New ReligioNs and globalization Edited by Armin W. Geertz and Margit Warburg Assisted by Dorthe Refslund Christensen
New Religions and Globalization
RENNER Studies on New Religions General Editor Armin W. Geertz, Department of the Study of Religion, University of Aarhus Editorial Board Dorthe Refslund Christensen, Institute of Information and Media Studies, University of Aarhus Annika Hvithamar, Institute of Philosophy, Education and Study of Religions, University of Southern Denmark Hans Raun Iversen, Department of Systematic Theology, University of Copenhagen Viggo Mortensen, Department of Systematic Theology, Centre for Multireligious Studies, University of Aarhus Mikael Rothstein, History of Religions Section, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen Margit Warburg, History of Religions Section, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen RENNER Studies on New Religions is an initiative supported by the Danish Research Council for the Humanities. The series is established to publish books on new religions and alternative spiritual movements from a wide range of perspectives. It includes works of original theory, empirical research, and edited collections that address current topics, but will generally focus on the situation in Europe. The books appeal to an international readership of scholars, students, and professionals in the study of religion, theology, the arts, and the social sciences. It is hoped that this series will provide a proper context for scientific exchange between these often competing disciplines.
NEW RELIGIONS AND GLOBALIZATION EMPIRICAL, THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES Edited by Armin W. Geertz & Margit Warburg Assisted by Dorthe Refslund Christensen AARHUS UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright: Aarhus University Press, 2008 ISBN 978 87 7934 681 9 AARHUS UNIVERSITY PRESS Langelandsgade 177 8200 Aarhus N Denmark www.unipress.dk Gazelle Book Services Ltd. White Cross Mills Hightown, Lancaster, LA1 4XS United Kingdom www.gazellebookservices.co.uk David Brown Book Co. Box 511 Oakville, CT. 06779 USA www.oxbowbooks.com Published with the financial support of the Danish Research Council for the Humanities and the Humanistic Faculty of the University of Copenhagen. Renner Studies on New Religions: Vol. 1: Robert Towler (ed.), New Religions and the New Europe, 1995 Vol. 2: Michael Rothstein, Belief Transformations, 1996 Vol. 3: Helle Meldgaard and Johannes Aagaard (eds.), New Religious Movements in Europe, 1997 Vol. 4: Eileen Barker and Margit Warburg (eds.), New Religions and New Religiosity, 1998 Vol. 5: Mikael Rothstein (ed.) New Age Religion and Globalization, 2001 Vol. 6: Mikael Rothstein and Reender Kranenborg (eds.), New Religions in a Postmodern World, 2003 Vol. 7: Margit Warburg, Annika Hvithamar, and Morten Warmind (eds.), Baha i and Globalisation, 2005 Vol. 8: Armin W. Geertz and Margit Warburg, assisted by Dorthe Refslund Christensen, New Religions and Globalization, 2008
Contents Preface 7 Armin W. Geertz & Margit Warburg New Religions and Globalization: An Introduction 9 Margit Warburg, Dorthe Refslund Christensen & Armin W. Geertz Part I: Approaches to Globalization 1. Religious Interaction in a Global Context 23 James A. Beckford 2. Religion and Globalisation, or Globalisation and Religion? 43 Margit Warburg 3. Purity and Mixture Religious Plurality and the Domestication of Alterity 61 Olav Hammer 4. Globalization, Bourdieu and New Religions 95 Lene van der Aa Kühle 5. Organizational Transformation in Global Religions: Rethinking the Relationship between Organization, Culture, and Market 109 James V. Spickard
6 Contents Part II: Globalization before Globalization 6. Orbis terrarum Romanorum est: Globalization Processes in the Roman Empire 131 Ingvild Sælid Gilhus 7. Early Christianity as a Global Religion 145 Ulrich Berner Part III: Globalization around the Globe 8. Systemic Struggle between North American Indians and New Age 165 Armin W. Geertz 9. Mapping Globalization with the Lens of Religion: African Migrant Churches in Germany 189 Afe Adogame 10. Archangel Gabriel Online: The Salamullah Movement in Indonesia and Globalisation 215 Frida Mebius Önnerfors 11. Managing Deterritorialisation, Sustaining Belief: the Bochasanwasi Shree Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha as Ethnographic Case Study and Theoretical Foil 225 Hanna H. Kim 12. Religious Globalisation: A Material Perspective. Assessing the Mormon Temple Institution in Terms of Globalisation 243 Mikael Rothstein Index 261 Contributors 275
Preface It is a pleasure for us to publish this selection of top quality papers that were originally presented at the con cluding conference of the Research Network on New Religions (RENNER) in Aarhus, Denmark, September 23-26, 2002. All of the papers have been up-dated to reflect events as of late 2007. Even though it is our last publication, it is a fitting celebration of some 12 years of successful events and publications. RENNER is a network established in Denmark to coordinate research on new religions and alternative spirituality. It is a corporate body with scientific goals funded by the Danish Research Council for the Humanities and was neither information center nor hotline. REN- NER was an experiment awarded by the Council in 1993 to a coordinating committee that consisted of scholars from different disciplines in the humanities, theology and the social sciences within a fairly neutral arena. The existence of RENNER as an institutional network with no other priority than to secure the best possible conditions for scientific research on new religions placed us in a position of accessibility to researchers, government officials, civil servants and the general public. Relative neutrality was the key to the RENNER network, but did not mean that its individual scholars were unengaged. It simply meant that RENNER as an institution was a forum for encouraging the fair exchange and publication of scientific research. The results have appeared in a variety of journals and in our two monograph series RENNER Studies on New Religions (Aarhus University Press) and its Danish equivalent Gyldendal - Nye religioner (Gyldendal, Copenhagen). The Research Council supported RENNER for 4 years, but in 1998 several members of the RENNER group were awarded further funding for a project entitled Globaliseringen og de nye religioner lokalt og globalt ( Globalization and New Religions Local and Global ) dubbed RENNER II. This publication is the third and last in the RENNER II project. The current board of directors consists of the following: Dorthe Refslund Christensen (Histori an of Religions, Aarhus), Armin W. Geertz (Co-Chair, Historian of Religions, Aarhus), Annika Hvithamar (Soci-
8 Preface ologist of Religion, Odense), Hans Ravn Iversen (Systematic Theologian, Copenhagen), Viggo Mortensen (Systematic Theologian, Aarhus), Mikael Rothstein (Historian of Religions, Copenhagen), and Margit Warburg (Co-Chair, Sociologist of Religion, Copenhagen). They have been a great team, and we extend our gratitude to them. Gratitude is also extended to earlier members of the RENNER board, Johannes Aagaard (Ecu menical and Missionary Theologian, formerly Aarhus, now deceased), Steffen Johannessen (Study of Religion, Royal Danish School of Educational Studies, Copenhagen), Finn Madsen (History of Religions, Copenhagen), Helle Meldgaard (History of Religions and Theology, Multimedia Consultant, Aarhus), and Ole Riis (Sociologist of Religion, formerly in Aarhus). We wish to thank the Danish Research Council for the Humanities for its support throughout RENNER s history and for support of this volume. We also thank the Faculty of the Humanities, University of Cophenhagen for publication support and the Faculty of Theology, University of Aarhus for facilities and publication support. Our gratitude is also extended to Director Claes Hvidbak at the Aarhus University Press for his continued moral support of the RENNER series and to Mary Waters Lund for diligent editing. Armin W. Geertz Margit Warburg
New Religions and Globalization: An Introduction Margit Warburg, Dorthe Refslund Christensen, Armin W. Geertz As mentioned in the Preface, the Danish Research Council for the Humanities granted us the funding for the project Globalization and New Religions Local and Global for a period of four years, from 1998 to 2002. In that period the research council identified globalization as one of its main themes in its research strategy for the humanities, realizing that globalization is not only a political-economic process but has profound cultural significance. This view cannot come as a surprise to scholars of globalization; in dealing with religion and glo- balization, the cultural aspects of globalization are obviously central. We note with satisfaction that the humanities quite early on realized that globalization is an important theme to study, also for other researchers than specialists in globalization studies. Certainly, the impact that globalization has had on the international political scene has proven this stance to be correct. Our publication helps highlight a much needed balance between technical, social and cultural factors. Globalization is a process that may be spelled in two different ways with a z or an s but may be described in many more! Among other things, globalization is a term taking note of the fact that contem- porary nations and their citizens are in varying degrees involved in a world-wide process of integration where money, goods, cultural items and people are moving more and more freely across borders. This integration would not be possible without revolutionary technological innovations in physical transportation, electronic communication, and data processing. Internationalization of the economy and rapid growth in international communications are salient features of globalization, but a global political integration of societies is also a discernible feature.
10 Introduction All these processes indicate a historically unique compression of spacetime into a single world space, a process that one of the pioneers in the study of religion and globalization, Roland Robertson, has allegorically described as the world becoming a single place. 1 A consequence of this increase in supraterritorial social relations of all kinds is that the space demarcated by a person s social relations the person s social space to some extent becomes independent of physical space. In his critical review of approaches to globalization, Jan Aart Scholte regards this as the most distinctive aspect of globalization. 2 When we chose globalization and new religions as the theme of the project, and not globalization and religions, it was not just because this is a main concern of RENNER-partici pants. We argued that studying especially new religions in a globalization perspective offered theoretical and methodological advantages both for the general study of religion and the general study of globalization. Religions are often cosmopolitan and universal in their overall message, yet they may at the same time be utterly engaged in local interactions, and this is often clearly expressed among the minority religions, at least in Europe. The contrast of the local and the global has been accentuated by globalization, and in particular many new religions follow suit. The authors of this volume represent two groups of researchers: The largest group counts those whose main concern is religion, in particular new religions. The other group of scholars are mostly sociologists and sociologists of religion who have a stronger footing in general globaliz a tion studies, but who also have a special interest in those aspects of globalization that are salient when studying religion. The study of globalization and new religions calls for a combination of the scholarly expertise represented by the two groups of researchers mentioned above. Leading scholars in the history of religions, theology, sociology of religion, psychology of religion, and other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences met to contribute their reflections on important aspects of globa lization processes with regard to new 1 Roland Robertson, Globalization, Modernization, and Postmodernization, in Religion and Global Order. Religion and the Political Order, Volume IV, eds. Roland Robertson & William R. Garrett. New York: Paragon House, 1991, 281-291 (quotation, p. 283). 2 Jan Aart Scholte, Globalization. A Critical Introduction, Houndmills: MacMillan Press, 2000, 45-56.
Introduction 11 religions and new religiosity. The participants addressed questions of vital importance for various disciplines in cultural studies. Whether approached as a reflection of world economy and power dynamics, new possibilities of communication and cultural exchange in the light of mass media and technology, increased cultural plurality in the wake of migration or as a combination of any of these, globalization challenges the academic study of religion as indeed in many other disciplines to renewed theoretical and methodological reflection. Religious ideas, practices and ways of organizing and communicating are (and have always been) constantly in the process of finding their place between continuity and change, between being transformed and innovated, and yet claiming to be traditional and original. However swiftly the world seems to be changing, groups and individuals continuously attempt to produce more or less coherent worldviews, organize themselves accordingly and communicate with the world at large. Many new religions are, or claim to be, deeply rooted in a local tradition or cultural environment, while others seem to identify themselves as global and transcultural. In fact, the rise and spread of many new religions and new religious movements seems to be closely identified with globalization. No religion, however, is without local roots, and, equally, no religion is separate from global development. Approaching the study of new religions by means of globalization theories and methodologies can help illuminate a number of themes. 1. Different theories of globalization processes and consequences have produced different tools and approaches. Thus an analysis and evaluation of different theories and methodologies in terms of their adequacy and productiveness in the study of new religions may provide important correctives. 2. How does globalization influence the organization and management of new religions and how can these issues be studied? Globalization adds new perspectives to the study of religious mobility, be it a result of migration or because ideas, practices and traditions migrate out of their original contexts and are transformed and innovated by new practitioners in new cultural contexts. Of relevance here are the interrelatedness of local and global culture, center and diaspora, networking, religious centers without physical location, and changes and innovations in the organization and management of new religions.
12 Introduction 3. In a globalized world where migration, for instance, leads to the meeting and confrontation of religions, how do religious individuals and groups interact? Multiculturality is a growing factor in many countries with the result that new communities and new religions (or old religions in new cultural and geographical settings) challenge the old order. This plural situation affects the interaction of religious groups and individuals, ranging from confrontation to interreligious dialogue and, in some cases, symbiosis. 4. While some scholars see globalization as a modern, or even postmodern, cultural pheno menon, others claim that globalization premises and processes have a long history. What consti tutes globalization in a historical perspective and when can a cultural, social, or religious pheno menon be said to be influenced by such premises and processes? Are there historical periods which give us an analytical advantage in the study of new religions and globalization? A Presentation of the Papers The selected papers presented in this collection are arranged in terms of three overriding themes. The first concerns discussions of various theoretical approaches to globalization. The second provides evidence for a much broader historical background for globalization or for drawing historical parallels to present-day globalization. The third theme concerns examples of globaliza tion in various parts of the world. The section on approaches to globalization begins with a paper by sociologist of religion James A. Beckford. Beckford argues that not only the term globalization but also its assumed characteristics should not be accepted at face value without critical scrutiny. Globalization does have an impact on interactions between religions but the impact is hardly uniform. Furthermore, globalization is not necessarily equivalent to standardization or universalization. In discussing the strikingly different situations that new religious movements have in the United Kingdom and in France, Beckford shows that a proper analysis of the effects of globalization need to take into account historical precedence, the foundational ideology of each country, the judicial context of religion in each country, and, finally, the myriad ways that countries deal with global influences.