Topic 4 - Religion in a Global Context

Question 1

Religious fundamentalism

Answer 1

• The spread of religious fundamentalism has started to become a significant concern when investigating international Islamic Terrorist attacks such as September 11th 2001 and 7/7
• Fundamentalism originated in Christian movements in America

Question 2

Defining fundamentalism

Answer 2

• Fundamentalists are Traditionalists who wish to return to the basics of their faith, and believe in the infallible truth of their religious scripture
• They believe that religious dogma provides asnwers from everything from political life to family life
• It arises when traditional beliefs and values are threatened and challenged by modern society (globalisation)
• The threat can come from the outside e.g., spread of western culture or the inside e.g., secular ideas

Question 3

Key features of fundamentalism

Answer 3

1. Authoritative sacred text
2. Us and them mentality
3. Aggressive reaction
4. Use of modern technology
5. Patriarchy
6. Prophecy
7. Conspiracy theories

Question 4

1 Authoritative sacred text

Answer 4

• for Christan Fundamentalists every word of the bible is true
• Intolerant of other views
• What they hold true is the interpretation of the text

Question 5

2 Us and them mentality

Answer 5

• Fundamentalists spearate themselves from the world around them

Question 6

3 Aggressive reaction

Answer 6

• They want to draw attention to the threat to their beliefs so their actions are aggressive and intended to shock, intimidate, or cause harm

Question 7

4 Use of modern technology

Answer 7

• Crucial tool in achieving its aims from computers and the internet (televangalism and military weapons)

Question 8

5 Patriarchy

Answer 8

• Fundamentalists believe strongly that womens positions are fixed in terms of sexuality, reproduction, and social and economic roles

Question 9

6 Prophecy

Answer 9

• Fundamentalists believe strongly in prophecies e.g., Christans believe the “last days” will soon be upon us where the faithful, dead, and living will be transported to heaven

Question 10

7 Conspiracy theories

Answer 10

• Often attracted to conspiracy theories around evil forces

Question 11

Fundamentalism and modernity

Answer 11

• DAVIE = Fundamentalism occurs when people who hold traditional beliefs are threatened by modernity
• GIDDENS = A reaction to globalisation, undermines traditional social norms in relation to the nuclear family, gender and sexuality, in late modernity individuals are faced with choice, instability, and risk

Question 12

Cosmopolitanism

Answer 12

• GIDDENS
• Society is linked to “late-modernity”
• Society which embraces pluralism
• Reflective thinking = open to new and ever-changing ideas and opinions
• Opposite to fundamentalism

Question 13

Fundamentalism as a response to the postmodernity

Answer 13

• BAUMAN = Fundamentalism is a response to the “Postmodern Condition” = complete collapse of a singular source of religious authority (found in pre-modernity)
• The rise is pluralism and the complete breakdown of truth and authority
• This results in uncertainty
• Fundamentalism offers a solution to this “absolute truth” and “certainty”, by referring to religious scripture and dogma

Question 14

2 responses to postmodernity

Answer 14

1. Resistant identity
2. Project identity

Question 15

1 Resistant identity

Answer 15

• CASTELLS
• Defensive reaction to those who feel threatened and are then drawn into fundamentalist communities
• Defensive against globalisation, capitalism, consumerism, and the breakdown in values

Question 16

2 Project identities

Answer 16

• CASTELLS
• “Forward looking” response by agents who are not content with the way society is running and rather than becoming resistant to change they engage in Social Movements such as Feminism, or Environmentlaism
• Rebirth of Feminism = womens marches etc
• Society to become more progressive fitting with postmodernity rather than returning to a singular religious authority as pre-modernity did

Question 17

A03 Criticising fundamentalism

Answer 17

• BECKFORD claims categorising fundamentalism into 2 categories is not accurate as there are “hybrid” which dont fit into the categories as neatly

Question 18

Why fundamentalists movements emerge

Answer 18

• BRUCE
  1. In the West - The New Christian Right
• They believe America is becoming too pluralistic
• Wish to return America “back to God”
• Believe in the literal truth of the Bible
• Believe in the formation of a theocracy rather than a democracy

Question 19

Why fundamentalists movements emerge

Answer 19

• BRUCE
  2. In the developing third world: the Iranian Revolution of the 1970’s
• Response to changes put upon society
• Cultural defence = monopoly of truth
• Stable democratic government in Iran in the 1950’s
• American government and oil companies overthrew the government in the 1960’s
• Shah brought in by the USA, radically changing life in Iran
• Banning the veil and the Georgian Calendar
• Mullahs used in 1970’s to overthrow Shah and return to pre-modern religious dogma

Question 20

A03 - Fundamentalism being a reaction to globalisation

Answer 20

• Phase 1: gave way to religious fundamentalism
• Phase 2: gave rise to secular fundamentalsim
• ANSELL = Cultural racism
• DAVIE = In postmodern/late modern society fundamentalism can emerge in both secular and religous movements

Question 21

The clash of civilisations and postmodernity

Answer 21

• Increase in the number of global attacks
• HUNTINGTON = Interconnected through globalisation “the clash of civilisations”
• HUNTINGTON = The problem is not fundamentalism but Islam itself

Question 22

The seven civilisations

Answer 22

1. Western
2. Latin American
3. Confucian
4. Japanese
5. Islamic
6. Hindu
7. Slavic-Orhtodox

Question 23

A03 Clash of civilisations

Answer 23

• JACKSON claims that HUNTINGTON neo-conservative beliefs show that the East is always shown as being less trustworthy and less developed = Orientalism where the West consider themselves religiously and culturally superior
• CASANOVA argues he ignores the religious divisions within ‘civilisations’ e.g. Sunni and Shi’a Islam
• Misleading theory that portrays the whole of Islam as the enemy, in reality it is only a tiny minority of the world’s 1.5 million Muslims who are interested in a ‘Holy War’
• ARMSTRONG argues hostility toward the West does not come from fundamentalism but is a reaction to the Wests foreign policy in the Middle East e.g. the Wests role in supporting Israel despite the treatment of Palestinians

Question 24

Cultural Defence

Answer 24

• BRUCE = one function of religion has been as a cultural defence (religion unites communities against external threat)
  1. Poland
  2. Iran

Question 25

Religion and modernity

Answer 25

• Modernity = capitalism
• Modernity and consumerism = attracted to eachother

Question 26

NANDA - India and modernity

Answer 26

• India = 85% Hindu in terms of religious affiliation
• NANDA argues that India as a society is becoming a ‘Global Player’, in terms of economic power, and political power
• NANDA = India’s society especially the middle class are generally educated interms of Science (their society should become more secular, as it is linked to the belief in ‘Rational Belief Systems’, however India is in fact becoming more religious)
• Hinduism has adapted to meet the needs of Capitalism, and Globalisation.

Question 27

Proving that India is becoming more religious

Answer 27

• NANDA = it is NOT poverty that is causing Indians to become more religious, but the fact that their religion has adapted to suit the spread of Consumerism and Globalisation
• Spread of tele-gurus, enables Indians to remain ‘spiritually balanced’, it has become fashionable to be religious
• Hinduism rejects wealth, however it has adapted to accept that middle class consumerism can be spiritually balanced off by engaging in expensive and extravagant rituals = suits social change
• Hinduism = adapted to suit Modernity, and the belief in ‘Rational Belief Systems’ for example, in traditional science such as medicine, Cows Urine (a religious element for Hindus), is now used to treat TB and AIDS

Question 28

Ultranationalism and modernity

Answer 28

NANDA:
- The PEW Global Attitudes Survey found that 93% of all Indians believe in the fact that
their culture is far more superior to others.
- This supports the idea that Hinduism has strengthened India’s position as a global power
- Hinduism has also been successful at penetrating public life e.g. Hindu sciences
- BELLAH = Worshipping Hinduism is almost like worshipping India. This is a form of Civil Religion

Question 29

Capitalism in East Asia

Answer 29

• REDDING = East Asian countries (South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan) massively accommodated the growth of Globalisation and Consumerism = economies are growing so significantly = China is now a major global power.

Question 30

Pentecostalism in Latin America

Answer 30

• BERGER = Chile, Mexico and Brazil, which are in Latin America = growing successfully because their religions have adapted so well to support modernity, and globalisation
• Pentecostalism demands an ascetic self-denying agent, this is similar to Calvinism = Pentecostalism has raised such economies out of poverty and made them upwardly mobile

Question 31

How pentecostalism spread with globalisation

Answer 31

• LEHMANN:
  1. Pentecostalism spread across Latin American countries colonisation – imposed on indigenous populations by force
  2. It became so popular to the fact that it caused upward mobility, therefore it was seen as a way of suiting modernity and a way out of poverty (a form of a Proletarian self-consciousness), rather than an ideological apparatus