Religion and Global Affairs: Political Challenges

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, we are witnessing a post-cold war period in which a global religious resurgence has challenged the expectations of modernization theory, the progressive secularization and westernization of developing societies. Religion has become a major ideological, social and political force, appealed to by governments, political parties and opposition movements alike, a source of liberation and violent extremism.

As we approach the twenty-first century, the global resurgence of religion and the impact of politicized religion or “religious fundamentalism” are evident. The reversal of what many had seen as an inexorable process of modernization as secularization - an apparent desecularization - in many parts of the world poses a major challenge for understanding and responding to the realities of development in societies both North and South.

Iran’s Islamic revolution in 1978–79 spotlighted a contemporary reassertion of Islam that had actually been occurring for more than a decade in Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan, Lebanon, and Malaysia. ¹ Across the Muslim world, from North Africa to Southeast Asia, Islam reemerged as a major force in both political and social development. ² Radical Islamic movements engaged in a campaign of violence and terror in attempts to destabilize or overthrow governments. Moderate Islamists, espousing the desecularization of society, emerged as major social and political activists. That activism is apparent now in Palestine and Israel, where the reassertion of religious territorial claims by Muslim and Jewish activists challenges both Yasir Arafat and Benjamin Netanyahu.

In Central and Latin America, Catholic liberation theology, with its emphasis on Christianity’s “preferential option for the poor,” informed major attempts at social and political reform. From these attempts, a new, or alternative model for “church” emerged, based upon Vatican II’s notion of the “Church as the People of God,” which brought with it greater recognition of the place, role and participation of the laity; an impetus for the growth of lay movements; and a firmer emphasis on the relationship of the church to the world, in particular to issues of justice and equality. Christian base communities sprouted across the region, in Brazil, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Columbia, and Venezuela. Christian churches were similarly instrumental in reform in Poland and Eastern Europe, where they played a significant role in the fall of communism.

In South Asia, the challenge of religious nationalism is evident in the conflict between Buddhist Sinhalese and Hindu Tamils in Sri Lanka. India, an ostensibly secular state, in the past decade has experienced multiple communal conflicts that are often motivated by the challenge of religious nationalism, from Sikh demands for independence in Punjab to a Muslim uprising in Kashmir. Challenging, too, is the rise of Hindu nationalism, particularly the militant activities of the BJP.

In the southern Philippines, militant Muslim factions have agitated for autonomy from the “Christian dominated” government. Emergent religious nationalism in Central Asia is matched by new religio-political impulses of the Russian Orthodox Church. ³

Causes and Characteristics

The global resurgence of religion is not only a religious, but also a social and political awakening. Common to the contemporary religious resurgence is a quest for identity, authenticity, and community, and a desire to establish meaning and order in both personal life and society. Many have turned or, more precisely, have returned to their religious tradition, reaffirming the relevance of religion not only for the next life, but also for this one. Thus, revivalists of the three Abrahamic faiths may be said to seek to re-Islamize, re-Christianize, or re-Judaize their societies.

In contrast to a secular, elite minority, a majority in non-western societies continues to live or to be influenced by religiously informed cultures. Despite the optimism of the prophets of secular nationalism and the prosperity of some, many people perceive and experience the wide-ranging failures of the modern state. In many parts of the world, economic conditions have not measurably improved for non-elites; indeed, they have deteriorated. The concentration of power and wealth has increased while the problems of poverty, population density, and illiteracy have not been significantly reversed. Corruption, unemployment, and housing shortages and...