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15 CHAPTER 2 Religion and Modernity Christianity, the great historical exorcism, seems with each coming day to be losing its footing, as the demons with their piercing, babbling screams break free from its fetters. —Franz Werfel, “Leben heißt, sich mitteilen” T he mimetic theory is first and foremost a theory of religion. It describes the “religious” dimension of interpersonal relations—the idolatry of models or sexual partners—just as it explains the origins of archaic religions and the qualitative difference between these and the Judeo-Christian tradition. In the following chapters, these three areas will serve as the basis for extensive discussion of the mimetic theory, the scope of which finds itself between the conflicting poles of religion and modernity. Concerning the Necessity of a Theory of Religion The contemporary debate has seen the need for religious inquiry reemerge after being pushed aside within the humanities and social sciences for 16 Chapter 2 decades. This has led to radical skepticism of traditional approaches to the field of cultural theory. Until a few years ago, the modern world—especially the sciences—was dominated by theories of secularization, which said all religions—or religion as such—would disappear with the increasing modernization of the world. Religion, according to the secularists, is a phenomenon of the past. Such claims, however, have proved to be obsolete, with many questioning the tenability of such unilinear secularization. In the modern Western world, for example, there has been a marked increase in practices of the occult, including sects, magic, and the esoteric. This growing need for religious experience on the individual level has carried political consequences in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, where social pressure has led the governments to use state aid in an attempt to control the growth and proliferation of sects. On the geopolitical level, meanwhile, the return of the religious element has been even more apparent. For over two decades, religions—especially those giving rise to fundamentalist groups—have played an increasingly important role on the global stage. The year 1979, in particular, comes to mind, when Ayatollah Khomeini declared Iran an Islamic theocratic state. However, one must not look solely to the Islamic realm when considering the return of religion in the modern world. Countries in the secularized West, too, have seen the rise of fundamentalist movements.1 Though relatively unknown in Europe, one must also note the spread of evangelical Protestantism —most of all, Pentecostalism—in East and South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and, above all, Latin America.2 Another example of the political significance of religion was witnessed in the ethnic conflicts that took place after the end of the Cold War in several of the former Soviet states and in the former Yugoslavia.3 Inquiries into the conflicts, however, avoided the religious dimension, being too heavily influenced by theories of secularization. Leading contemporary sociologists have shown that the concept of religion must be taken seriously, and that it will continue to be an important factor in global political developments.4 The Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld, for instance, has stressed the importance of religion in his analysis of violent conflicts, in particular those in connection with Islamist rebel groups willing to implement violence in support of their causes. However, van Creveld says that the militarization of Islam will not spare other religions, arguing that the Christian Religion and Modernity 17 answer to the problem could result in the reemergence of “not the Lord of love, but of battles.”5 The French political scientist Jean-Marie Guéhenno has argued that our globalized world will lead to what he calls a “new polytheism.”6 Religion, says Guéhenno, will be the only way for cultures to hold onto their differences in the face of the contemporary drive for universality. Benjamin Barber, an American political scientist, has made similar claims.7 He argues that globalization will bring with it a religiously driven counter-movement resulting in mass tribalization and fundamentalist balkanization, or what he calls “Jihad versus McWorld.” Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, which showed just how much the world is branded by religiously motivated violence, sociological studies such as those mentioned above have become ever more relevant to the public debate. The question of religion is one of the most central aspects of current research examining the nature of terrorism.8 It is no longer disputed that one must delve into the concept of religion in order to fully understand the...

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