New Religions and Globalization

Edited By Armin W. Geertz & Margit Warburg · Assisted By Dorthe Refslund Christensen

Description

Globalization is a predominant theme in contemporary educational and political circles. Research on globalization has become a political priority because the world has become a 'single place', as Roland Robertson formulated it, where events in any particular part of the world can, and often do, have political, economical and military consequences for the rest of the world. Discourse on globalization, however, has generally ignored the cultural consequences. Recent waves of violence that seem to be religiously fueled, if not motivated, among immigrants and refugees in Europe and their home regions in the Middle East, have demonstrated that we can only ignore culture, values and religion at our own peril. Globalization and new religions is the theme of this book. It is argued here that studying new religions in a globalization perspective offers theoretical and methodological advantages both for the general study of religion and the general study of globalization. Religions are often cosmopolitan and universal in their overall message, yet they may at the same time be utterly immersed in local interactions. This is often clearly expressed among minority religions. The contrast of the local and the global is accentuated by globalization, and, in particular, many new religions have followed suit. This book draws together a selection of top quality papers given at a conference held in Aarhus in 2002 under the auspices of the Research Network on New Religions (RENNER). The papers, which have been edited and up-dated, represent the work of leading scholars in the history of religions, sociology of religion, psychology of religion and other disciplines. They address questions that are vital for everyone in the modern world: whether approached as a reflection of world economy and power dynamics, new possibilities of communication and cultural exchange in the light of mass media and technology, increased cultural plurality in the wake of migration or as a combination of any of these, globalization challenges the academic study of religion to renewed theoretical and methodological reflection.

Sujets

• Religion
• Religious studies

Informations

• Publié par: Aarhus University Press
• Date de parution: 01 août 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9788779346819
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

ISBN 978-87-7934-294-1

9 7 8 8 7 7 9 3 4 2 9 4 1

NEW RELIGIONS AND GLOBALIZATION

Edited by Armin W. Geertz and Margit Warburg Assisted by Dorthe Refslund Christensen

New Religions and Globalization

RENNER Studies on New Religions

General Editor Armin W. Geertz, Department of the Study of Religion, University of Aarhus

Editorial Board Dorthe Refslund Christensen, Institute of Information and Media Studies, University of Aarhus Annika Hvithamar, Institute of Philosophy, Education and Study of Religions, Univer sity of Southern Denmark Hans Raun Iversen, Department of Systematic Theology, University of Copenhagen Viggo Mortensen, Department of Systematic Theology, Centre for Multireligious Stud ies, University of Aarhus Mikael Rothstein, History of Religions Section, Department of CrossCultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen Margit Warburg, History of Religions Section, Department of CrossCultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen

RENNER Studies on New Religions is an initiative supported by the Danish Research Council for the Humanities. The series is established to publish books on new religions and alternative spiritual movements from a wide range of perspectives. It includes works of original theory, empirical research, and edited collections that address current topics, but will generally focus on the situation in Europe.

The books appeal to an international readership of scholars, students, and profession als in the study of religion, theology, the arts, and the social sciences. It is hoped that this series will provide a proper context for scientific exchange between these often competing disciplines.

NEW RELIGIONS AND GLOBALIZATION EMPIRICAL, THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

Edited by Armin W. Geertz & Margit Warburg Assisted by Dorthe Refslund Christensen

PRES SSIT Y HUS UNIVER | AAR

Copyright: Aarhus University Press, 2008 ISBN 978 87 7934 681 9

AARHUS UNIVERSITY PRESS Langelandsgade 177 8200 Aarhus N Denmark www.unipress.dk

Gazelle Book Services Ltd. White Cross Mills Hightown, Lancaster, LA1 4XS United Kingdom www.gazellebookservices.co.uk

David Brown Book Co. Box 511 Oakville, CT. 06779 USA www.oxbowbooks.com

Published with the financial support of the Danish Research Council for the Humanities and the Humanistic Faculty of the University of Copenhagen.

Renner Studies on New Religions: Vol. 1: Robert Towler (ed.),New Religions and the New Europe, 1995 Vol. 2: Michael Rothstein,Belief Transformations, 1996 Vol. 3: Helle Meldgaard and Johannes Aagaard (eds.),New Religious Movements in Europe, 1997 Vol. 4: Eileen Barker and Margit Warburg (eds.),New Religions and New Religiosity, 1998 Vol. 5: Mikael Rothstein (ed.)New Age Religion and Globalization, 2001 Vol. 6: Mikael Rothstein and Reender Kranenborg (eds.),New Religions in a Postmodern World, 2003 Vol. 7: Margit Warburg, Annika Hvithamar, and Morten Warmind (eds.), Baha’i and Globalisation, 2005 Vol. 8: Armin W. Geertz and Margit Warburg, assisted by Dorthe Refslund Christensen,New Religions and Globalization, 2008

Contents

Preface Armin W. Geertz & Margit Warburg

New Religions and Globalization:An Introduction Margit Warburg, Dorthe Refslund Christensen & Armin W. Geertz

Part I:Approaches to Globalization

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Religious Interaction in a Global Context James A. Beckford

Religion and Globalisation, or Globalisation and Religion? Margit Warburg

Purity and Mixture – Religious Plurality and the Domestication of Alterity Olav Hammer

Globalization, Bourdieu and New Religions Lene van der Aa Kühle

Organizational Transformation in Global Religions: Rethinking the Relationship between Organization, Culture, and Market James V. Spickard

2

4

6

9

7

9

3

3

1

5

109

6

Part II:Globalization before Globalization

6.

7.

Orbis terrarum Romanorum est: Globalization Processes in the Roman Empire Ingvild Sælid Gilhus

Early Christianity as a Global Religion Ulrich Berner

Part III:Globalization around the Globe

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

Systemic Struggle between North American Indians and New Age Armin W. Geertz

Mapping Globalization with the Lens of Religion: African Migrant Churches in Germany Afe Adogame

Contents

Archangel Gabriel Online: The Salamullah Movement in Indonesia and Globalisation Frida Mebius Önnerfors

Managing Deterritorialisation, Sustaining Belief: the Bochasanwasi Shree Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha as Ethnographic Case Study and Theoretical Foil Hanna H. Kim

Religious Globalisation: A Material Perspective. Assessing the Mormon Temple Institution in Terms of Globalisation Mikael Rothstein

Index

Contributors

131

145

165

189

215

225

243

261

275

Preface

It is a pleasure for us to publish this selection of top quality papers that were originally presented at the concluding conference of the Research Network on New Religions (RENNER) in Aarhus, Denmark, September 2326, 2002. All of the papers have been updated to reflect events as of late 2007. Even though it is our last publication, it is a fit ting celebration of some 12 years of successful events and publications. RENNER is a network established in Denmark to coordinate re search on new religions and alternative spirituality. It is a corporate body with scientific goals funded by the Danish Research Council for the Humanities and was neither information center nor hotline. REN NER was an experiment awarded by the Council in 1993 to a coordinat ing committee that consisted of scholars from different disciplines in the humanities, theology and the social sciences within a fairly neutral arena. The existence of RENNER as an institutional network with no other priority than to secure the best possible conditions for scientific research on new religions placed us in a position of accessibility to researchers, government officials, civil servants and the general public. Relative neutrality was the key to the RENNER network, but did not mean that its individual scholars were unengaged. It simply meant that RENNER as an institution was a forum for encouraging the fair exchange and publication of scientific research. The results have appeared in a variety of journals and in our two monograph seriesRENNER Studies on New Religions(Aarhus Univer sity Press) and its Danish equivalentGyldendal - Nye religioner (Gyl dendal, Copenhagen). The Research Council supported RENNER for 4 years, but in 1998 several members of the RENNER group were awarded further funding for a project entitled “Globaliseringen og de nye religioner – lokalt og globalt” (“Globalization and New Religions – Local and Global”) – dubbed “RENNER II”. This publication is the third and last in the RENNER II project. The current board of directors consists of the following: Dorthe Ref slund Christensen (Historian of Religions, Aarhus), Armin W. Geertz (CoChair, Historian of Religions, Aarhus), Annika Hvithamar (Soci

8

Preface

ologist of Religion, Odense), Hans Ravn Iversen (Systematic Theolo gian, Copenhagen), Viggo Mortensen (Systematic Theologian, Aarhus), Mikael Rothstein (Historian of Religions, Copenhagen), and Margit Warburg (CoChair, Sociologist of Religion, Copenhagen). They have been a great team, and we extend our gratitude to them. Gratitude is also extended to earlier members of the RENNER board, Johannes Aagaard (Ecumenical and Missionary Theologian, formerly Aarhus, now deceased), Steffen Johannessen (Study of Religion, Royal Danish School of Educational Studies, Copenhagen), Finn Madsen (History of Religions, Copenhagen), Helle Meldgaard (History of Re ligions and Theology, Multimedia Consultant, Aarhus), and Ole Riis (Sociologist of Religion, formerly in Aarhus). We wish to thank the Danish Research Council for the Humanities for its support throughout RENNER’s history and for support of this volume. We also thank the Faculty of the Humanities, University of Cophenhagen for publication support and the Faculty of Theology, University of Aarhus for facilities and publication support. Our gratitude is also extended to Director Claes Hvidbak at the Aarhus University Press for his continued moral support of the RENNER series and to Mary Waters Lund for diligent editing.

Armin W. Geertz Margit Warburg