Religion in contemporary society

But what about nowadays?

Sabino Aquaviva

The USA

Cox ideas seemed to find confirmation in the empirical data of the time:

- less and less practicing in Europe and the States

- more and more difficult to find people who wanted to become priests, monks, nuns,...

- the success of the atheistic propaganda in Cina and the East Europe

But today the same empirical data are denying Cox's thesis

He is an Italian sociologist who wrote "L'eclissi del sacro nella società industriale".

He thinks that:

- the eclipse of the sacred is to be identified in the dissociation between social history and religious history

- the eclipse is linked to the exterior dimension of the sacred but it is possible for it to survive in a psychic dimension and to be shown in new ways.

Ronald Reagan (1980/1988) considered his term as a mission of the good towards evil forces

Evangelic fundamentalist groups created a program in which they outlined the main objectives of political life for believers such as:

- protection of life and fight against abortion

- no acknowledgment for homosexuals

- prayers at school

some even:

- denial of evolution theories

Fundamentalism

What about Catholics?

Historically: --> a theological movement which was born inside the North-American protestantism at the end of the 17th century.

They claimed believers should go back to the roots of faith.

--> since then the word has been applied to all similar movements, we can therefore talk about Christian, Islamic, Hebraic, Hindu and even Sikh fundamentalism.

The new religious awakening

Fundamentalism

Harvey Cox

Religious pluralism

The awakening of religion led to new important phenomena:

- the rise of fundamentalist movements

- the appearance of new, personal, individual visions of the sacred

Peter Berger --> not only the coexistence of various religions inside the same boundaries (happened in the past too) but the fact that, thanks to this coexistence, it is possible for people to choose what better suits them.

--> it is a personal choice that has nothing to do with tradition and/or the parent's choices

Thanks to pluralism all faiths become stronger because they are the result of a specific choice rather than something that was imposed.

It also grants respect to other coexisting faiths.

He writes "The Secular City: Secularization and Urbanization in Theological Perspective" (1965)

He thinks that secularization is an irreversible phenomena strictly linked with the development of the urban city.

Far from being a protective religious community, the church should be in the forefront of change in society, celebrating the new ways religiosity is finding expression in the world

All fundamentalist movements share some common characteristics:

- God's word, which is to be taken directly in the holy book, should guide human behavior in all aspects of life.

- choices, both personal and public, should be taken according to religious beliefs, thus seen the non-religious State as something that needs to be dismissed.

- the tendency to look for an "enemy" that threats the whole society.

Philip Jenkins

in his book "The next Christendom: the rise of global Christianity" claims that the future of Christianity won't be in Europe but in the poor countries

Moreover religion seems to be still alive and vivid precisely in some of the most industrialized and urbanized societies such as the States.

--> Cox himself has recently changed his mind

Negative sides

Homemade sacred

However, some people believe that due to pluralism religions will be spoiled as people can choose to follow only some of the aspects of a single religion and/or to choose aspects from different religions thus ruining the original one and creating something new and different.

--> Homemade sacred

Secularization - a subject study

Thomas Luckmann: modern society deal with religion in a strictly personal way

Franco Ferrarotti: contemporary society needs sacred and thus creates new spontaneous movements (New Age, ufology, ... up to satanists)

--> it is a homemade sacred, created according to personal needs.

During the 2nd half of the XX century is debated by many scholars, particularly by representatives of the protestant theology such as:

- Friedrich Gogarten

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

- Harvey Cox

Secularization

Religion in contemporary society

is the transformation of a society from close identification and affiliation with religious values and institutions toward nonreligious values and secular institutions.

The secularization thesis refers to the belief that as societies progress, particularly through modernization and rationalization, religion loses its authority in all aspects of social life and governance

Secularity

What has globalization to do with religion?

Secularity is the state of being separate from religion, or of not being exclusively allied with or against any particular religion [Wikipedia]

--> religion is separated from science and politics which are independent.

--> the State is non-religious and and inside its borders there is freedom of worship.

--> religion becomes a free choice

--> new ways to spread the messages

--> New opportunities for meeting, comparing and exchanging ideas.

--> involved not only representatives of the most important religions but also common people who get in touch with new, different ideas.

Context

Globalization

In order to understand the influence of religion in our society there are two important terms that should be taken into consideration: secularism and globalization

Globalization is the increasing interaction of people, states, or countries through the growth of the international flow of money, ideas, and culture. [Wikipedia]

It has got two main characteristics:

--> less and less distance among people and culture (due to new means of transport and mass communication)

--> less and less identity feelings (due to migrations and traveling)