The extraordinary changes in world society at the beginning of the
21st century have involved religion to a degree that would have amazed
earlier observers of modernity. Within the past decade religion has
been associated with some of the world's most strident forms of
political encounter, including new movements of nationalism, the
clerical leadership of political sects, and the religiously motivated
acts of terrorism. Religion seems to be trying to tear the planet
apart, even as other cultural forces seem to be trying to pull it
together. The technology of the Internet, film, television, cell
phones, and other forms of rapid universal communication seem to be
knitting the world into a single social fabric. Consumer franchises
and popular culture seem to be making the world a single global city.
Religion seems to be at odds with all of this. Is religion the natural
enemy of globalization? The essays in this volume explore the
difficulties and possibilities of a diversity of religious groups
occupying the same civil society. The authors avoid simplistic
generalizations. Religion, they show, is not only identified with the
culture and politics of the hostile anti-urban village--it is not
simply the jihad that Benjamin Barber identified as the opponent of
the homogenous global culture of McWorld. True, some religious
activists have blown things up. But others have tried to smooth things
over. Even the religious opposition to globalization is nuanced. Some
violent activists (like Hindu extremists in India) want a new
religious state. Others, like Christian militias or al Qaeda, envision
a transnational religious entity--a kind of religious globalization to
supplant the secular one. Prophetic religious voices call for
moderation, justice, and environmental protection. Religion, these
essays demonstrate, plays diverse and sometimes contradictory roles in
the new cultural globalization. In a global culture the shared values
of different religious traditions can provide a collective sense of
virtuous conduct in public life. But religion can also support the
position of enemies of global society--those who see in globalization
the effort to impose the values and power of one country over the
others.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780190293284
Publisert
2020
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Vendor
Oxford University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter