Religion and Culture - Book Report/Review Example

Religion and Theology-Part how do religion and culture intersect in the realm of politics. of the Student) Religion and Culture: Contemporary Practices and Perspectives by Richard D. Hecht (Editor), Vincent F. Biondo (Editor) is a three volume work in the study of religion and culture. Religion and culture are alternative beats of the same heart. This collection of essays pays particular attention to the anthropological and sociological magnitudes of religious experience and addresses “key facets of the significant interactions between religion and culture,” which are constantly in flux, but the focus is on the progression from the pre-modern world to the contemporary or ‘postmodern’ world. (p. vii) The vision of the authors is global.

Part I of the book titled “The Space of Politics, Religion and Culture” is preceded by general introduction by the editors and contains six chapters. They are Conflict and Peace Building – Atalia Omer, Civil Religion – Jason Springs, Dreaming in the Contact Zone – David Chidester, Science – Robert M. Geraci, Women – Sarah W. Whedon and Sexuality of Religious Nationalism – Roger Friedland. This collection of essays is international in scope as developments in the areas of religion and culture are not explicit to any particular cultural area.

The sum and substance of all the six chapters is the interplay of religion and culture, how they are interrelated and overlap each other and their mutual interactions. Religion and culture have their own essential identity and dignity. One has to carefully distinguish the dividing line between the two. The six essays do not deal with deep philosophical subjects or profound spiritual revelations. The perspective of the authors is mainly sociological and anthropological, examining the everyday religious practices and the important religious traditions.

The authors examine the subject of religion and culture in the normal course but with different insights and the tone is one of enquiry coupled with interest. The authors have tried to identify the gradual changes taking place in relationships between religion and culture. In Eastern countries religion is no more church dominated and the concept of secularism occupies the center stage to intervene between culture and religion. This position is true also in modern European nations. In South East Asia, anti-colonial political movements overshadowed religion and culture.

The authors also take up the concept of civil religion for detailed discussion. This concept is drawn from Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract. Its central ingredients are “the existence of deity, the life to come, reward and punishment for virtue and vice, and exclusion of religious intolerance (p. xviii). For example American civil religion has cultivated its own myths with the integration of some traumatic events, like assassination of Abraham Lincoln, which was considered as the sacrificial death for preserving the unity of the nation.

Culture and religion have failed to bring peace. Political ideologies were nowhere near to achieving peace; rather they were responsible for unleashing conflicts that often resulted in bloodshed. Post-colonial immigration created new alignments and interaction with different cultural identities. Advancement in transportation systems and communication resulted in social threats as well as opportunities. The authors also examine the concept of sexuality of religious nationalism. All religious nationalisms are systems of politicalized religion.

Such religious movements are involved in political missions that make the state not only a medium, but an object of collective action. In such states, religion is the institutional ground. Religious nationalism is the other name for religious fanaticism that encourages bodily violence, killing of officials, eliminating the non-believers (according to their version of belief). They are also obsessed with regulation of the issues like homosexuality, abortion, marriage, divorce, pre-marital and extra-marital sex relations etc.

Reference ListHecht, R. D., & Biondo, V. F. (2012). Religion and culture: Contemporary practices and perspectives. Minneapolis, Minn: Fortress Press.