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Terrorist activities have taken a new turn in the wake of 21st Century, thereby creating a sense of insecurity in the global family, The reason for the upsurge of terrorism has also remained an enigma. However, scholars have posited diverse reasons and motivations for terrorist activities. Scholars mostly of western orientation, blame religion for it. On the other hand, scholars with liberal inclinations place the blame on the socio-political exigencies that fosters authoritarianism as the sole cause of the social phenomenon. The third group of scholars posits eclectic sources of terrorism. They opine that though, socio-political exigencies are at the root, however, religion fans the ember and gives it legitimacy. The fourth group proposed an alternative model in which they subsumed that globalization and not religion is the purveyor of modern terrorism. They noted that globalization agenda depersonalizes culture, breaks traditional identities, nullify national sovereignty and violates human rights and life of those at the fringes of development. Thus, those affected adversely by the scheme resort to terrorism as retaliation for the violation done to them. Religion, on the one hand, occupying a central position in human life becomes a medium of translating this sociopolitical conflict into a moral one. It is by religion that secular conflict acquires a cosmic nature. Any conflict understood in cosmic terms acquires stateless and timeless status and as such become unending. Therefore, the paper surmises that terrorism will not end unless globalization ends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the globalized musical market’s demands, Moslem artists propose a specialized representation of Sufism on the public stage, transposing its mystical audition, transforming confreric practices and exposing the bodies of performers. The authors explore the interaction between confreric practices and the staging of performances, an interaction characteristic of musical movements that react to the demands of the general public and market forces. When Sufism goes on stage, it yields to consumerism while asserting itself as a privileged interlocutor of contemporary Islam. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the article the singularity chances of Catholic Church as the institute after the re-establishment of Independence are analyzed. Two influences of the Church, inside and outside growing, conditioned by the present economic, social and cultural transformations are researched. The topics of public globalization processes, born out of religious pluralism, to which we have to react, considering having concrete Churchy heritage of acting that was formed by historical experience and concrete circumstances are also analyzed. It is also spoken about the Catholic Church in terms of government and political life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International relations have changed dramatically since the Second Vatican Council, yet there are remarkable continuities in Catholic social teaching and its approach to global development. It accords importance to culture and religion vis-a-vis the Church's conception of integral human development. Several of the basic principles of Catholic social teaching are related to the main problems of developing countries, so Catholic social teaching can inform how the development community views culture and religion. Viewing the principles of Catholic social teaching through the lens of Alasdair MacIntyre's social theory helps us to constructively apply those principles to global development policy today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article concludes a special issue on religion and the United Nations (UN) with a summary discussion of the need to integrate religious communities into global development efforts. The character of the UN as a secular organization is discussed, as is the compatibility of its basic goals of human welfare with those of the major world religions, and the value of religious institutions as conduits of social service provision. Also discussed are the challenges of working with religious institutions, including religion as a source of political conflict.

I explore potential tensions and mutual provocations among the anthropology of religion, radical theology, and critical philosophy in order to suggest the political and potentially eventful role of the immanent in anthropology. By the end of the essay, my apologia argues for the positive influence of the immanent as opposed to the paradoxical in ethnographic method and theory, which depend on a close examination of religion as it is lived and performed. At the same time, I examine the ways in which theology and philosophy, alongside the emergent anthropological study of globalizing Christianities, can provoke us into considering ways in which to rethink what an immanent anthropology might involve. Key issues here involve acknowledging the previously repressed genealogical relationships between anthropology and Christianity, reframing what we mean by "the social," and debating how we might develop a committed anthropology that is aware of its ability to disseminate powerful encounters with otherness within but also beyond the academy. The essay largely draws on published works, but reflections are also prompted by experiences at an academic conference as well as fieldwork within varieties of charismatic Christianity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the key features of Pentecostal/charismatic churches is their sensational appeal. Taking as a point of departure the experience of the Holy Spirit as a "portable," embodied power source, this essay seeks to contribute to developing alternative concepts that expand our view of Pentecostalism as it emerges through a "Protestant lens." First, I critically discuss the severance of aesthetics and Protestantism, and the concomitant dismissal of "form" in the work of Max Weber. I argue for the need to recapture an understanding of religion as aesthetics, albeit taken in the broad sense of aisthesis, advocated by Aristotle. Calling for the reappreciation of form as absolutely essential to religious experience, I then introduce the notion of the sensational form, which allows us to grasp how the Holy Spirit operates according to Pentecostal understanding and experience. Presenting the term aesthetics of persuasion, I address the question of how aesthetics is relevant to broader modalities of binding and politics of belonging—paying attention to Jacques Rancière's "distribution of the sensible." Taking Pentecostalism as a prominent representative of global Christianity, I seek not only to enhance our understanding of its particular sensational religiosity but also to outline new directions in the broader study of Protestantism and Christianity in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impulse to worship precedes philosophical reflection about God. It involves gratitude, admiration, and petition. However, it can also be argued that worship concludes and completes human abstract reflections. First, human beings are called to rise above their animal nature to a spiritual level (Plato). But the church fathers taught that they must rise above intellectual contemplation to union with God through perfected desire. However, we cannot reach this union through our own efforts; God must reach graciously down to us. But when he does so, he reaches down into our entire microcosmic nature; hence, it is the resurrected body that will enjoy the fullness of the beatific vision. Hence also, grace comes to us in sacramental modes of worship and not in isolated solitude. It reaches us through our individual bodies and within the collective body. Beyond the heightened reach of mind alone, God descends to permeate our entire personal being, body and soul. Second, liturgy completes thought because the governing of our senses by reason was disturbed by the fall of Adam. Disordered reason cannot recover this ordering, but our senses remain relatively innocent, like animals and inanimate reality. Many of the fathers and Thomas Aquinas held that fallen reason must be humbled and reeducated through the senses themselves. In the absence of human rational government, the divine Logos itself descends into the human sensory order, supremely in the Eucharist. In the liturgy our senses become rightly attuned, and their immediate intuitions anticipate our seeing God and ourselves through the divine intuition itself in the beatific vision. These rightly attuned senses then reeducate our minds and allow them to become adjusted once more and to fulfill further their contemplative calling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay takes note of the fact that Alain Badiou published both "Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism" and "Deleuze: The Clamor of Being" in the same year and of the resulting controversy that has emerged from Badiou's (and his followers') critique of the propriety and efficaciousness of Gilles Deleuze—inspired forms of political praxis and subjectivity. In a move to adjudicate between the competing claims that arose from this debate, this essay asks whether a juxtaposition of contemporary Pentecostal and charismatic global Christianity—as captured by a newly emerging anthropology of Christianity—with Badiou's description of an original first-century Pauline Christian militancy could bring clarity to these issues. Starting with a reading of some key work and ethnography by Joel Robbins (one of the establishing figures in the anthropology of Christianity) and supplementing it with a brief review of some of the wider ethnographic literature, this essay argues that the contemporary Pentecostal/charismatic global resurgence bears the mark of two distinct yet intertwined modalities of subjectivity and praxis, church and revival, each of which are similar, respectively, to the competing forms of subjectivity and praxis championed by Badiou and Deleuze. The essay then closes with the open question of whether secular liberatory anticapital movements could borrow from this heterogeneous mix of tactics in an attempt to produce a challenge and an alternative to the current system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We might describe two traditions of critique: the prophetic and the secular. Under the aegis of modernity, however, critique was simply collapsed into the secular. Against the backdrop of Enlightenment rationality, prophetic critique could be seen only as parochial and hence uncritical—tainted by the particularity of religious tradition and thus disqualified from the alleged universality of secular reason. On this account, critical thought could be informed only by secular reason. Criticism, in this picture, is bound up with the disenchantment of the world. This confidence in secular reason, however, has eroded on several fronts. Concurrent with these developments has been an explosion of global Christianity, particularly Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity, animated by a deep sense of the enchantment of the world, as evidenced by "signs and wonders" that contest the disenchantments of modernity. Central to Pentecostal spirituality is the prophetic—a sense that God speaks to (and into) our social orders. The confluence of these presents an opportunity to reconsider prophetic critique. But does the prophetic voice in global Pentecostalism yield prophetic critique? On the one hand, there are rich resources of critical thought embedded in Pentecostal practice; on the other hand, globalized Pentecostalism often seems quite comfortable with globalized capitalism. This essay disinters the implicit, critical elements that are embedded in Pentecostal spirituality while also trying to account for why global Pentecostalism so often mimics globalized capitalism. I suggest that Pentecostalism will be truly critical—and hence, prophetic—only to the extent that it is catholic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the globalization of religions, multi-religious contacts among peoples have become daily fare. The frequently felt pluralism of religions raises the question of precisely how to sustain one's religious convictions while fostering openness and receptivity to those of others, whether that receptivity is enacted in a spirit of curiosity, hope, or love of neighbor. Historically, multi-religious contacts have been pursued through the risky religious border-crossings known as missionary activity and interfaith dialogues. Like geographic border-crossings, these lead us into the unfamiliar. Through four case examples, this essay presents a range of ways people have negotiated differing religious convictions — remaining convinced, yet receptive to the religious convictions of others. These four narratives suggest alternative ways of receiving and relating to the religious other, and they show us how conviction and receptivity to others' convictions can function as dialogue partners, thereby offering possibilities for the rest of us. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we argue that the conjunctions of religion and politics through eruptions of violence are codetermined and codependent through syncretic manifestations rather than a result of some kind of basic clash between different, self-contained systems of ideas and values. The vicissitudes of religious fervour are linked to issues of development and social change in which long-cherished traditions are confronted by seemingly inexorable forces beyond the control of those being affected by them. Religious violence is a political movement which should be understood as not being outside modernisation in the sense of being opposed to it; it is in fact part of the development of modernisation. Resistance arises from the experience of being excluded from the fruits of modernity while at the same time being enmeshed within the multiple social relations underpinning the production and distribution of those 'fruits'. Whether from a postmodern or from a more conventional perspective a totalising analysis organised around master concepts like 'globalisation' or 'civilisation' is often developed to explain the intersections of religion and violence. We reject these approaches in favour of one predicated on the idea of the 'governance state'. It is our argument that this better captures the core axis of analysis - namely the changing nature of the state and its management of populations and the concomitant forms of resistance by those subjected to it in an era in which such 'modernities' are played out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the positive and negative effects of the globalizing process and how globalization has influenced Kyrgyzstan and Kyrgyz traditional culture. The opportunities provided by globalization for the dispersion of Kyrgyz culture and recognition of human rights violations, the bride kidnapping phenomenon or "Ala Kachuu" marriage practice, and the effect of poverty on cultural transmission are discussed. Religious and economic aspects of globalization such as its association with capitalism and Christianity are mentioned.

The article examines the missionary context of the document "Gaudium et Epes" which indicates the globalization from the papacy of Benedict XV to Benedict XVI. It mentions the belief of George Weigel that the Vatican II Constitution ignores the said globalization in which he notes that "Gaudium et Epes" did not ignored the globalization. It states that the document demonstrates how globalization gives people the idea regarding the vision of Jesus Christ to the brotherhood of men.

A religious-oriented international relation is sometimes leading to conflicts. So it is inevitable to develop an approach that emphasizes the common interests. In this context, one should ask the following question: If religion is sometimes causing conflicts in international relations, can we say that morality may cause similar problems? Is morality more important or the mutual interests in international relations? We believe that any interest-oriented relation that has no moral basis may turn to an immoral relation in the course of time. Therefore any relationship that does not center on moral values cannot become a real value-oriented relationship. So any dialogue among the followers of different faiths should be conducted only on common values, and not on the matters of faith. Followers of all divine religions should cooperate on respecting faiths and maintaining common moral values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last century, a new form of strategic philanthropy arose—that of the private foundation. Foundations do not account for a large portion of donations received by religious organizations, but they can deploy important resources at critical moments. Examining data between 1999 and 2003 from the Foundation Center on grants and grant making, we find that a very small number of foundations are dominant actors in religious strategic philanthropy. These organizations introduce isomorphic tendencies within American religion. Federal tax policies and financial scandals precipitated the emergence of more organizational forms—regranting organizations, supporting organizations, and oversight organizations. Factors such as secularization, religious pluralism, and globalization have generated new challenges for private foundations, and in the aggregate, these developments have contributed to a restructuring within the world of religious philanthropy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses postmodern Christianity and the idea that it could be used, through the emerging church movement, to create shared values of a civil society that would be brought together by globalization. The author considers common ethics and whether it is true that people from a variety of cultures could share the same values and responds to the criticism that such ideas are intended to further the hegemonic spread of Western values. Other topics include a resurgent interest in religion, epistemology, and ecclesiology.

The term "global church" is prevalent in contemporary Christian literature. For those who see the catholic church, more or less spatially, as the universal church, it would seem entirely proper to compare and contrast a geography of globalization with a geography of the church as manifested in its catholicity. This article grounds "catholicity" in its proper perspective, in the attributes of God, thus linking it to God's omnipresence. In order to highlight the distinctness and uniqueness of "catholicity," I also juxtapose and compare it to "globality." I then discuss the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus Christ by way of indicating the intricate relationship between catholicity and particularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article summarizes the major themes and perspectives developed in dialogue with scholars and clergy from Asia, Africa, and the North Atlantic region and treated in detail in the four-volume series God and Globalization (2000-2007). Here specific attention is given to the tasks of theology and the implicit roles of the church in view of the pervasive dynamics of globalization in every sphere of social life. The article concludes with a proposal regarding the changing vocation of theology amid the new social ecumenicity now taking shape around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A vast literature about the religions and histories of Papua New Guinea (PNG) exists, but less than a handful of items mention the history of Islam or Muslims in PNG. This paper contributes to an initial attempt to establish a comprehensive historical account of Islam in PNG's broader history by detailing the formal establishment of Islam there from 1976 to 1983. Beginning with Islam's expatriate Muslim founders, it examines the challenges and events that led to the religion's institutionalisation and consolidation. This period of early effort provided the basis for a self-sustaining and, of late, growing religion. The ideational, material and migratory effects of globalisation and decolonisation appear as factors in the growth of Islam in PNG, despite persistent Christian resistance to its presence. The paper draws upon numerous unpublished archival records and interview data collected during fieldwork to PNG in 2007. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reconsiders the use of the concept of local religion in the study of religious change in the Mediterranean area. By reviewing a small number of recent studies of religious beliefs and practices (apparitions, religious mixing, the role of religious experience in the politics of meaning-making in everyday life) in different parts of the Mediterranean, it is argued that the concept of local religion helps us to grasp the perplexity of religion in local contexts and invites us to go beyond the simple opposition between globalized religion and more localized forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the effects of globalization in the Christian practice at the Melkite Greek Catholic village in Biqa' Valley, Lebanon. It says that Saint Barbara's Day, May devotions to Mary, Corpus Christi, and the observance of First Communion comprise the religious practice in the village, which is also known as Ain al-Qasis. It discusses the two early episodes which affected the village's religious practice such as the Roman rule period wherein Orthodox Christianity became the religion of the village and the Ottoman rule period wherein Antiochian Orthodox Christians and Melkite Greek Catholics were produced following a split in the Antiochian patriarchate in 1724. It states that changes in the practice were also observed after televisions were introduced in the region.

This article links two famous individuals from different parts of the world who produced in the same year (1820) similar extracts of the four gospels. It argues that this was the result of globalizing processes that diffused unconventional views of the Bible to three continents and made international celebrities out of heterodox writers. The hitherto unconnected stories of Rammohun Roy and Thomas Jefferson are also used to shed light on a long, bitter controversy in Britain about the doctrine of the Trinity, a controversy that followed the flow and counterflow of ideas and people between core and periphery fashioned by empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, relationships among religion, development, and globalization have been discussed critically with regard to the potentially beneficial as well as detrimental opportunities that the work of faith-based organizations (FBOs) presents in relation to HIV/AIDS. Drawing on the case studies of two neo-Pentecostal congregations in Dar es Salaam, this article describes how religious actors in urban Tanzania— including those who have not benefited from international funding—have repositioned themselves in relation to the discourses, practices, and market opportunities triggered by globalization and transnational development. This article also discusses the fragmentation and transnationalization of the healthcare sector in Tanzania, where the focus on FBOs represents only a minor aspect, which may pave the ground for promoting individual congregations' strongly conservative and morally driven agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using classical and current definitions of jihad and theories of globalization and neoliberalism, this essay discusses jihad and current jihadist movements within their reactive and responsive relationships to the material conditions of the Islamic world in general and of Pakistan in particular. Written in response to the essentialist claims of American neoconservative scholars, it suggests that jihadist militancy is not inherently Islamic, but rather a product of the material political conditions created by the Muslim colonial experience and perpetuated by the destabilizing influence of power politics, neoliberal capital, and the failure of the national promise of the postcolonial Muslim nation-states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present essay aims to provide some basic guidelines for needed terminological and methodological clarifications in the study of political Islam. These clarifications will hopefully counteract the prevailing confusion, both in comprehending and dealing with the politicisation of religion in Islam. The article also serves as a stage-setting contribution to this present special issue of TMPR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the role of Islam in the political and societal aspect of globalization in post-Soviet Central Asia. It says that the re-emergence of Islam in the independent republics of Central Asia shows the emergence of ideologies regarding the political activities in times of globalization. It states that globalization refers to the increasing interconnection of nations and peoples in terms of trade, investment and popular culture. Moreover, globalization has many aspects including politics, economy and culture. It also presents a brief history of Islam in Central Asia in which it cites that Islam was regarded as a hindrance for development. It notes that Islam could play an important role in the history, culture and society of Central Asia through fundamental changes in life.

The pilgrimage is a central religious practice in Islam. But beneath this banal observation lies a great social and historical complexity. On the one hand pilgrimage is not a timeless phenomenon, it is located within time and space; on the other hand it is made up of religious and mundane or profane aspects that are looked upon as unconnected with religion. It is this complexity that makes pilgrimage a political practice important to the formation of civil society. The observation of a group of Iranian Shiites throughout the pilgrimage to the holy sites of Syria in July 2003 helps to understand the role played by women both as pilgrims and traders. It also highlights the social impact of such practices as referred to gender relationships, the autonomy of business in the state, and the process of individuation. Although as transcendental as they have ever been, the religious experiences are far from being devoid of rational and economic calculation. Thus the pilgrimage is less a kind of updating of communitas for believers than an area where social practices are shaped and struggles identified in the double context of nation and globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No analyst today would ever dream of denying the fact that religious flows are in line with globalisation. As such, sub-Saharan Africa is not unaffected by globalisation, even if its share in international trade is minute. Different mechanisms are indeed working towards its insertion in the international system, including and perhaps especially the transnational religious networks that, due to their proselytism and mobilisation capacity, dominate as one of the privileged vectors of that insertion. This phenomenon has been the subject of in-depth studies on the Catholic and Protestant churches; however, this is not the case concerning Islam, even though the globalisation of Islam accompanied its expansion throughout the twentieth century in Africa and the Umma and is, by definition, supranational. The transnationalisation of sub-Saharan African Islam in fact follows several paths and combines individual and collective strategies; it does not deal only with institutions, politico-commercial or 'material civilisation' networks, but also with culture and symbols, where globalisation is also constructed and deconstructed in the imagination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transnational approaches have led to perspectives of migrations as emblematic of globalisation, alternative modernities, and a celebration of multicultural identities and politics. Yet many of these analyses often miss the importance of religion and the religious identity of migrants. This article discusses Malawian migrants, mostly from the Yao ethnic group in the Mangochi district. As transnational migrants they have configured their identities, including their religious identity, in various ways in order to pursue their livelihoods in the places and spaces between South Africa and Malawi. The paper analyses the identities of these migrants through a series of case studies that focus specifically on religious identity as a material resource in the livelihood survival of migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article stands at the intersection of two historical processes, which evolved on two different time scales. The first is the constitution of South Asian Muslim diasporas over a longer period of time, roughly two centuries. The second is the growth, in a shorter period, from 1920 onwards, of two South Asian Muslim fundamentalist movements: Tablighi Jama'at (hereafter TJ) and Jama'at-i Islami (hereafter JI). These two processes intersected after 1947, i.e. after the independence of the Indian sub-continent and its partition between India and Pakistan - when these movements began spreading abroad. After summing up the origin and growth of the two movements in the Indian sub-continent, this article tries to analyse the different ways in which they came to cater for the needs of Muslim diasporas which pre-dated them, and the doctrines they spread among them. It then asks, in return, how far does their expansion abroad depend on South Asian diaporas; and if, as we suspect, they are anchored in these diasporas, how can they be truly transnational? This circle is explored, in a thoroughly interpretative approach which contrasts the two movements. Finally the author comes to the conclusion that TJ is more globalised, in the sense that it is present everywhere; but that JI is more truly transnational, in the sense that it was able to build real links between strategic areas of the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

: This article explores the rise of the short-term mission trip in youth ministry. It argues that this escalation has much to do with transformations of globalization. This reality requires that the mission trip confront the conundrum of dealing with dichotomies between its service and its tourist activities. By exploring the work of sociologist Zygmunt Bauman we see why we face such dichotomies. The article concludes by providing some theological thoughts connected to Karl Barth's theology of the word that might help us move past these tensions between global service and global tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, religion and globalization seem to be working towards opposite ends. As Mark Juergensmeyer has noted, while religiously invoked terrorism fragments society, the Internet, cell phones and the media industry foster the formation of an increasingly global social fabric. But religion is not a single faceted phenomenon. As much as there are prophets of violence such as Osama bin Laden, there are prophets of peace and reconciliation such as Bishop Desmond Tutu. How a civil society might be configured in relation to the inherent ambiguity surrounding religious traditions remains difficult to discern. How might Christian traditions make a positive contribution to this context? To answer this question I will articulate a dialogue between Jürgen Habermas's theory of civil society and the politico-ethical theology of Karl Barth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines citizens' support for democracy across forty-six nations. The authors use multilevel modeling and data from the World Values Survey and other sources to assess individuals' support for democracy in light of broader country-level factors as well as individual proclivities toward religion, politics and community. Findings suggest that the predominance of a particular religion in a nation does not influence individuals' views in and of itself. It does, however, matter when individuals' religious beliefs and practices as well as their civic engagement are taken into account. These factors, even in predominantly Muslim countries, appear to foster rather than hinder positive views towards democracy. But individuals seeking a prominent role for religion in government are likely to be substantially less supportive of democracy. Such antidemocratic attitudes appear countered in a citizenry where many are engaged in conventional political activities, have attained higher social statuses and reside in highly globalized states with Protestant or Muslim majorities and without a Communist legacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a laicized world like the Western world, which looks for orientation, faith is carefully heard, even though its proposals are not always accomplished. Christian faith counts and will continue counting, on further achievements, a fact which we cannot have doubt about. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impacted by the technologies that make the world a single place, the theological discourse on religious pluralism comes to expression in the era of globalization as religious differences are in ever greater contact. However, the construction of religious identity that emerged in the early stages of globalization may need to be rethought and theologies constructed on a "container theory" of difference and division replaced with outlooks that embrace hybridity and pursue a cosmopolitan vision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major shifts in economic life have always been accompanied by corresponding changes in the public's economic morality. Contemporary globalization is pulling the moral agent in opposite directions: greater moral obligations versus the competitive individualism required by an increasingly unforgiving marketplace. Moreover, the market, not governments or the grassroots, is emerging as the dominant determinant of popular economic morality and is profoundly reshaping people's self-understanding as persons and as a human community. The article argues that theological ethics plays an important role in contesting the market's moral baseline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theological considerations of the cultural effects of globalization have focused largely on homogenization: the erosion of local cultures by some dominant globalizing culture. This article considers three contrasting analyses. Globalization also fosters cultural fragmentation and purification, the abstraction of culture and social space from geographical space, and a reduction of culture to identity. These additional challenges are evaluated from the perspective of the mark of catholicity, which is proposed as a theological resource for an ecclesial response to the challenges of globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does postcolonial theory that cogently presents postcolonial perspectives on globalization have relevance for theology? The article argues that postcolonial theory's emphasis on eschewing identity- based strategies for liberation is an urgent necessity in a globalized and militarized world. Postcolonial theorists seek justice and care for the poorest women and children of the Global South, arguing that these concerns should be part of theological and religious agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration has always been woven into the fabric of global patterns of integration. While migration brings both positive and negative political and economic changes to migrants as well to the sending and receiving countries, it also creates the conditions for migrants, in particular, to struggle with and open themselves to new commitments of faith. This article explores the theological relevance of migration, especially in terms of the clues it provides for making sense of the human condition, by examining how migration offers windows into contemporary forms of oppression and, at the same time, offers paths toward liberation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asian contextual theology tends to define globalization as a contemporary form of colonialism. Realizing the failure of past evangelization and contemporary American-oriented Evangelicalism in honoring the dignity and interests of local people, Asian contextual theologians reside in the antiglobalization camp. They locate themselves there for sound theological reasons, but their position does not reflect a complete account of the experiences of Asian people. These theologians should listen more carefully to people involved in the business sector and include those experiences in their interpretation of the context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author presents an overview of neoliberal globalization, its critics, and proposed policy alternatives. The contributions of Catholic social teaching to (he globalization debate are highlighted. Several suggestions are made for enhancing Catholic teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization is often portrayed as ushering in a world without borders, a mobile world where everything is shifting. This essay aims to nuance this portrayal by examining different kinds of mobility in the globalized world and the identities they create. It begins with examining two typical figures from a globalized world: the migrant and the tourist. Then two figures from religious traditions—the pilgrim and the monk—are examined as resources for a positive response to globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization raises an array of moral issues. The legacy of Catholic social teaching offers "ethical coordinates" that may prove useful in guiding globalization in a manner that advances the human good. At the same time the new social context being shaped by globalization demands that the tradition of Catholic social teaching undergo development in order to adequately address the changing global reality. The article highlights both some of the resources within Catholic social leaching and some of the challenges presented to the tradition when assessing globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the role of theology in the context of globalization and its challenges to the human community. It explores the issue of human solidarity in the context of increasing economic polarities, cultural upheavals, and social disintegration. It offers an "over-view" of globalization by looking at the current demographics of the global village, an "under-view" by examining the problem of poverty, and an "inner-view" by investigating the role the human heart plays in our current world (dis)order. In sum, the article describes contours of a liberating theological anthropology for a globalized modern world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization, defined as the increasing flow of people, information, goods, services, and other resources across national boundaries, is altering social contexts in ways that influence religious practices. Increasingly, religion is not only instantiated in local communities and national societies, but is also linked with networks that span societal borders. Immigration is the most studied example. However, other flows of people and resources need to be considered, as do the transnational political and economic influences that shape religion. We review recent work in these disparate literatures and show how they point to the growing variety and importance of religious connections that span borders. We discuss evidence of the ways in which religious communities in the United States connect with people in other societies and consider these and other multilateral influences in parts of the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The early Christians' radical critique of economy challenges both the inequality and reciprocity that were embedded in the Roman Empire. In particular, John the Seer saw economic exchanges between center and periphery, metropolis and the margins, imperial and colonial as doomed. These sorts of connections are also evident, today, by way of globalization -- a process that reaches across diverse cultural, ethnic, and racial identities, while also creating 'inside'/'outside' boundaries within which our identities are contested, challenged, and often jeopardised at each turn by strife and scarcity, dealing death as often as life. For its victims, poverty often functions as the will of 'God'. In this regard, the Seer's oracle emerges not from a 'new heaven and earth', but from the midst of colonial space and time, infested with scarcity and hunger. For an East Asian postcolonial, the vision as such has renewed poignancy in light of the cross-cultural and trans-historical constraints of imperialism and colonialism. This essay is an intercultural economic critique of Revelation 18 from an East Asian global perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses what the two main monotheist religious fundamentalisms – Islam and Christianity – have had to say about the international system, and in particular their attitudes towards, and visions of, ‘globalization’. The paper concentrates upon the fundamentalist position in respect of the two religious doctrines discussed while fully recognizing that the non-fundamentalists and mainstream traditions in each case do not necessarily share the sentiments announced by – or pursued by – their fundamentalist co-religionists. But it is the fundamentalist variants of the two doctrines that are having the greatest impact on the international situation, so the emphasis is upon these (though there are also some shorter reflections on Jewish religious fundamentalism). In addition, the paper concentrates upon the attitudes of these positions towards the idea of ‘territory’ since this is one of those categories that are more widely at stake in the general discussion of globalization and its consequences. Finally, the paper assesses the impact of these doctrines on the conduct of international relations, the likely success or otherwise of their impact, and the nature of the international system that is being forged in the wake of the re-emergence of fundamentalist activity in the domestic and international spheres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the relationship and some representative perspectives between the religion's sociology and globalization in the U.S. from the Marxists and and the economists. It mentions several problems and themes that had risen from the globalization's concepts including it referential domains, the widening scope of human rights, and the conflict between the global field of action and religion. It summarizes the history of the sociology of religion with globalization in the U.S. from the late 20th century to the early 21st century.

Discusses the implications of globalization, ethnicity and cultural authenticity for theological education. Current perception regarding the nature of both globalization and ethnicity; Conditions that will require an enlarged conceptual and academic language to address issues facing the church across the world; Response of theological education in global-local context.