Religious and secular institutions in comparative perspective - article ; n°1 ; vol.16, pg 65-72

Niyazi Berkes

Description

Archives des sciences sociales des religions - Année 1963 - Volume 16 - Numéro 1 - Pages 65-72
8 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Archives-des-sciences-sociales-des-religions
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1963
• Nombre de lectures: 20
• Langue: English

Extrait

Niyazi Berkes
Religious and secular institutions in comparative perspective
In: Archives des sciences sociales des religions. N. 16, 1963. pp. 65-72.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Berkes Niyazi. Religious and secular institutions in comparative perspective. In: Archives des sciences sociales des religions. N.
16, 1963. pp. 65-72.
doi : 10.3406/assr.1963.2002
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/assr_0003-9659_1963_num_16_1_2002RELIGIOUS AND SECULAR
INSTITUTIONS
IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
two and lized phases the guishing sectors become siastical authorities patterns of this HE mechanisms State have patterns mited of history of comparative the Western varied more and and social these presented so of religious has the far or are life political from religion developed civilization ways less the by readily in study one advantage themselves the established that in and and regime terminology spheres which for identifiable history of the political The the religious the to of principle secular theoretical in of maintenance simplifying another No relations life the power inherited as major and medieval Keeping in of spiritual appeared scheme secular between terms modern difficulty analysis from of these of derived modern institutions modus as the and Western the institutionalized because seems spheres institutions spiritual temporal vivendi from or and to politics the less the has apart arise contemporary and between institutiona well experiences been of in as temporal behavior although has defined Church distin eccle deli- also the
Though simple in its concepts and their referents this scheme presents the
sociologist who would study the religious and the secular within the institutional
configurations of the non-Western societies with difficulties The differentiation
found in the Christian societies is not found in many non-Western political
societies and in the non-Christian religions Nowhere outside the Christian world
have religious and ecclesiastical institutions developed before or outside the
State to the same degree of clarification In some societies religion will not be
found institutionalized into church or sect organization while what might be
called temporal political institution may in fact be found permeated with
religious functions and values
In his treatment of the relationships between the religious and the secular
institutions Joachim Wach takes in his Sociology of Religion what he calls the
historical forms of religion and the patterns of state for his units of compa
rison He overlooks the fact that no historical form of religion presents itself as
single system within the particular societies though it may make the claim
when it becomes institutionalized none of the historical forms and the
patterns to which he referred have the secular and religious institutions
distinguished by hard and fast lines unless one makes ideal constructions inspired
65 ARCHIVES DE SOCIOLOGIE DES RELIGIONS
by the Western pattern of the discreet elements detached from the systemati-
zations of religion In many historical forms and patterns neither is the
State truly secular institution nor is the Religion religious institution in the
modem senses of the words The concepts of State and Religion are modern
abstractions many of the examples given by Wach can be forced into the scheme
only by likening them to modern Western institutions
Likening does not result only in distorting the actual institutional configura
tions of the religious and the secular in the non-Western societies It also
results in failure to understand the modern processes of secularization taking
place in these societies together with the nature of the present day religious
problems raised by such processes Outside of the Western world today national
and secular states are coming into being where the political authority of the
past was permeated by religious values In other words certain secularizing forces
that are disrupting the traditional institutional configurations are coming into
operation as factors of political and also religious change in these societies
Dislocations between Religion institutionalized only in diffused way and the
political and other secular institutions are the consequence The more the State
emerges as secular institution the less and less amorphous the Religion is becoming
as an institution The new political developments are so new to and so discordant
with the traditional institutional configurations that the political and reli
gious representatives of many non-Western societies are incapable of understan
ding the implications of the developments for their religious traditions as well
as for their contemporary political aspirations The Western observers however
are not in any better position in understanding the features of these developments
differentiating them from those of the Western secularism because of their
tendency to fit what they see into the conceptual scheme of their own religious
and political background and to interpret the process as mere reproduction or
imitation of Western secularism
We find that the starting point for the student of comparative sociology
should be not the historical Religions vis-a-vis the patterns of State but the
institutional configurations of particular societies within which religious-secular
elements are woven into complex whole often to the effect of great deal of
cohesiveness and integration It is the position of the religious within the value
system of the society that seems to be the most important point of departure
for the sociologist not whether or not the State and the Church are dissociated
as distinct institutions From this takeoff it will be possible to see whether or not
political institution has religious functions or religious institution some function
For the sake of analysis we may distinguish among the following frames
of reference the term religion for an historical system of beliefs rites
and rules an element of legitimization and orientation for the society diffused
into its institutional configuration and faith that operates through the
individual commitments of the believers with or without private organizations
We postulate that the formal outlook of religious system remains in most cases
ideal and theoretical and is found in actual social contexts in modified or
interpreted form that the institutional status of religion is determined not
exclusively by the principles of its ideal system but by the institutional configu
ration of the society and that in many cases the source of the ultimate values
is identified with the religion in question when these values constitute the core
of sacred tradition and when the society is challenged by secularizing forces
of change turned against the tradition The most important concern in the last
case is the maintenance of the order within which certain religous-secular
configuration had taken shape Religion then asserts itself as the dominant symbol
66 RELIGIOUS AND SECULAR INSTITUTIONS
of un-change and this is expressed conventionally by the familiar words fana
ticism formalism traditionalism legalisin ritualism asceticism puritanism
caste system cesaro-papism etc
In analyzing the role of religion in the total configuration of society we may
therefore ask to what extent has an historical religion been able to occupy an
overascending position above other sources of value giving shape to the tradi-
tionalized institutional structure of the society To what extent has condition
of multiple religious institutionalization been realized in an integrated whole
How far is the secularization of the society connected with the bifurcation of the
traditional configuration into sets of religious and secular institutions We may
examine the situation either within the framework of traditionalized order
or in terms of the process of transformation in an institutional pattern under
the secularizing effects of the modern civilization
II
Even short comparative account along these lines can not be attempted
here shall to elucidate the above propositions confine myself to the case of
the Muslim Turkish society This is one of the examples of the non-Christian
variety it is an example representative of the Islamic religious-secular pattern
it provides contemporary form of non-Western secularisation with which the
equally interesting cases of the Indian Japanese and Muslim societies other
than the Turkish may be compared and contrasted
Islam was the source of the religious tradition of the pre-modern islamized
Turkish society Islam took its place in certain institutional setup and value
structure within that society It became supreme rallying point for the ultimate
values of the society when in the last two centuries the society was faced by
modem forces of change which threatened the traditional institutions We shall
here consider the position of religion in terms of the three points mentioned
above in the integration and distintegration of the pre-modern institutional
configuration
Contrary to the current opinion Islam was not the source of the political
institutions of any Muslim society When the Turkish polity entered history in
the fourteenth century Islam had already taken its shape insofar as its position
within political community was concern