Religion and Culture from the perspective of International

Relations

References: Religion and Culture, JOHN A. REES, JAN 8 2017

https://www.e-ir.info/2017/01/08/religion-and-culture/

The article “Religion and Culture” by John A. Rees is passionate

research on the elements of religion and culture, also their influence
on the social world. Furthermore, the author raises questions and
outlines the contradiction regarding differences and similarities, then
tries to open the topic widely by giving examples. He defines elements
of given two terms that are directly connected to the policy study. The
article starts with outline elements of religion, a term that scientists
and politicians observed as inappropriate to IR studies. It was
considered that it is not related to the safety concerns of today’s
countries and their residents. However, many philosophers now think
that religion should not stay aside. Culture definition has also been
underrated in this study. The author writes four elements for religion
and culture, then makes a connection between to consider them as a
complete concept.

The author begins with a statement of having a different belief in God

or gods, and some of them might believe in icons or symbolic figures.
According to the article, these kinds of sacred beings have direct
relevance to nowadays’ politics. Customs connected to religion grasp
multiple ways of its influence on politics today. Fundamental traditions
propose that politics is a matter of organizing society in accordance
with divine precepts. On the one hand, in countries such as Syria,
Iran, Sudan, and so on, the first court is a religion, which has an ability
to ban the legislation of parliament and keep the force. In contrast,
religious politics take into consideration people’s various values and
interests and take care of them. For instance, The Abu Bakr Islamic
Center of Washington State is a Muslim center with many social
activities related to religion and education. The Islamic center provides
people with services and helps with Janazah(Muslim funeral ritual),
marriage, and Zakat(financial aid).
The next element states that religious rites are part of social
life. Social life is considered to be the initial definition of the term
policy. Private rituals of some religions are fulfilled in public places or
by using methods that are freely available to the broad strata of
society.
The following element states that educating customs that are based
on tales about sacred figures and occasions from the pastime, as well
as beliefs about the future. Yet, time is considered to be an illusion for
few religions, and the main focus is living in the current time in
accordance with sacred ideas. For example, nowadays more than 20
percent of countries have monarchs. Although, they vary in the degree
of their powers: from figureheads governed by parliaments to absolute
rulers. They scoop their force from some form of religious or spiritual
authority. The rites of monarchies around the world are understood by
their subjects as a symbol of holy blessing for the state and its
citizens, determining what the real power is.
The linkage between religion and policy has international importance.
The last one is unified to many religions. It states that it is necessary
for believing people to be part of a religious community to practice
spiritual rites, in addition to enhance the authenticity of sacred
legends. Some rituals are considered to have high requirements,
needing harsh compliance with rules to maintain relationship in a
religious community. While other customs are in low demand, taking a
more versatile way to the requirements of conscientious membership
in the society.
Continuing with the elements of culture, the author points out that
shared life is practiced by culture. Culture frequently arises from
common interests. There exists a stereotype of appearing bonds
only with family members or close relatives. However, he writes,
there are other ways of creating common bonds at the cultural
level such as sharing the same beliefs, habits or values. For
instance, sport can be an excellent example of sharing common
life at the social level. Sport Olympic teams may consist of players
with different nationalities, cultures or ages. Spending time
together by playing sports is a cultural practice that plays a huge
role in the formulation of shared ties.
As a second element, the author assesses symbols as an identity.
Cultural symbols show the origin of a nation. They consist of the
national anthem, traditional customs, flags, language, traditional
food, animals and so on. These signs inform people about the
identity of culture and show how groups of people live together
harmoniously. For example, architecture such as religious
buildings or bridges might seem to be a tourist attraction, yet it
means much more for a nation. The Great Sphinx is associated
with Egyptian culture and is considered to be a touristic place,
however in Egypt, it is regarded as a guardian and benevolent
keeper, which represents the body of lion and head of human as
a symbol of power and intelligence.
In every field of study, history has a crucial role as well as for
cultural studies. The following element that the writer emphasized
is the power of history. He takes the main idea from “Walter
2016”, stories about groups of people, individuals and events in
the past and how they widely show where society refers to. For
example, New Zealand signed the “Treaty of Waitangi” in 1840
related to Maori tribes and colonizers of Great Britain. The terms
of the agreement are still being discussed, especially due to the
absence of Maori pledge to this pact, yet Maori people were given
the opportunity to own lands, fisheries and forests. Attempts of
trying to maintain the sovereignty of them was a main focus on
preserving their culture. Unfortunately, this is not the story that is
told to Australians or most tribes in the United States and
Canada. Collectively, these situations of conservation
demonstrate the importance of language, ritual, place and
traditions in cultural history.
Well-being and the pursuit of happiness are the basis of stable
communities’ health. Hence, the last element of culture is the
description of a good life. Societies are living beings, they have
ups and downs, sports and traumas. The United Nations
Organization considers that intercultural understanding can be
strengthened through protecting heritage and carrying cultural
variety. A collision of cultures happens when various communities
understand what good things are in different ways. Author
mentions Malala Yousafza’s story from Pakistan who became a
courageous lawyer. She admired her father a lot who was a
teacher when she was twelve. Malala started to speak boldly
for the right of education, which was extremely restricted because
of the Taliban in her country. After becoming an advocate and
winning the Nobel Prize in 2014, she donated her money to build
schools in her homeland.

Consequently, the author explores the distinctions and

resemblance between the two terms that he explored. He states
religion and culture have many interconnections, then gives an
example of Clifford Geertz who is an influential cultural
anthropologist: he said that religion is a cultural system consisting
of myths and legends, symbols, rites and different beliefs that
human beings created. Examine a resemblance between the
elements of religion and culture that are defined in the article,
such as the role of symbols and histories, as well as the desire to
live according to what faith or culture defines as a higher level of
living.
In conclusion, culture should be necessarily understood as the
more crucial category in international relations and cultural
studies, always casting ‘religion’ as a subset within it. It is
important to consider that no religion includes a whole society in
the world, and no society lives completely in accordance with one
set of sacred rules and practices.