Religion in the Modern Age
Catherine Sullivan
While some historians choose to focus on the emergent of new forms of spirituality and
their role in politics, other historians focus on how old religions are continuing to shape politics
throughout the late twentieth century and twenty-first century. In “The Earth and Its Peoples,”
author Bulliet discusses how old religions, traditional monotheistic religions, increasingly affect
political actions. On the other hand, the AP World History Key Concepts focus on how new
religions and forms of spirituality shape existing faiths and apply these changes to politics. While
they may differ, both Bulliet and the AP World analyze religions with a western bias. Bulliet and
the AP World focus on different aspects of religion, whether it is traditional western
monotheistic religions or new spiritual movements, in the late twentieth century and twenty-first
century, however, both miss some important aspects of religion.
In “The Earth and Its Peoples,” author Bulliet chooses to focus on old religions,
traditional monotheistic religions, such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and explains their
modern roles in politics. Bulliet shows that these traditional religions are still affecting political
issues during the twentieth-century. Bulliet explains that in America, the Bush presidency
reversed growing secularism and established Protestants and Catholics as a powerful
conservative political force in the United States. Bulliet also describes that Catholic
conservatives, under the pope’s leadership, continually opposed the ancient Catholic debates of
abortion and homosexuality. In addition, Bulliet shows readers that the struggle between Jews
and Palestinians over Israel increased into the twenty-first century as hyperorthodox Jews
became more resistant to withdrawal from land. While Bulliet touches on the ancient religions of
Christianity and Judaism, they are not his focus.
Bulliet chooses to dedicate multiple pages to the religion of Islam, and its affect on global
politics. While discussing the wide spread of use of terrorism as a whole, he focuses on Osama
bin Laden’s use of this form of violence. Bulliet shows the background of bin Laden’s
upbringing, and explains that he funds the al-Qaeda organization responsible for attacks on
American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, an American Navy destroyer, and the World Trade
Center and Pentagon. Bulliet briefly explains that the Islam branches of Sunni and Shi’ite groups
fight through constant suicide bombing on their native land, however, he draws the fighting in
Islam back to its affect on America. Within “The Earths and Its Peoples,” Bulliet discusses the
roles of traditional monotheistic religions with a western bias.
In contrast to Bulliet, the authors of the AP World History Key Concepts choose to focus
on new forms of religion and spirituality and their effects on existing religions and global
politics. The AP World discusses New Age Religions, a western spiritual movement that
developed in the late twentieth century. Developed out of the perceived failure of old religions
such as Christianity, this movement differs from old religions by not having a holy text or a
specific leader. The AP World also focuses on Hare Krishna, a sixteen-word Vaishnavism
(Hindu) mantra that became well known due to the International Society of Krishna
Consciousness. The International Society for Krishna Consciousness was founded in New York
City in 1966 with the intention of spreading traditional Hindu scriptures and beliefs, and led to
many conversions across America. Hare Krishna became a Hindu branch that seemed more
appealing to converts. Similarly to Hare Krishna being based off of Hinduism, Falun Gong is
based off of Buddhism. Introduced in China in the 1990s, Falun Gong is a spiritual discipline
that combines that practice of meditation and slow-moving exercises with moral philosophy. The
AP World focuses on how the modern era brought out the creation modern religions based off of
ancient religions.
The AP World focuses on how the questioning of old religions led to political issues such
as the fundamentalism movement and Liberation Theology. Based off of concerns of the role of
Christianity in American culture and politics, the fundamentalist movement began with the
purpose of reaffirming key theological ideas of Christianity. In the Islam religion, the
fundamentalist movement is related to the merge of social and political revolutions that led to
revolutions in Iran in the 1970s. Similarly to the fundamentalist movement, Liberation theology
is a political movement of the late twentieth century that interprets the Christian faith through the
poor’s suffering. Liberation Theology reflects how ancient religions such as Christianity began
to adapt to form branches that supported Communist ideas. The AP World focuses on
adaptations of old religions and their affects on political ideas.
While both Bulliet and the AP World focus part of their curriculum on religion during the
modern age, they fail to cover some aspects. Bulliet fails to explain how Christianity spread
throughout the United States, while the AP World fails to touch on how Christianity adopted
more modern ideas. Starting in the 1920s, the rules of Catholicism became much broader. As
immigrant Catholics began to assimilate more into American society, they began to intermix
with other religious orders, by breaking small rules such as meat on Fridays, and showing
changes in roles of women and men. As the Irish tended to assimilate more into society and
conformed into American ideas, Italians held on to their old customs and traditions, leading to
conflict between the two groups. While Bulliet discusses how the Bush presidency introduced
Christianity’s large role in politics, he fails to how the 1960 presidency of John. F. Kennedy
launched Catholicism into mainstream American politics. With this idea of conforming to
modern society, the Second Vatican Council met in the 1960s with Pope John XXIII in order to
update the Church and make its traditional doctrines and rituals relevant for the modern world.
While before there was a constant division between Protestants and Catholics, these new relaxed
traditions led to a closer relationship between the two, leading to Christianity to become even
more popular. Both Bulliet and the AP World do not discuss the new and more modern traditions
and adaptations that lead to the spread of Christianity during the twentieth century.
Bulliet and the AP World also fail to discuss how old religions are affecting
politics in the twentieth century. While the AP World does not even discuss conflict in the
Middle East over Islam, Bulliet only discusses conflicts in relation to the United States. What
both of them fail to realize, however, is the importance of the growing conflict between the
Sunni and Shi’ite branches of Islam. The conflict between these two branches comes from a
political argument, turned into a spiritual war. While Sunni’s believe that the leader of the
Muslim nation should be who is best qualified for the job, the Shi’ites believe that only someone
from the Prophet Muhammad’s bloodline should be the leader. In Iraq, there has been a constant
struggle between these two branches. While the Sunnis are the minority, the held power over the
Shi’ites in Iraq government. As president of Iraq from 1979 until overthrown in 2003, Saddam
Hussein was a Sunni who suppressed many Shi’ite uprisings against him. Following his
overthrow, a civil war between Sunnis and Shi’ites exploded as Shi’ites attempted to take over
Iraq. While the Sunnis and Shi’ites continue to fight over dominance in Iraq, the Taliban has
been fighting to establish a pure Islamic regime in Afghanistan. Upon winning control in 1996,
the Taliban imposed a strict Islamist dictatorship, driving women out of public life. Following
the September 11th attacks on the United States, the US overthrew the Taliban as well as Al
Qaeda. While the Taliban may not be in power, they continue to attempt to instill their Islamic
beliefs on others. Throughout the Middle East, various groups have been trying to push their
form of Islamic beliefs on others during the twenty first century.
While they miss some important aspects of religions in the modern era, both Bulliet and
the AP World agree that the role of religions within politics is worthy of being discussed.
Whether it is old religions continuing to affect global politics, or new forms of spirituality
affecting changes, religion plays a large role throughout the modern age. Both Bulliet and the AP
World discuss religion in the modern age with Western-centric views. While many historians
focus on how religions affect the United States, it is important to focus on how these religions
affect global politics as a whole.
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