UNIT 2

A WORLD OF IDEAS:
CULTURES OF GLOBALIZATION
• This 2nd Unit focuses on how the Globalization
structures disusses in Unit 1 affect the various
forms of cultural life.
• The major learning outcome of this Unit is to
explain the role of global processes in everyday life.
LESSON 6

THE GLOBALIZATION OF RELIGION

RELIGION
• much more than culture
• Has the most difficult relationship with globalism
• Concerned with the sacred
• Follows divine commandments
• Assures that there is "the possibility of
communication between humans and
transcendent"
Religion cont...
• People are less concerned with wealth and all that
comes along with it.
• Religion may be defined as a cultural system of
designated behaviors and practices, worlviews,
texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or
organizations, or spiritual elements. (M. W)
GLOBALISM
• Places value on material wealth
• Abides by human-made laws
• Less worried about whether they will end up in Heaven or
Hell
• Skills are more pedestrian
• Concerned with raising the profits of private enterprises
and improvement of Government Revenue.
RELIGIOUS vs. GLOBALIST

RELIGIOUS GLOBALIST
• Aspired to become • Trains to be Shrewd
business person
saint
• Values economies of the
• Detests politics world
• Belief in God, Allah, • Focus on material
satisfaction than having
Yahweh, and etc. faith
• Concerned with spread • Wishes to spread goods
and services.
in holy ideas globally
 Certain Groups that became
Isolated
• DALAI LAMA
• - Establishes Tibet

• BUDDHIST
• -Established Monasteries

• RIZALISTAS OF MOUNT BANAHAW

• -Believer of Rizal

• MORMONS OF UTAH
• -Spreading the Word by Mission
REALITIES
• PETER BERGER argues that far from being secularized,....
Contemporary World is... furiously religious.
• Religions are the foundation of modern Republics
• Example: Malaysian government places religion at the
center of the political system (Islam is the religion o the
federation)
• The late religious leader, Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, led
the Iranian revolution that turned the country into a
"Theocracy" (A system of Government in which priests
rule in the name of God or a God)
• He then bragged about the superiority of Islamic
rule over its secular counterparts and pointed out
that "there is no fundamental distinction among
constitutional, despotic, dictatorial, democratic,
and communistic regimes".
• To Khomeini, all secular ideologies were the same-
they were flawed- and Islamic rule was the superior
form of government because it was spiritual. Yet,
Iran calls itself a Republic, a term that is associated
with the secular.
Moreover
• Religious movements do not hesitate to appropriate
secular themes and practices.
• Nahdlatul Ulama (Modernate Muslim Association) in
Indonesia has Islamic schools (pesantren) taught not only
about Islam but also modern Science
• Church of England "Shapes by the rationality of modern
democratic culture"
• King Henry VIII established his own church to bolster his
own power.
• In United States, religion and law were fused together to
hold- "Modern Secular Society"
RELIGION FOR AND AGAINST
GLOBALIZATION
• There is hardly religious movement today that does not use
religion to oppose "Profane Globalization". Yet, two of the
so- called "old world religions"- Christianity and Islam
• See globalization less as an obstacle and more as an
opportunity to expand their reach all over the world
• Religion is thus not the "regressive force" that stops or slows
down globalization; it is a " pro- active force" that gives
communities a new and powerful basis if identity.
• Religious fundamentalism may dislike globalization's
materialism.
• The rise of movements such as Daesh (Popularly
known as ISIS or Islamic State in Iraq and Syria)
signals religion's defense against the materialism of
globalization
• Some Muslims view "Globalization" as a Trojan
Horse hiding supporters of Western Values like
seularism, liberalism, or even communism ready to
spread these ideas in their areas to eventually
displace Islam.
• World Bank agree to support some faith- based
anti- poverty projects in Kenya and Ethiopia.
CONCLUSION
• Despite their inflexible features- the warnings of
perdition, the promises of salvation, and their
obligatory pilgrimages- religions are actually
malleable.
• Their resilience has been extraordinary that they
have outlasted secular ideologies
• Globalists, have no choice but to accept this reality
that religion is here to stay.