GLOBALIZATION AND RELIGION

• Religion


  A set of beliefs and practices that define the relations between human beings and the sacred or divinity
• Religiosity


  A passionate inquiry about the meaning of life, it is the openness we find in us that directs us to the depth-dimension of life
• Religious Act


  An act whereby a man reflects on the transcendental core of his being
• Religion (Daniel Dennett definition)


  Social systems whose participants avow a supernatural agent or agents whose approval is to be sought
• Four Conceptions of Primitive Religion


  • Animism
  • Spiritism
  • Totemism
  • Mana
• Animism


  Presupposing a kinship between himself and his world. Animists regarded the life or soul as confined to the object which it animated whether a tree, a human body or a river
• Spiritism


  In dreams, marvelous events and beings would appear. It was quite natural for men to infer that their souls were not "bound" to their bodies, as animist held, but were "free" and separable
• Spiritism


  A religious and philosophical belief system that revolves around the belief in the survival of consciousness after physical death and the possibility of communication between the living and the spirits of the deceased
• Totemism


  A belief system where a group of people identify themselves with, and derive their social identity from, a specific non-human entity, such as an animal, plant, or natural phenomenon
• Totem


  An animal or plant of some kind, was supposed to be connected in some mysterious ways with the life and well-being
• Mana


  The name for the power or force by virtue of which peculiar effects are exerted. The peculiar magical property of a stone, or the peculiar force that makes a hero heroic
• Mana (Encyclopedia Britannica)


  A concept from Polynesian cultures that represents a spiritual and vital life force present in all living things and the natural world
• Three Categories of Belief in Gods

  • Polytheism
  • Pantheism
  • Monotheism

  
• Polytheism


  A belief in many gods. Polytheistic cultures believed in sacrifices to appease their gods
• Pantheism


  A belief that all is god wherein the universe itself was divine

  
• Monotheism


  A belief in one god
• Major World Religions

  • Hinduism
  • Christianity
  • Buddhism
  • Islam
  • Taoism
• The social-scientific study of religion is a field that has played a critically important role in shaping the contemporary scholarly understanding of globalization