GLOBALIZATION OF

RELIGION
P r e s e t e d d u r i n g C H E D Tr a i n i n g
* * * T H E C O N T E M P O RA RY W O R L D * * *
Dennis C. Coronacion
Jefferson R. Mendez
Dominic B. Baggayan

January 04-12, 2018|Baguio City

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Learning Goals

To map some key To contextualize the

To identify the
developemnts in the concepts of
current research
relationship between globalization and
agendas under
the study of religion religion within the
Globalization and
and globalization Philippine setting
Religion
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About the Author

Associate Professor of Sociology, University

of Cyprus, (2009-Present)

Education
Ph.D. Sociology & Cultural Studies,
University of Pittsburgh, 1996.
M.A, History, Department of History,
University of Pittsburgh, 1994.
M.A. Sociology, Bowling Green State
University, Ohio, 1990.
B.A. Economics, University of Macedonia,
Thessaloniki, Greece, 1987.
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4

“
“No single force can be said to have had a
greater impact on propelling globalization
forward than religion, which has always
sought to spread its message”

Reza Aslan (2009)

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Religion Definition
The belief in and worship of a
superhuman controlling power,
especially a personal God or gods.
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 Some Christians declare that Christianity "is not a religion, it is a

relationship with Jesus“.
 Some Muslims say "Islam is not a religion - it is a way of life“.

 It used to be the case that "most Hindus do not realize they

'belong' to that religion, for it is a name given by outsiders.

 Thankfully, most adherents understand the utility of words well

enough to accept that they belong to specific religions, and
nowadays there is a strong Hindu-awareness movement that
heralds a new generation of Hindus.
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The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling

power, especially a personal God or gods.

„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.“

Religion, then, consists of beliefs, actions, and

institutions which assume the existence of supernatural
entities with powers of action, or impersonal powers or
processes possessed of moral purpose.”
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Religions are shared collections of transcendental

beliefs that have been passed on from believers to
converts, that are held by adherents to be actively
meaningful and serious and either based on (1) formally
documented doctrine (organized religion) or (2)
established cultural practices (folk religion).

Definitions of religion differentiate between personal

beliefs and organized religion.
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Religion Members
Percentage
Religious actors

•individuals or groups, who act Christianity 2.1 billion 33.0%

Islam 1.5 billion 21
on consistent messages
Hinduism 900 million 14
regarding the relationship
Buddhism 376 million 6
between religion, politics and
Sikhism 23 million 0.36
society
•religious actors are among the Judaism 14 million 0.22
Bahaism 7 million 0.1
oldest of transnationals –
Confucianism 6.3 million 0.1
carrying words and praxis across
Jainism 4.2 million 0.1
vast spaces
Shintoism 4 million 0.0

Encyclopaedia Britannica (2005),

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The spread of religion

•Pilgrimage and tourism is a major

force in the globalization of culture
•Christians often pilger to holy sites
e.g. Jerusalem
•Muslims should travel to Mecca to
undertake the haji at least once in
their life, connecting also to the Islamic
communes around the world

Cultural exchange, missionary

activity and pilgrimages are important
sectors, which promoted the process of
globalization.
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The “world religions” can be interpreted as responses to deep

insecurities produced by radical social disruptions.
How does it change with globalization?
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Known as the Silk Road, this

vast expanse of intercultural
trade routes traversed
Eurasia from the
Mediterranean all the way to
Japan, crossing into India on
the way. Textiles, spices and
even religions were all
exchanged along the Silk
Road starting around 1,000
B.C. and continuing for
several millenniums. For
much of this time, Islam was
the dominant religion among
Silk Road traders coming
from western Eurasia, and
they brought with them their Interconnectivity of trade, culture and religion
belief system and a culture enhanced globalization.
rich in tradition and
advancements to millions of
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Globalization and
Religion – A Paradox

• Religious actors have been agents of globalization for

centuries.
• Globalization is often associated with spreading same
ideas and views (universalists)

 Samuel Huntingtion sees the universalists vs.

individualists
as “clash of civilizations” between the West and the
Rest.
 Globalization does not lead to identical responses from
all
religious actors, but sometimes globalization is
actively
pursued by religious actors (Paradox)
Example:
Groups such as Al Qaeda oppose Westernization, but are
at the same
time products of this phenomenon even utilizing the tools
Discussion and 14
Content of the
Article

The Social-scientific study of religion is a

field that has played a critically important
role in shaping the contemporary scholarly
understanding of globalization.
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Cross-Disciplinary considerations: Beyond the

Secularization Debate

“The study of religion is an inter- or cross-disciplinary area of

inquiry”
- Crawford, 2001
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“For most of the 20th century,

the research agenda of the
social sciences has been
dominated by the debate over
secularization.”
- Turner, 2009
SECULARIZATION THEORY 17

 “Modernity inevitably produces a decline of religion.”

(Berger, 2013)

 Initially had a strong following, but was eventually

superseded by critics who forced scholarly re-appraisals/re-
evaluations.

Theory of Pluralism: The coexistence of different worldviews

and value systems in the same society (Berger, 2013)
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2 broad streams of ideas concerning secularization:

1. post-secularity – contemporary phase; religion makes a return to the

public sphere from where it was cast out during the era of modernity
- Religious Fundamentalism
- “believing without belonging” by Grace Davie (1994)
- public ‘flagging’ of religious belief that is not matched by religious
practice.

2. Secularism is a multifaceted movement that has caused the onset of

secularization in Western societies.

Evaluation: Eurocentric, ignoring non-Western regions

Challenges 19
- The Sociology of Religion must overcome its rampant
parochialism (Riesebrodt and Konieczny, 2010)

- The major schism that shapes the problem of the

relationship between religion and globalization is not only that
between a dominant North and a subordinate South. Of equal
importance is the schism between the West and the East or the
rest (Turner and Khonder, 2010)
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Globalization: Perspectives
from the Field
Globalization is not a process that can be easily
narrated within a single authoritative narrative –
rather the very notion of various locales
coalescing into the global, promotes the
construction of multiple narratives that reflect
the manner in which each group, religious
tradition, or region contributed to the
construction of the ‘global’.
Roudometof (2015)
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 In Robertson’s (1992) original statement,
globalization is defined as “the compression of
the world”.

By “compression” Robertson means accelerated

pace of contact among cultures, peoples and
civilizations; or

The sense that the world is shrinking.

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In the Sociology of Religion, the notion of Globalization emerged in the

early 1980s in a series of publications of Sociologist Ronald Robertson
and his co-authors – and eventually most of these articles and papers
were published in his Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture
(1992).

In terms of the relationship between churches or more religious

institutions and the state, there is broad consensus that both in the
advanced industrial societies as well as in developing countries there is
a general tendency for religion to return to the public sphere or domain
– A tendency often referred to as the de-privatization of religion.
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The relationship between space-time and globalization is
an additional dimension.

Different theorist have tended to emphasize spatial or

temporal dimensions.

In this interpretations, emphasis is placed on

globalization’s temporality, whereby contemporary
developments are said to constitute a new era or phase
or stage that is viewed as qualitatively distinct from past
historical era.
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On the other hand, Robertson (1992) and Waters

(1995) have stressed the spatial dimension of the
‘global’.

Globalization entails a geographical component,

which is best expressed in terms of the dialectic of
deterritorialization and reterritorialization.

Deterritorialization – is the mechanism by which globalization operates

concretely to construct new forms of attachments.
Reterritorialization – is the possibility of reconstructing, creating, or
recreating locality.
Old forms of territorial attachments are decoupled, and 25
new forms of attachments are forged.

This dialectic is prominently displayed both in terms

toward greater ecumenical orientation as well as
transnational religion.

It is in this sense that the construction of locality can be

viewed as a global phenomenon. (Appadurai, 1995)
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Since the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe,

scholarship has explored various facets of the
relationship between globalization and religion.

Some best examples of religious-centered reactions to

the contemporary globalization:

The Rise of Religious Nationalism (Juergensmeyer, 1994)

The return of Religion into the Public Life (Cassanova, 1994)
The Proliferation of International Terrorism (Juergensmeyer,
2001)
The Increasing Personal bricolage of Individual Religiosity (Beyer,
1994)
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As Obadia (2010) argues, theorizing religion
and globalization has been subject to two
different line of interpretation,

Globalization of Religion, versus

Globalization and Religion.
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In the 1st problematic, the fundamental research

question pertains to the spread of religions and
specific genres or forms or blueprints of religion across
the world.

Beyer (2006) proposed that the very notion of what

constitutes a ‘religion’, as a common understood, is a
product of long term process of inter-civilizational or
cross-cultural interactions.
In the 2nd problematic, the position and 29
place of religion is problematized within the
context of globalization.

This problematic concerns the relations and

impact of globalization upon religion.

From this point, even religions that are not

conventionally considered ‘global’ are
nevertheless influenced by globalization.
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Globalization is profoundly historical;

Its pace and influence for the crystallization of various

religions requires a ‘birds-eye-view’ of historical
development.
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Transnational Religion and

Multiple Glocalizations
“The consciousness of our sacred and
inescapable duty to our country and our
sense of loyalty to the people of the
united states constrain us to denounce
the forgoing acts of the present
Governor-General as arbitrary,
oppressive and undemocratic.”
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Relationship with expressions of

Religiosity

Transnational Studies
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International Migration-Provided the

means to theorize the relationship between
people and religion in a transnational
context.
-(Casanova 2001)

Case: God’s Needs No Passport

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Migration of Faiths-Across the globe has

been a major feature of the world
throughout the twentieth century.
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“Deterritorialization” of Religion
The appearance and , in some instances, the
efflorescence of religions traditions in places
where these previously had been largely
unknown or were at least in a minority
position.
Transnational Religion emerged
through the post WWII spread of
several religions
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Example:

Explosion of Protestantism in Catholic Latin America

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Blends of Religious universalism and

local particularism

Religious Transnationalism is often

depicted as a religion “Going Global”.
-Jenkins (2007)
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Ability of Religion to mould into the

fabric of different communities in ways
that connect it intimately with communal
and local relations.
Indigenization-Connected specific faiths with
ethnic groups, whereby religion and culture were often
fused into a single unit
Hybridization-Blend religious universalism with
several forms of local (national or ethnic) particularism
Glocalization- A genre of expression,
communication and legitimation of collective and
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Conclusion
At the onset of the chapter, it stressed the discontinuity
between research agendas that focus on secularization and
globalization.

Secularization – traditional main focus

Western bias – Western cultural specificity has been
naturalized
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Neglect of globalization (Turner 2010)

This chapter’s response: It presented new research

agendas

Effect: The field of sociology of religion transcended

its traditional root. It allowed growth of the field by
allowing it to engage in diverse cultural contexts and
historical setting.
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 Two frontiers of social research on the literature:
1. The intersection between transnational studies and
the study of religion.

2. Renewed interest in the relationship between culture

and religion.
 Glocalization
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Second Activity:

“Global Tableau”
Thank You!