Department of Social Sciences

CENTRAL MINDANAO UNIVERSITY

GEC 13 (THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD)

Edited by:JORNIE LUMINTAO
Faculty, Dept. of Social Sciences
College of Arts and Sciences

This material has made available to you for your personal use only in this course. Please
ask permission from your instructor for any other use or distribution.

Citation: Abinales, P. & Claudio, L. (2018). The Contemporary World. C & E Publishing, Inc.

Contact information: 09551732760/ f.jorniejr.lumintao@cmu.edu.ph

Term Offered: 1stSemester SY 2021-2022

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 MODULE 2: A World of Ideas: Cultures of Globalization
At the end of this Unit, the student will be able to explain the role of global
processes in everyday life.

Lesson 6: THE GLOBALIZATION OF RELIGION

At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
1. Explain how globalization affects religious practices and beliefs;
2. Identify the various religious responses to globalization; and
3. Discuss the future of religion in a globalized world.

Important Terms:
Religion
Realities
Secularization

Study Guide Questions:

1. What is religion?
2. What is the five major religions of the world?
a. What is Christianity?
b. What is Islam?
c. What is Judaism?
d. What is Buddhism?
e. What is Hinduism?
3. Distinguish religion from globalism.
4. What are the realities of today’s world vis a vis religion?
5. Religion for and against globalization.

Required Reading(s):
Chapter 6: Gobalization of Religion Pages 62 - 71
Abinales & Caludion (2018). The Contemporary World. Quezon City: C & E
Publishing, Inc.

What is religion?
 It is the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God
or gods.
 Religion as a phenomenon looked on as universal — Eliade’s concept of the “sense of the
sacred”

What are the five major religions of the world?

Religion Christianity Islam Judaism Buddhism Hinduism
Symbol

Name of God of major The Holy Trinity: Allah Yahweh (Hebrew for Buddha Brahman, the
Gods 1. God the Father God) eternal origin
2. God the who is the
Son/Jesus cause and the
3. Holy Spirit foundation of
all existence.
Holy Book The Holy Bible/Bible Qur’an/Koran Torah/Pentateuch of Tripitaka/ The Vedas
the Five books of Tipitaka/ Pali
Moses Canon
Followers/Believers Christians Muslims Jews/Israelites Buddhists Hindus
name
How is Jesus portrayed For Christians. For Muslims, For Jews, Jesus Jesus is not Jesus is not
in this religion? Jesus Christ is the Jesus Christ is a Christ is a prophet. mentioned mentioned
Messiah. The savior prophet.
of the world.
Do this religion Yes Yes Yes No No
descended from
Abraham? (Yes/No)
Do this religion believe No No No Yes Yes
in reincarnation?
(Yes/No)

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 Religion vs. Globalism

Religion Globalism
 It is concerned with the sacred.  It places value on material wealth.
 It follows divine commandments  It abides human-made laws.
 It assures that there is “the possibility of communication  It is much more concerned on how much human action can
between humans and the transcendent. lead to the highest material satisfaction and subsequent
wisdom that this new status produce.
 Religious people are ascetics, meaning, they are less  Globalists skills are more pedestrian (humanly than divine)
concerned with wealth and all that comes along with it. as they aim to seal trade deals, raise the profits of private
enterprises, improve government revenue collections, protect
the elites from excessively taxed by the state, and, naturally,
enrich themselves.
 The religious main duty is to live a virtuous, sin-less life such  Globalists are less worried whether they end up in heaven or
that when he/she dies, he/she is assured of a place in the hell.
other world.
 The religious is concerned with spreading the Holy ideas  The globalist ideals focus on the realm of markets. It wishes
globally. to spread goods and services.

 Religion and globalism clash over the fact that religious evangelization is in itself a form of globalization.
1. Missions are being sent from the different religious sectors which aims to spread the word of God and gain more
adherent. Thus, they regard identities associated with globalism such as citizenship, language, and race, as
inferior and narrow because they are earthy categories.
2. And, membership to religious group, organization, or cult represents a superior affiliation that connects
humans directly to the divine and the supernatural.

o In other words, being a Christian, Muslim, or Hindu is superior than just being a Filipino or whatever.
o With this reason, it explains why certain groups “flee” their communities and create impenetrable (not easy
to enter) sanctuaries where they can practice religion without the meddling of state authorities. They believed that
living among “non-believers” will distract them from their missions or tempt them to abandon their faith and
become sinners like everyone else.
Example:
 Believers of Dalai Lama established Tibet.
 Rizalistas in Mt. Banahaw,
 The Essenes during the Roman Controlled Judah (Israel).
3. Communities justify their opposition to government authority on religious grounds.
Example:
 Priestess and Monks led the first revolt s against colonialism in Asia and Africa, warning that these outsiders were
out to destroy their people’s gods and way of life.
 The Catholic priests greatly opposed the RH bill before as it bypasses the divine commandment of upholding life.

Realities:

The following numbers sentences are the notable realities of the manifestation and involvement of
religion to the world activities:

1. The relationship between religion and globalism is much more complicated.

a. Far from being secularized, the “contemporary world is… furiously religious.” – Peter Berger.
b. In most of the world, there are true and real explosions of religious fervor, occurring in one form or
another in all religious traditions – Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism. Buddhism, etc.
2. Religions are the foundations of modern Republics.
a. The Malaysian Government places religion at the center of their political system. In their Constitution, it
is clear that “Islam is the religion of the Federation,” and the rulers of each state was also the “Head of
the religion of Islam.”
3. Religious movements do not hesitate to appropriate secular themes and practices.
a. Secular – relating to worldly or temporal.
b. The moderate Muslim associations Nahdlatul Ulama in Indonesia has Islamic schools (called pesantren)
where students are taight not only about Islam but also about modern science, the social sciences,
modern banking, civic education, rights of women, pluralism, and democracy.
4. In some cases, religion was the result of a shift in state policy.
a. The Church of England, for example, was “shaped by the rationality of modern democratic (and
bureaucratic) culture.” King Henry VIII broke away from Roman Catholicism and established his own
church to bolster his own power.
5. In United States, religion and law were fused together to help build this “modern secular society.”
a. “Not only the Americans practice their religion out of self-interest but they often even place in this
world the interest which they have in practicing it.” – Alexis de Tocqueville (early 1800s).

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Religion for and against globalization:(An excerpt from the book)

There is hardly a religious movement today that does not use religion to oppose “irreligious” globalization.

 Yet of the so-called “old world religions” – Christianity and Islam – see globalization less an obstacle and
more are an opportunity to expand their reach all over the world. Globalization has “freed” communities
from the “constraints of the nation state,” but in the process, also threatened to destroy the cultural system
that bind them together. Religion seeks to take the place of these broken “traditional ties” to wither help
communities to cope with their new situation or organize them to oppose this major transformation of their
lives. It can provide the groups “moral codes” that answer problems ranging from people’s health to social
conflict to even “personal happiness.” Religion is thus not the “regressive force” that gives communities a
new and powerful basis of identity. It is an instrument with which religious people can put their mark in the
reshaping of this globalizing world, although in its own terms.

Religious fundamentalism may dislike globalization’s materialism, but it continues to use “the full range of
modern means of communication and organization” that is associated with this economic transformation.

 It has tapped “fast long-distance transport and communications, the availability of English as a global
vernacular of unparalleled power, the know-how of modern management and marketing” which enabled the
spread of “almost promiscuous propagation of religious forms across the globe in all sorts of directions” It
is, therefore, not entirely correct to assume that the proliferation of “Born Again” groups, or in the case of
Islam, the rise of movements like Daesh (more popularly known as ISIS, or Islamic State in Iraq and Syria)
signal’s religion’s defense against materialism of globalization. It is, in fact, the opposite. These
fundamentalists organizations are the result of the spread of globalization and both find ways to benefit or
take advantage of each other.

While religions may benefit from the processes of globalization, this does not mean that its tensions with
globalist ideology will subside.

 Some Muslims view “globalization” as a Trojan horse hiding supporters of Western values like secularism,
liberalism, or even communism ready to spread these ideas in their areas to eventually displace Islam. The
World Council of Churches – an association of different Protestant congregations – has criticized economic
globalization’s negative effects. It vowed that “we as churches makes ourselves accountable to the victims
of the project of economic globalization,” by becoming the latter’s advocates inside and outside the “centers
of power.” The Catholic Church and its dynamic leader, Pope Francis, likewise condemned globalization’s
“throw-away culture” that is “fatally destined to suffocate hope and increase risks and threats.” The
Lutheran World Federation 10th Assembly’s 292-page declaration message included economic and feminist
critiques of globalization, sharing the voices of members of the Church who were affected by globalization,
and contemplations on the different “pastoral and ethical reflections” that members could use to guide their
opposition. It warns that as a result of globalization: “Our world is split asunder by forces we often do not
understand, but that result in stark contrasts between those who benefit and those who are harmed,
especially under forces of globalization. Today, there is also a desperate need for healing from “terrorism,”
its causes, and fearful reactions to it. Relationships in this world continue to be ruptures due to greed,
injustices, and various forms of violence.

These advocacies to reverse or mitigate economic globalization eventually gained the attention of globalist
institutions. In 1998, the World Bank brought in religious leaders in its discussions about global poverty, leading
eventually to a “cautious, muted, and qualified” collaboration in 2000. Although, it only yielded insignificant results
(the World bank agreed to support some faith-based anti-poverty projects in Kenya and Ethiopia), it was evident
enough that institutional advocates of globalization could be responsive to the “liberationist, moral critiques of
economic globalization” (including many writings on “social justice”) coming from the religious.

With the exception of militant Islam, religious forces are well aware that they are in no position to fights for a
comprehensive alternative to globalizing status quo. What Catholics call “the preferential option for the poor” is a
powerful message of mobilization but lacks substance when it comes to working out a replacement system that can
change the poor’s condition in concrete ways. And, of course, the traditionalism of fundamentalist political Islam is
no alternative either. The terrorism of ISIS is unlikely to create “Caliphate” governed by justice and stability, In Iran,
the unchallenged superiority of a religious autocracy has stifled all freedom of expressions, distorted democratic
rituals like elections, and tainted the opposition.

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Conclusion: Religion, is here to stay, despite the globalists’ resistance with it. Even, despite efforts of secularization.
It’s embedded among societies and intangible.

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