session #5 - religion

Question 1

why do we have secularization of world politics?

Answer 1

• The principles of ‘‘Westphalia’’ (principle of the king as emperor + separation state and church)
• rationalism and modernism (enlightenment -> question totalizing narrative of religion + religion may not be correct)
• the alleged secularization

Idea that religion was/would become unimportant

Question 2

Nasser and Muslim Brotherhood

Answer 2

Muslim Brotherhood requested Nasser to oblige women to wear a scarf on the streets

Question 3

The resurgence of religion

Answer 3

• Islam, Christianism, Hinduism (important in modern states, even in political parties (e.g. in Hungary and Poland the biggest parties are religious)
• Religion as a response to globalization (modernization, spread of ideas doesn’t lead to less religion, it might cause the re-emergence of religion)

idea that if you were a modern state, religion would be restricted to the territory of the household
- but: in practice, religion has been brought back in the public live

religions are becoming bigger in politics + they aren’t bound by national states (they are transnational actors)

Question 4

two conceptualizations of transnational religion

Answer 4

• transnational religious actors
• transnational political actors using religious discourse

Question 5

Transnational religious actor
- definition

Answer 5

any non-governmental actor which claims to represent a specific religious tradition, with the prupose of organizing faith, which has relations with an actor in another state or with an international organization

Question 6

transnational political actor using religious discourse
- definition

Answer 6

any non-governmental actor which pursues objectives related to the organization of political life (thus not purely aimed at organizing faith), which has relations with an actor in another state or with an IO

Question 7

How does globalization lead to re-emergence of religion?
3

Answer 7

• globalization often comes with neoliberal policies = reduction of social policies = retreat welfare state -> religious groups offer help
• globalization allows for circulation of religious ideas
• technology -> instant communication -> transnational community

Question 8

organized religion VS political religion

Answer 8

organized religion: main purpose to cater to the religious needs of its pilgrims

political religion: main purpose to

Question 9

Religions as imagined communities

Answer 9

Benedict Anderson (1983)

When we feel like we belong to a community, while we don’t know everyone of it personally, we are part of an imagined community (it exists through our imagination about it)

religion is an imagined community

• print capitalism (vernacular + imaginary readership)

Question 10

'’Print capitalism’’

Answer 10

• Benedict Anderson

if you have a printed press, that allows you to print books/newspaper that a large number of people can read (you need a press and a capitalist system that can spread the pressed goods far enough)

Synchronization: people are part of the same event in a particular moment of time (everyone reads about the same ting)
- print/press: a device that allows to print books/newspapers that people can read
- capitalist system: to spread the print far enough

people of the same community are also reading that in the same time

religion: they read the same thing, they have the same teachings, the same symbols etc.

religion has/is vernacular + imaginary readership

Question 11

religions as alternative maps of community

Answer 11

map of religions doesn’t match with state borders

Question 12

religion as the suspicious ‘‘other’’

Answer 12

religion being used in a nationalist setting: distinctions between religions, what is part of the national identity and what not

• Holocaust as product of extreme nationalism + othering

(right now: muslims seen as suspicious in the western world)

Question 13

Transnational practices of community / two interesting aspects of religion

Answer 13

• Religion as a local practice: it is close to home

how do they create the sense of belonging to a transnational community?

• Pilgrimages as a binding practice: pilgrimages connect individuals to the broader religious group + make them aware of ach other and the whole (you meet people from other countries, and are bound by only one factor: religion)

e.g. pilgrimages: routes of the Camino de Santiago

Question 14

religions as transnational actors

Answer 14

until the separation of church and state, the church was the state (religion legitimated political power)

religions can:

• subverting state sovereignty
• contribute to transnationalizing state sovereignty

Question 15

subverting state sovereignty

e.g.

Answer 15

• liberation theology (Vatican smuggled nazis to Latin America -> people within the church upset -> idea of an alternative church that would stand with the poor instead of regimes -> subverting the state)
• catholic church and communism (Catholic church supported solidarity movement Poland + helped against communist regime)
• muslim brotherhood and Nasser (muslim brotherhood opposed secular political leaders)

Question 16

transnationalizing state sovereignty
e.g.

Answer 16

• colonialism and missionaries (missionaries diffused religion, transnational expansion of state power of colonizers was directly linked to evangalization of the territories)
• young nation-states and the fear of Rome’s influence (nation states were worried of the influence of the church, still: big influence of the Vatican on Italy)
• Turkey, Morocco: managing Islam at a distance (sent huge amounts of populations abroad, provided religious and social services for them (what is supposed to happen at home happens abroad)

Question 17

Conclusion

Answer 17

• world was supposed to be secularized, but in fact religion is still very present
• the resurgence of religion is not happening despite, but in great part thanks to globalization
• religion can be conceived as ‘‘transnational imagined communities’’ and as ‘‘transnational religious actors’’
• transnational ‘‘imagined’’ communities are also communities of practice (regular rituals and meetings, but also pilgrimages)
• transnational religious actors can subvert state logics (theology of liberation, catholic church during communism)
• states can become transnational religious actors: colonialism, missionaries and the current role of Turkey and Morrocco e.g.