religion as a political factor

8/14/2019 Religion as a Political Factor

1/15


2/15


3/15

Jewish dispersions, A.D. 70-1500. A revolt against Roman rule in A.D. 66 was followed by the

destruction of the Jewish Temple four years later and an imperial decision to Romanize the city of

Jerusalem. Judaism spread from the hearth region carried by its adherents dispersing from their

homeland to Europe, Africa, and eventually in great numbers to the Western Hemisphere.


4/15

Diffusion paths of Christianity, A.D. 100-1500. Routes and dates are for Christianity

as a composite faith. No distinction is made between the Western church and the

various subdivisions of the Eastern Orthodox denominations.


5/15

The building of Notre Dame Cathedral of Paris begun in 1163 and took more than 100 years to

complete. Perhaps the best known of the French Gothic churches, it was part of a great period of

cathedral construction in Western Europe during the late 12th and the 13th centuries. Between 1170

and 1270, some 80 cathedrals were constructed in France alone.


6/15

The worlds largest

Christian church. The

Basilica of Our Lady Of

Peace in Yamoussoukro,the Ivory Coast, is the

worlds Christian church.

The countrys first

president, Felix

Houphouet-Boigny (1905-

1993), converted to RomanCatholicism as a teenager

and he built the basilica as

a pilgrimage center for

Africas Catholics and a

bulwark against Islam and

native religions in his

country. Ivory Coast isabout 12 percent Christian,

60 percent Muslim and 28

percent animist. The air-

conditioned basilica can

hold 18,000 people.


7/15

Spread and extent of Islam. Islam predominates in over 35 countries along a band across northern Africa to Central Asia,Bnorthwestern China, and the

northern part of the Indian subcontinent. Still farther east, Indonesia has the largest Muslim population of any country. Islams greatest development is in

Asia, where it si second only Hinduism, and in Africa, where some observers suggest it may be the leading faith. Current Islamic expansion is particularly

rapid in the Southern Hemisphere.


8/15


9/15

The early diffusion of Buddhism. Buddhism was localized near its hearth for hundreds of

years, but it spread widely through the support of the third-century Indian emperor Asoka.

It has largely been abandoned in India.


10/15

Hinduism is today restricted almost exclusively to India, Nepal, and to places where Indians

have migrated, including Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana, and Fiji in the Pacific Ocean. Sikhs

form a majority in the Indian state of Punjab, but smaller Sikh communities can be foundthroughout India. The regions Christian converted from animism in the 19th century.


11/15

The Taj Mahal. A Muslim ruler built the Taj Mahal, a mausoleum in Agra, India,

for his beloved wife, in 1648. Indias Muslim rulers were so rich and powerful

that their name, Mughals, has come down to us in English as a word for a

business executive: a mogul.


12/15

Pilgrims at dawn worship in the Ganges River at Varanasi, India, one of the

seven most sacred Hindu cities and the reputed earthly capital of Siva, Hindu

god of destruction and regeneration. Hindus believe that to die in Varanasi

means release from the cycle of rebirth and permits entrance into heaven.


13/15

The Golden Temple in Amritsar.

The Sikhs 400-year-old Golden

Temple in Amritsar, India, standsin the middle of a sacred lake (in

sanskrit amrita saras, pool of

immortality. The building was

occupied by armed Sikh

extremists in 1983, and the

following year Indian troops

stormed it and drove out the

occupants in a bloody

encounter. Sikh fanatics

retaliated by assassinating

Indias Prime Minister Indira

Gandhi. The worlds second

largest Sikh temple, seating3,000 worshippers, opened in

London in 2003.


14/15

RELIGION AND POLITICS

Almost all countries guarantee freedom of religion and most governments

observe a form of secularism. Theocracy is a form of government where a church rules directly (Vatican).

In Israel, recent laws ban the production or sale of pork and prohibit

activities on the Sabbath.

In Christianity, it is accepted the idea that state and church, religion and

politics must be separated. Despite the wide-spread Secularism, several

countries are explicitly Christian supporting the established churches with

public funds (Argentina, Peru, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Finland).

In Islam, no distinction can be made between church and state, which

teaches that the only purpose of government is to ensure that each person

can lead a good Muslim life. Many countries with largely Muslim populations

are officially Islamic (Mauritania, Afghanistan, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen,Oman, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia).


15/15

RELIGION AND ECONOMICS

Max Weber (1904)The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Protestantism encourages individualism and the worldwide expansion of

Protestantism might encourage individualistic capitalism.

Universal Catechism (1992)Markets do not always meet human needs

and governments should regulate markets according to a just hierarchy of

values. Confucianism recommends societal leadership by an intelligent elite with

the moral obligation to guide the people. It enhances the status of jobs in

government bureaucracies. Diligence, obedience, and high savings rates

characterize the peoples of neo-Confucian Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and

Singapore.

religion as a political factor

Documents