Topic 5: global context

• fundamentalism


  Literal interpretation and strict adherence to basic principles of a religion as a result of threat by modernity.
• Giddens - cosmopolitanism


  a way of thinking that embraces modernity and modifies beliefs based on new information - reflective thinking
• Castell's distinction between two responses to postmodernity


  resistance identity (fundamentalism)

  project identity (cosmopolitanism)
• Bruce - monotheism


  monotheistic religions more likely to have fundamentalist groups because unlike polytheistic groups, they have a strict adherence to a single God, one absolute truth and one sacred text
• Davie's phases of modernity


  First Phase - rise to religious fundamentalism - religious reaction to the 'Enlightenment project' of secularisation

  Second Phase - rise to secular fundamentalism as a result of the threat of secular ideologies
• Example of secular fundamentalism


  Local French councils stopped serving alternatives to pork in school to keep religion out of the secular public sphere - discriminating against Muslims and Jews
• Huntington's clash of civilisations


  7 civilisations each with their own common cultural background and histories and religion.

  Globalisation has increased the contact between civilisations and therefore the conflict
• Norris and Inglehart


  believe the cause of religious conflict is that there is no global agreement about self-expression and there is a clash between the liberal ideas of gender and sexuality in the West and the traditional ideas in Muslim community.
• Bruce's cultural defense


  religion symbolises a groups collective identity and defending this gives religion a role in global politics
• Cultural defense in Poland


  From 1945-1989 the Catholic church was suppressed by communism and the Soviet Union and the church came together to help bring down communism. This gave the church a political role
• Cultural defense in Iran


  In 1950s, the West replaced a democratic gov with a Western regime. Islam resisted which led to the creation of the Islamic Empire with Islamic Sharia law where clerics hold state power.
• Evidence for India becoming more religious


  survey in 2007 found that 30% of Indians said they had become more religious
• Nanda's explanation of Hinduism and consumerism


  tension between traditional Hindu ascetic beliefs and new prosperity. The guilt is overcome by using the money in religion such as paying for rituals and prayers
• Hindu ultra-nationalism


  the worship of Hindu gods became the same as worshipping India - civil religion
• Berger's explanation of Pentecostalism in Latin America


  like Calvinism, Pentecostalism demands an ascetic life encouraging capitalism, but this also requires resources which lacks in Brazil. So despite Pentecostalism in Brazil, they remain behind.
• Lehmann's phases in expansion of Christianity


  1- Christianity accompanied by colonisation - forced

  2- spread due to gaining a following from below
• Using local cultures to evangelise


  Pentecostalism uses imagery and symbolism from local cultures to validate traditional local beliefs while combining this with Pentecostalism.

  Appeals to the poor and uses global media to spread its message