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SCHOOL OF TEACHER EDUCATION

Instructional Module in
The Contemporary World

Preliminaries
I. Module Number 1
II. Module Title WORLD OF IDEAS

III. Brief Introduction Several theories have profoundly influenced economic

IV. Module Outcomes
theories but relatively less can be seen in its impact on cultural
and social theories (Marflet, 2005). This module aims to shed
light on how globalization has shaped global cultures across
the globe
After studying this module, you are expected to:
1. Identify paradigms which evolved between conflicts and
religions in international communications.
2. Correlate the idea of a global city within Globalization's
broader framework.
3. Recommend approaches to emerging issues related to
Global Migration impacting global demography.
4. Assess the fundamental political, economic , cultural and
social causes of the global movement

Lesson Number 1
Lesson Title The Globalization of Religions

 Secularization
 The Resurgence of religion in the Context of Globalization

Brief Introduction of Examines the debate on the role of religion in the modern
the Lesson and globalized world. . Has modernization made religion less
relevant or has done otherwise by creating a backlash that
would result in the resurgence of religion?

Lesson Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you are expected to:
1. Differentiated the paradigms that developed in international
communications between conflicts and religions.
2. Explained how globalization affects religious practices and
beliefs
3. Analyze the relationship between religion and global conflict
and conversely, global peace.

Lesson Proper
I. Discussion
How has globalization transformed the role of religion within societies?
 in highly-industrialized and Western societies where religious affiliation and engagement are in decline
 another in non-Western societies where religions guide politics and all other aspects of life, also in
extreme cases where groups would instigate violence in the name of religious beliefs

The concept of religion has been defined by Haynes (2006) and refers to religion in the three ways of how
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social and individual behavior of believers are organized

1. it involves the idea of transcendence, referring to supernatural realities;
2. it relates with sacredness or holiness and system of practice and language which is
organized and defined as such; and
3. it concerns ultimacy, on how "it relates people to the ultimate conditions of existence

With this understanding in mind on the two aspects of how religion is defined, we proceed to the two broad
and main arguments about the state of religion in the context of globalization. First is the secularization
paradigm where religion has been viewed to have lost its influence to some extent with the advent of
modernization, and the religious resurgence thesis where modernization has caused a backlash and
urged society to seek refuge in religion due to the imposition of liberal and Western values that are
incompatible with people's culture, beliefs, and identity.

Secularization: The Consequence of Modernization

The paradigm of secularization refers to the belief that religion would lose its significance with economic
development and modernization. The thesis can be traced back to the classical works of the following:
1. Auguste Comte - one of the first theorists of secularization, posited that society undergoes three
stages: theological stage, metaphysical stage, and the positivist/scientific stage.
2. Max Weber - argues that the Men will undergo modernization which is a process of the
disenchantment of the universe with the replacement of bureaucratization, rationalization, and
secularization over the magical, the metaphysical, and the religious.
3. Emile Durkheim - he argues that the individualization of the societies breaking the bonds of
community.
4. Karl Marx - views religion as the opium of the people created by the material conditions. He also
believed that religion would have no place in a communist society where all individuals are treated equally
with the eradication of class division and the existence of the state.
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Classical Theories Of Secularization

1. Tschannen (1991) provides a systematic overview of theories that would cpoarst.itt. ite the
secularization paradigm since 1963 (see Figure 7.2). The secularization worldliness is based on three
core "concepts": differentiation, rationalization, and worldliness which he draws from the theories
of Thomas Luckmann, Peter Berger, etc. He argues that religion becomes differentiated and
autonomous from other institutions “which thus loses its power of social control and guidance over
the rest of society” as seen in the differentiation among relationships of church, state, and
education.
He views the process of rationalization in the following aspects: 1) Scientization which is
related to the emergence of science that would compete with religious worldviews and 2)
sociologization where social life is determined in a scientific and rational fashion that is free from
religious influence.
Figure 7.2 Tschannen’s
Basic Structure of Secularization Paradigm

This paradigm the

secularization paradigm as standing under two preliminary assumptions: that some roots of the
secularization process can be found within religion itself and that religion is related to human
conduction and thus will not completely disappear.

2. Gorski (2000) follows the same emphasis on differentiation as the uniting concept across
the paradigm of secularization. He provides an understanding of theories into four basic
positions: 1) the disappearance of religion thesis as espoused by Comte where religion is
supplanted by science; 2) the decline of religion thesis as advocated by Weber where there is
the decline of the religious but not the complete triumph of the scientific worldviews, thus the
possibilities of revival of new gods or, religions; 3) the privatization thesis as argued by
Luckman where institutionaliz e religions are replaced by new and personalized faiths; and 4)
the transformation thesis as set forth by Parsons where religion is viewed to undergo generalization
across social systems, with the sacred becoming more fragmented but not less public.
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Gorski (2000) argues that the secularization

paradigm comprising of a variant of theories revolve,
around the core theory of differentiation, that
branches out to different arguments of the direction of
individual religiosity in the modem era.
3. Goldstein (2009) focuses on and questions the
unilinear conception of the secularization process.
He identifies three different camps within the old
secularization paradigm: the functionalists namely Talcott Parsons, Robert Bellah, and Niklas
Luhmann, the phenomenologists such as Peter Berger, Thomas Lucknn and Alfred Schutz, and the
dialectic theorists involving Bryan Wilson, David Martin, and Richard Fenn, whom he associates
himself with. Goldstein challenges Stephen Warner's narrative of the old paradigm as "secularization"
and the new paradigm as "revival and routinization." He argues that the secularization theories in the
old paradigm do not follow a linear process and may even follow other patterns that are spiral,
dialectical, and paradoxical. Goldstein offers a dialectical understanding of the secularization process
that is marked by contradictions, progress, and reversals where "religious movements in the direction
of rationalization, and social movements in direction of secularization, spawn religious counter-
movements in the direction the direction of secular p of secularization and dedifferentiation.

The secularization paradigm is a family of theories that vary in terms of the extent of the decline or
displacement of religion, the direction of the process, and the driving forces they ascribe to the secularization.
The paradigm, however, has confronted challenges in its relevance and validity especially due to the
emergence of armed conflicts fought under the banner of religious beliefs as seen in the key events such as
the Iranian Revolution, the Solidarity and the Polish Revolution, and the September 11, 2001 tragedy
(Thomas, 2005). This brings us to the field of inquiry on the resurgence of religion in the era of globalization.

The Resurgence of Religion in the Context of Globalization

 Samuel Huntington (1993) - argues that the fundamental source of conflict that will
dominate the global politics will be cultural and no primarily economic or ideological. In
the post-Cold War era, international politics has moved towards the interaction and
confrontation between West and non-Western civilizations. Huntington describes the politics of
civilizations where "the peoples and governments of non-Western civilizations no longer
remain the objects of history as targets of Western colonialism but join the West as
movers and shapers of history
He defines civilizations as cultural entities which are differentiated from each other
by culture, tradition, language, and history, and divides the world into the Western,
Confucian, Japanese, Islamic, Hindi, Slavic-Orthodox, Latin American, and African
civilizations. In his thesis, civilizations will clash due to the processes of economic
modernization occurring across the world that are separating societies from longstanding
cultural identities, which is in line with the "unsecularization of the world"
Huntington's (1993) thesis primarily featured the notion that Western security and
global order were being challenged by sustained attacks from international Islamic militancy,
which would be given credence by the anti-Western Islamist regimes in Sudan and
Afghanistan in the mid-1990’s (Haynes, 2006).

 George Weigel and Gilles Kepels' - have a thesis "the revival of religion" (as cited in
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Huntington, 1993). With the predominance of the Western world in global politics, reflective
of the control they hold in international security and economic institutions, international
conflicts have been reduced between "the West versus rest"

 Azzouzi (2013) reaffirms the clash of civilizations thesis and argues the revival and
resurgence of religion as a consequence of globalization. Religion acts as a resistance
against the adverse effects of globalization, especially how Islam constituted a challenge
due to the incompatibility of Islamic norms and beliefs to the liberal aspects of globalization.
The globality and universality of Islam with the aspiration of establishing the Umma, a
community of believers, is greatly contradictory to the westernization, rationalism,
consumerism, and liberalism associated with globalization.

 Amartya Sen (1999) shares the same criticism of the inadequate recognition of Samuel
Huntington of the heterogeneities with cultures. He emphasizes diversity as an essential
feature of most of the cultures in the world, including Western civilization. The tendency to
over simplify the differences through the dichotomies between the "West and the rest," to
treat non-Western cultures as monolithic, and to contrast it to the Western traditions that
are distinguished by modernity and democracy, is a huge mistake. Sen's criticisms are in
line with his arguments against the "Asian values" thesis that Asian societies traditionally
value discipline over political freedom and democracy. He emphasized the lack of real basis
for the claim as well as the particular reference to East Asia which is often generalized as
"Asian values" in its entirety.

 While Norris and lngleharl (2011) espouse the secularization thesis, they also predict that the
role of religion would eventually.be raised on the international genda. However, they do not refer
to the clash of civilizations as the cause of it. Rather, it is caused by the accommodation of
divergent attitudes toward moral issues‘' found in traditional and modern societies"

The clash of Globalization thesis is also contradicted by Thomas (2005) defined the global resurgence of
religion in the following way: the global resurgence of religion is the growing saliency and persuasiveness of
religion, i.e., the increase importance of religious beliefs, practices and discourses in personal and public life and
the growing role of religiously-related individuals, etc.
The ‘global resurgence’ of religion in global politics, that is in the ‘real world’ as well as in the
academic subject of international relations, and its consequences. Whether there is a‘real’ resurgence of
religion or whether religion is just more visible in the public sphere, it must be conceded that an amplified
discourse about religion in domestic and international politics can be observed. In the face of increasing
religiously connoted violence it is also essential to have a closer look at the issue of religion and conflict, as
already addressed

Just a Q ui ck Recap!

The concept of religion can be defined in its spiritual sense of organizing the behavior of
believers based on what is holy/sacred and what is not, and in its material sense of religion's
capacity to mobilize believers to pursue liberating or repressive political aims.

The secularization thesis refers to the belief that religion would lose its significance with
economic development and modernization.

The resurgence of religion thesis views the strengthening of religion as a backlash and
resistance to the incompatibility of the values of Western and liberal modernization to
religious and cultural identities
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III. Application
Some parts of today's world perceive tension between their religious views and popular culture. If it comes
with religious values that convert it to armed conflicts, how can you give peace?
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V. References
Ambidda et. al (2019). The Contemporary World. Mandaluyong City, Books Atbp. Publishing Corp.

Coronacion et al. (2019). Convergence a college textbook in contemporary world. Mandaluyong

City, Philippines: Books Atbp. Publishing Corp.

Claudio et al. (2018.) The contemporary world. Quezon City, Philippines: C & E Publishing, Inc.

Retrieved from: https://reform.un.org/

Prepared by: Reviewed by:

ROSEANN V. MEARNO, PhD JOHN MARC R. MENDOZA, MAEd, MLIS

Instructor Program Head, School of Teacher Education

Validated by: Approved by:

________________________ JESS JAY M. SAJISE, DBA

Internal Validator, Vice President of Academic Affairs External