Outwitting the developed countries? Existential insecurity and the global resurgence of religion.

AuthorThomas, Scott M.
PositionEssay

Underdevelopment is also a state of mind, and understanding it as a state of mind, or as a form of consciousness, is the critical problem. Understanding development as a state of mind occurs when mass needs are converted to the demand for new brands of packaged solutions which are forever beyond the reach of the majority. (1)

--Ivan Illich

We live in a world that is not supposed to exist. Religion was supposed to decline with modernization and economic development. (2) Depending on your preferred version of the end of history, Marxist or socialist ideology were supposed to mobilize the wretched of earth to overthrow capitalism and imperialism, or capitalism and liberal democracy were supposed to transform the world. Yet over the past thirty years, to the surprise of Western governments and social scientists, it has been religion rather than secular ideology that has increasingly mobilized people in developing countries. This global resurgence of religion is transforming foreign policy debates regarding diplomacy, national security, democracy promotion and development assistance. (3)

Scholars of international relations have increasingly examined the global resurgence of religion over the past decade. Various concepts--religious radicalism, extremism, militancy, revivalism, resurgence and fundamentalism--have been used to label, define and describe the global religious phenomena. Scholars simply do not agree on what these concepts are supposed to convey about religion and politics, what social or political groups they refer toy--the BJP in India, the AKP in Turkey, Egypt's Muslim Brothers, the Christian Coalition in the United States--nor what they convey about religion and international relations. This disagreement is demonstrated in the Fundamentalism Project, the MacArthur Foundation's massively funded research on religion worldwide led by Martin E. Marty, a leading church historian at the University of Chicago and R. Scott Appleby, a leading scholar of Catholic studies at the University of Notre Dame. This analytical and conceptual problem is also seen more popularly in "God's Warriors," CNN's August 2007 documentary on religion and world politics. (4) Both studies equated serious religiosity with fundamental ism, which remains a popular interpretation of the role of religion in international relations. (5) However, the concept of a global resurgence of religion has been challenged by a revised version of the theory of secularization. The orthodox theory argued that secularization, a decline in the importance and influence of religion in public and personal life, is part of modernization and economic development. (6) Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart argue, in contrast to the orthodox theory, that the world is at least as religious as it was several decades ago. They even concede that religions around the world are becoming stronger. This does not lead them to discard the theory of secularization, but to revise it and to try to make it more relevant to the study of religion and politics in the 21st century. (7)

In order to bring the theory of secularization up to date, Norris and Inglehart propose a thesis of existential security. They argue that in many parts of the world, in the North, or the developed countries, secularization continues to spread. They also argue that religion continues to lose its social and political significance as a consequence of modernization and human development, except in areas lacking existential security Existential insecurity is something broadly, but not exclusively experienced by people in developing countries; poor communities in developed countries also experience it. In other words, when people feel relatively secure and comfortable with their material surroundings--like most people in the developed world--then everything else being equal, there will be a decline in religion. This, according to the theory, has happened in all Western countries, except the United States. (8) The opposite also holds true. Therefore, where individual and social well-being are at risk--mainly in the developing world--traditional religion is at least as strong as it was a century ago.

Thus, a new type of North-South divide--an expanding secular-sacred gap--is taking place in the world, making cultural and religious pluralism one of the leading problems in 21st century international relations. Significantly, Norris and Inglehart disagree with Samuel R Huntington's thesis on the clash of civilizations. (9) The authors argue that the Western world and the Islamic world are not divided over support for democratic values; rather they are divided over cultural matters--sex and gender, and so the culture wars in the United States are now part of international politics. (10)

This article offers a critical evaluation of the existential security thesis, and explains why developing countries are outwitting developed ones through the global resurgence of religion. The first part of the article argues that the overall thesis, and its concept of the secular-sacred gap, should account for the demographic implications of the global resurgence of religion on world politics. The concept of a global resurgence of religion encompasses the global restructuring of religion, the long-term cultural shift in the role, form and functions of religion caused by modernization and globalization and its impact on international relations. It is for this reason that fundamentalism is a less useful, more limited conception of the role of religion in international affairs than the global resurgence of religion.

While Norris and Inglehart rightly argue that cultural and religious pluralism has become one of the main problems of international relations in the 21st century, there are more complex explanations for this problem than existential insecurity in developing countries. The center of the global spread of Christianity is shifting from industrialized countries to the developing world. By 2050, the majority of Christians in the world will be non-white, non-Western and will most likely espouse forms of Christianity that are more emotive than those found in the West (e.g. Pentecostal faith-healing, speaking in tongues or more physically-engaged worship services). (11)

The second part of this article examines the concepts of security and religion, which are a key part of the existential security thesis. These concepts are based on a cognitive account of secularization--what I have termed the mythology of modernity--for it explains how we have allegedly passed from a world of fear, ignorance and superstition to a more confident modern world of power, knowledge and rationality These concepts are also based on a functionalist account of secularization which argues that religion will lose its social purpose and significance as modern societies become increasingly integrated. (12) These concepts ignore or obscure the meaning and significance of lived religion, defined as what is actually taking place among religious people on the ground, with their complex mix of religious symbols, practices and discourses in communities around the world. They also do not consider how dynamic and lived religious traditions are being transformed by modernization and globalization.

THE POLITICS AND DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE GLOBAL RESURGENCE OF RELIGION

The concept of a global resurgence of religion includes the global restructuring of religion, the long-term cultural shift in the role, form and functions of religion caused by modernization and globalization as well as the impact of this cultural shift on international relations. This cultural shift means that the religious resurgence and the globalization of religion--and in turn, the globalization of religious pluralism--are reshaping the contours of the international social and political landscape. The word 'social' is employed quite deliberately If culture and religion are going to be taken seriously as social forces in international relations, then the first step is to realize that international relations is a social world of ideas, values, beliefs and passions, as well as a material world of guns, missiles, battleships, trade, technology and industrial production. It is how these material and ideational factors are related that gives us the events of international relations.

The concept of the global resurgence of religion within the international relations field can be defined as follows:

The global resurgence of religion is the growing saliency and persuasiveness of religion, i.e. the increasing importance of religious beliefs, practices, and discourses in personal and public life, and the growing role of religious or religiously-related individuals, non-state groups, political parties, and communities, and organizations in domestic politics, and this is occurring in ways that have significant implications for international politics. (13) The concept of the global resurgence of religion--with its related ideas of saliency, persuasiveness, beliefs, practices and discourses--conveys the increase in public religion (i.e. the way in which politics and religion are increasingly mixed together around the world). The resurgence of religion is overcoming the alleged separation of religion and politics as a defining condition of modernization. (14) Politics is broadly conceived and includes debates over policy or the struggle for power by religiously-based or influenced interest groups or political parties through (non-violent) elections, petitions and protests.

The resurgence of religion and politics is occurring in European politics and society as well as in the global South, or in the developing world. The phenomenon challenges the secular-sacred gap concept used by Norris and Inglehart to broadly separate developed from developing countries. (15) The globalization of religious pluralism means that it is not only Muslims, but also Christians from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and elsewhere...

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