Key Theorists - Religion in a Global Context

Question 1

Key Theorist – Nanda: Religiosity and India (Globalisation)

WHAT DOES THIS THEORIST ARGUE?

Answer 1

• Their religiosity is a result of their uncertainty about their new found wealth.

Question 2

Key Theorist – Nanda: Religiosity and India (Globalisation)

HOW CAN THIS THEORY BE EVALUATED?
GIVE AT LEAST ONE EXAMPLE.

Answer 2

• She rejects poverty and insecurity as a reason for why people in India turn to religion, because they are not poor.
• She also rejects the idea that their religiosity is a defensive reaction to modernism and westernisation.

Question 3

Key Theorist – Redding (1990): Religion and Globalisation

WHAT DOES THIS THEORY ARGUE?

Answer 3

• The spirit of capitalism among Chinese entrepreneurs is hard work, self-discipline and a commitment to education.
• The effect of this value system is similar to that of the Protestant ethic, in that it leads to economic productivity and the accumulation of capital.

Question 4

Key Theorist – Berger (2003): Religion and Globalisation

WHAT DOES THIS THEORY ARGUE?

Answer 4

• Pentecostalism in Latin America embraces a work ethic and lifestyle similar to Calvinists.
• Pentecostalism is successful because it incorporates local beliefs, is diverse and appeals to the poor.

Question 5

Key Theorist – Lehmann (2002): Religion and Globalisation

WHAT DOES THIS THEORY DO?

Answer 5

• Distinguish between two phases in the expansion of Christianity out of Europe and into South America and Africa.

Question 6

Key Theorist – Lehmann (2002): Religion and Globalisation

WHAT DOES THIS THEORY ARGUE IS THE FIRST STAGE OF THE EXPANSION OF CHRISTIANITY?

Answer 6

• Christianity accompanied colonisation and was imposed on the indigenous populations by conquest, often forcibly suppressing local religions.

Question 7

Key Theorist – Lehmann (2002): Religion and Globalisation

WHAT DOES THIS THEORY ARGUE IS THE SECOND STAGE OF THE EXPANSION OF CHRISTIANITY?

Answer 7

• Over the last century, it has spread because it has gained a popular following below. For example, by 2015 there were 25 million Pentecostalists in Brazil alone.

Question 8

Key Theorist – Lehmann (2002): Religion and Globalisation

COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES:

Lehmann attributes the ______ of Pentecostalism as a ______ religion in part to its ability to incorporate ______ beliefs. Although it preaches a similar message worldwide, it uses imagery and _______ drawn from local ________ and beliefs, especially spirit possession cults. Pentecostalists ______ such cults as the work of the devil, but their ministers conduct ______ (getting rid of evil spirits) to rid people of evil spirits. By doing so, Pentecostalism _________ local, traditional beliefs, while at the same time claiming to give believers access to a greater power, that of the Christian Holy Spirit.
In this way, Pentecostalism creates _______ local religious forms, rather than simply _________ existing local beliefs with an imported one, as the first phase of Christianisation had done. In Africa, this had led to the Africanisation of Christianity rather than the total disappearance of indigenous religions. As a result of this ability to adapt to local customs and establish a local identity, for itself, Pentecostalism shows considerable local _____ in different parts of the world.

Answer 8

• Success
• Global
• Local
• Symbolism
• Cultures
• Attack
• Exorcisms
• Validates
• New
• Replacing
• Diversity

Question 9

Key Theorist – Giddens (1990, 1991, 1999): Religious Fundamentalism

WHAT DOES THIS THEORY ARGUE?

Answer 9

• Fundamentalists are traditionalists who seek to return to the basic fundamentals of their faith.
• The term ‘fundamentalism’ is new and is seen as a reaction to globalisation or a quest for certainty in response to post-modernity. It may be a response to changes from within or outside a society.

Question 10

Key Theorist – Giddens (1990, 1991, 1999): Religious Fundamentalism

WHAT DOES THIS THEORY DO?

Answer 10

• Contrast fundamentalism to cosmopolitanism (a way of thinking that embraces modernity). Cosmopolitanism is tolerant of others views and open to new ideas.

Question 11

Key Theorists – Bauman and Castells: Religious Fundamentalism

WHAT DOES BAUMAN ARGUE RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM IS?

Answer 11

• A response to living in postmodernity.

Question 12

Key Theorists – Bauman and Castells: Religious Fundamentalism

WHAT DOES CASTELLS DO?

Answer 12

Distinguish between two responses to postmodernity.

Question 13

Key Theorists – Bauman and Castells: Religious Fundamentalism

WHAT DOES CASTELLS ARGUE IS THE FIRST RESPONSE TO POSTMODERNITY?

Answer 13

Resistance identity – a defensive reaction of those who feel threatened and retreat into fundamentalist communities.

Question 14

Key Theorists – Bauman and Castells: Religious Fundamentalism

WHAT DOES CASTELLS ARGUE IS THE SECOND RESPONSE TO POSTMODERNITY?

Answer 14

Project identity – the response of those who are forward looking and engage with social movements such as feminism.

Question 15

Key Theorists – Bauman and Castells: Religious Fundamentalism

ON WHICH GROUNDS DOES BECKFORD (2011) CRITICISE RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM?
GIVE AT LEAST TWO EXAMPLES.

Answer 15

• They distinguish too sharply between cosmopolitanism and fundamentalism, ignoring ‘hybrid’ movements.
• They are ‘fixated on fundamentalism’, ignoring other important developments, including how globalisation is also affecting non-fundamentalist religions such as Catholicism.
• Giddens lumps all types of fundamentalism together, ignoring important differences between them.
• Giddens’ description of fundamentalism as a defensive reaction to modernity, ignores the fact that reinventing tradition is also a modern activity.

Question 16

Key Theorists – Bauman and Castells: Religious Fundamentalism

HOW DOES HAYNES CRITISISE THIS THEORY?

Answer 16

• Argues that we should not focus narrowly on the idea that Islamic fundamentalism is a reaction against globalisation. For example, in the Middle East, conflicts caused by the failure of local elites to deliver on their promise to improve standards of living are often the fuel that drives fundamentalism.

Question 17

Key Theorist – Haynes: Cultural Defence

WHAT DOES THIS THEORY ARGUE?

Answer 17

• The Iranian revolution was not typical of the Middle East, in that it was led by the religious leaders. In countries such as Saudi Arabia, the religious leadership is closely tied to the local elite, who in turn are tied to Western imperialism. As such, local religious leaders are opposed by local fundamentalists, who regard them as enemies of Islam.

Question 18

Key Theorist – Bruce (2002): Cultural Defence

WHAT DOES THIS THEORY ARGUE?

Answer 18

• One function of religion is cultural defence.
• While all fundamentalists share the same characteristics, such as belief in the literal truth of a sacred text and detestation of modernity, different fundamentalist movements may have different origins. In particular, some are triggered by changes within their own society, whilst others are responses to changes being thrust upon a society from outside.

Question 19

Key Theorist – Bruce (2002): Cultural Defence

WHAT EXAMPLES DOES BRUCE GIVE TO ILLISTRATE THE THEORY?

Answer 19

• In the West, fundamentalism is most often a reaction to change taking place within a society especially the trends towards diversity and choice which are typical of secular late modern society. For example, the New Christian Right in America has developed in opposition to family diversity, sexual ‘permissiveness’, gender equality and abortion rights, secular education and the privatisation of religion (its removal from public life). Its aim to reassert ‘true’ religion and restore it to a public role where it can shape the laws and morals of wider
  society.
• In the Third World, fundamentalism is usually a reaction to changes being thrust upon society from outside, as in the case of the Islamic revolution in Iran. It is triggered by modernisation and globalisation, in which Western values are imposed by foreign capitalism or by local elites supported by the West. Here, fundamentalism involves resistance to the state’s attempt to side-line it and confine it to the private sphere.

Question 20

Key Theorist – Davie: Secular Fundamentalism

WHAT DOES THIS THEORY ARGUE?

Answer 20

• Recent decades have seen the emergence of secular forms of fundamentalism.
• That both religious and secular movements can become fundamentalist as a result of the greater uncertainties of life in the late modern or postmodern world, in which reasserting truth and certainty is increasingly attractive. As a result, competing fundamentalisms have become a normal feature of today’s society.

Question 21

Key Theorist – Davie: Secular Fundamentalism

WHAT DOES SHE LINK HER THEORY TO?

Answer 21

• The changes in the nature of modern society

Question 22

Key Theorist – Davie: Secular Fundamentalism

WHAT ARE THE TWO PHASES OF MODERNITY THAT SHE DISTINGUISHES BETWEEN?

Answer 22

1) Rise to religious fundamentalism.

2) Rise to secular fundamentalism.

Question 23

Key Theorist – Davie: Secular Fundamentalism

COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES:
(FIRST PHASE)

This phase stretched from the time of the philosophical movement known as the _________ in the late 18th century, to about the _____. Enlightenment philosophy held an optimistic ____ belief in the certainty of progress based on the _____ of science and human _______ to improve the world. This Enlightenment Project dominated European thought and helped to _____ all areas of social life, attacking and _______ religious certainties. Religious fundamentalism is one reaction to this secularisation process.

Answer 23

• Enlightenment
• 1960s
• Secular
• Power
• Reason
• Secularise
• Undermining

Question 24

Key Theorist – Davie: Secular Fundamentalism

COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES:
(SECOND PHASE)

Since the _____, the optimism of the Enlightenment Project itself has come under ________. This is the result of a growing mood of _________ and uncertainty. This mood is the product of the ______ caused by changes such as ________, concerns about the environment and the collapse of ________ in 1989. This has led to a _______ of faith in the major secular Enlightenment ideologies such as liberalism and rationalism (in Western Europe) whose claims to truth and belief in progress have been _________.

Answer 24

• 1970s
• Attack
• Pessimism
• Insecurity
• Globalisation
• Communism
• Loss
• Undermined

Question 25

Key Theorist – Huntington: Clash of Civilisations

WHAT DOES THIS THEORY ARGUE?

Answer 25

• These conflicts have intensified since the collapse of communism in 1989 and are symptoms of a ‘clash of civilisations’.
• The problem is not Islamic fundamentalism, it is Islam itself.
• Religious differences are creating ‘us and them’ relationships, with increased competition between civilisations for economic and military power, for example in the Middle East.
• Religious differences are harder to resolve than political ones because they are deeply rooted in culture and history.

Question 26

Key Theorist – Huntington: Clash of Civilisations

WHAT ARE THE SEVEN CIVILISATIONS IN WHICH THIS THEORY IDENTIFIES?
GIVE AT LEAST TWO EXAMPLES.

Answer 26

At least two from:

1. Western
2. Islamic
3. Latin America
4. Confucian (China)
5. Japanese
6. Hindu
7. Slavic-Orthodox (Russia and Eastern Europe)

Question 27

Key Theorists – Inglehart and Norris (2003): Clash of Civilisations

WHAT DO THESE THEORISTS ARGUE?

Answer 27

• The issue that divides the West from Muslims is sexuality, not democracy.

Question 28

Key Theorist – Huntington: Clash of Civilisations

HOW CAN THIS THEORY BE EVALUATED?

Answer 28

• Jackson argues that • Huntington’s work is an example of orientalism – a western ideology that stereotypes Eastern nations and people (especially Muslims) as untrustworthy or inferior, and serves to justify exploitation and human rights abuses by the West.
• Casanova argues that Huntington ignores important religious divisions within the ‘civilisations’ he identifies e.g. between Sunni and Shi’a Islam.
• Horrie and Chippindale (2007) argue that clash of civilisations is an example of misleading neo-conservative ideology which portrays Muslims and Islam as the enemy.
• Armstrong argues hostility towards the West does not stem from Islamic fundamentalism, but is a reaction to Western foreign policy in the Middle East.