THEO-148 Religion and Globalization

Professor Vincent Miller

The course will consider:
1. Various attempts to define and analyze “Globalization”.
2. Ethical and Religious considerations of economic Globalization.
3. The impacts of globalization upon religion: the erosion of local cultures, the reduction of religion to “identity,” changes in the religious socialization of believers, market and mass media alternatives to traditional religious authorities and institutions, disruption of local communities through economic change, migration and urbanization. The “deterritorialization” of culture.
4. The use of globalization by religious agents to pursue their religious goals, e.g. new forms of religious proselytism, religious culture, and community building. Such responses are guided by the theological logics of the traditions (e.g. Christian notions of the universality of the Gospel message, Muslim notions of global reach of the community of the Umma). Indeed, such theological notions may form part of the genealogy of globalization long before the spread of the global capitalist market and its cultural consequences.
5. Religious critiques of the human costs of globalization, and religious reactions to globalization. It will consider the global rise of religious fundamentalisms as a response to globalization and seek to consider non-fundamentalist alternatives.

Credits: 3.00

Prerequisites: None

Other academic years
There is information about this course number in other academic years:

• 2008-2009 Fall and Spring
• 2009-2010 Fall and Spring
• 2010-2011 Fall and Spring
• 2012-2013 Fall and Spring
• 2013-2014 Fall and Spring

More information
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