2001, 19 al Qaeda militants hijacked four planes and carried out suicide
attacks in the United States, resulting in nearly 3,000 deaths. This event triggered major U.S.
terrorism initiatives and defined George W. Bush's presidency.
 THE RESURGENCE OF RELIGION IN THE CONTEXT OF
GLOBALIZATION

RESURGENCE - a new increase of activity or interest in a

particular subject or idea that had been forgotten for some
time
- a renewal of vigor or vitality
Contributors (or Scholars) under the Resurgence of Religion (Theses):
1. Samuel Huntington (1993)

• argues that the fundamental source of conflict that will dominate the global politics will be cultural and not
primarily economic or ideological.
• describes the politics of civilizations where “the peoples and governments of non-Western civilizations no longer
remain the objects of history as targets of Western colonialism but join the West as movers and shapers of
history”
• his thesis primarily featured the notion that Western security and global order were being challenged by sustained
attacks from international Islamic militancy, which would be given credence by the anti-Western Islamist regimes
in Sudan and Afghanistan in the mid-1990.
Contributors (or Scholars) under the Resurgence of Religion (Theses):

2. Edward Said (2005)

• made a sharp criticism by means of problematizing the conceptualization of “civilizations” and
“identities” of Huntington into what they are not:

3. Azzouzi (2013)
• reaffirms the clash of civilizations thesis and argues the revival and resurgence of religion as a
consequence of globalization.
• According to him , religion acts as a resistance against the adverse effects of globalization.

4. Amartya Sen (1999)

• shares the same criticism of the inadequate recognition of Samuel Huntington of the heterogeneities
with cultures
• He emphasizes diversity as an essential feature of most the cultures in the world.
• To him, the tendency to oversimplify the differences through the dichotomies between the “West and
the rest”, to treat non-Western cultures as monolithic, and to contrast it to the Western traditions that
are distinguished by modernity and democracy, is a huge mistake .
 Contributors (or Scholars) under the Resurgence of Religion (Theses):

5. Norris and Inglehart (2011)

• predict that the role of religion would eventually be raised on the international agenda.
• However, they do not refer to the clash of civilizations as the cause of it , rather, it is caused by “the
accommodation of divergent attitudes toward moral issues found in both traditional and modern societies”.
• These issues refer to the following circumstances:
- women and gay rights, divorce, abortion, sexual liberalization, (and other similar issues that
may challenge social tolerance).

6. Thomas (2005)
• defined global resurgence of religion as the growing saliency and persuasiveness of religion ,
increasing importance of religious beliefs, practices and discourses in personal and public life;
and the growing role of religious or religiously related individuals, non-states groups, political
parties and communities and organizations in domestic politics.
Contributors (or Scholars) under the Resurgence of Religion (Theses):

7. Scholte (2005)

• refers to religious revivalism as an anti-rationalist faith in which “trans-planetary relations have helped
to stimulate an sustain some renewals of anti-rationalist faith, but global networks have more usually
promoted activities involving rationalist knowledge”; wherein, it is in a state of opposition to both of the
arguments of Azzouzi and Thomas (2005)
 Contributors (or Scholars) under the Resurgence of Religion (Theses):

7. Scholte (2005)
- Eqbal Ahmad (1999) criticized the religious right constituted by fanatical and absolutists tyrants
promoting “an Islamic order reduced to a penal code, stripped of its humanism, aesthetics, intellectual quests
and spiritual devotion”. He argues that a distortion of religion and debasement of traditions justify
despotic rules and violent actions.
- It is a stark departure from the pluralist meaning of “jihad”, rooted in the meaning “determined
effort” or “striving” that “may be an inward struggle (directed against evil in oneself) or an outward one
(against injustice)”.