Conference on The New Religious Pluralism in World Politics, March 16-17, 2006
Thematic Paper, August 5, 2005
Thomas Banchoff, Georgetown University
OVERVIEW
We know a great deal about the interaction of religious communities within states and
societies. Religious pluralism beyond the nation has received much less attention. The
"Clash of Civilizations" controversy has obscured the emergence of a new transnational
religious landscape marked by both interreligious cooperation and conflict. Over the past
two decades, global migration patterns and modern communications technologies have
spawned more active transnational religious communities. This has generated a new
religious pluralism with two salient characteristics. More global religious identities have
encouraged interreligious dialogue and greater religious engagement around questions of
international development and conflict resolution. At the same time, more intense
interreligious competition has contributed to controversy over the meaning and scope of
religious freedom -- an international norm increasingly prominent in US foreign policy.
The conference will explore both these dimensions of the new religious pluralism in
world politics from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.
Global Religious Identities: Most work on globalization casts religion in a defensive
role, as a local or national reaction to global economic, cultural, and political forces. Less
understood, but equally important, is the emergence of religious communities as key
transnational actors increasingly engaged with other faith traditions and concerned with
global issues. The formation and contestation of more global religious identities has both
reflective and ethical dimensions. On the one hand, it entails wrestling with the
implications of religious pluralism for received understandings of truth. This involves
communication and dialogue across religious traditions. On the other hand, more global
identities encourage a reframing of received ethical commitments to peace and justice as
transnational, and not just local or national imperatives. This broader ethical horizon
increasingly informs religious engagement and collaboration around global issues
including peaceful conflict resolution and economic and social development.
International Religious Freedom. Over the past decade, transnational religious activity
has also been a source of competition and conflict. Greater international engagement and
national religious pluralism have raised a host of legal and political questions. The
contestation of religious freedom -- what it means and how it should be applied -- has
moved up the global agenda. The norm of international religious freedom was enshrined
in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and subsequently developed as a
component of international law. Since the late 1990s, the US government has made the
promotion of religious freedom an explicit goal of its foreign policy, encountering
indifference from some states and hostility from others, notably China and Iran. We are
seeing the emergence of a new politics of religious freedom at the intersection of
transnational religious activism, international law, and national interests.
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Conference on The New Religious Pluralism in World Politics, March 16-17, 2006
Thematic Paper, July 5, 2005
Thomas Banchoff, Georgetown University
GLOBAL RELIGIOUS IDENTITIES
Work on culture and globalization tends to focus on dynamics of reaction or resistance.
Religion figures as a defensive response to economic and cultural globalization, a way to
assert local identities against the international. Global forces drive an individualization of
religious belief and a reconstitution of local and national religious communities that often
incorporate old and new hybrid elements. A religious pluralization takes place.
The conference will highlight another dimension of religion and globalization -- the
reconstitution of religious communities as transnational actors. Over the past two
decades, greater migration flows and revolutions in communications technology have
driven the rearticulation of more global religious identities. In the case of Islam, for
example, Satellite TV, the Internet, and the post 9/11 international context have
reinforced the idea of the umma, a transnational Muslim community. All three
Abrahamic faiths have always had global identities anchored in faith in one God and
universal truth claims. But globalization is driving them -- and other leading traditions,
including Hinduism and Buddhism -- to rethink their world-roles in two new ways.
Religious identities. Religious communities are increasingly grappling with the existence
of other traditions and the implications of religious pluralism for their own selfunderstanding. This engagement takes place both on the level of everyday lived religion
and in more specialized theological reflection. As they come engage one another in local,
national, and transnational settings, religious communities increasingly find a place for
members of other traditions in their own narratives. At the same time, theological
reflection grows out of an engagement with other traditions in formal dialogue. Both of
these responses involve not a repudiation of received beliefs, but rather their
reformulation in the context of a plurality of faiths. The process of engaging a plural
reality, not any definite outcome, drives the emergence of more global religious identities
Ethical commitments. The increasing globalization of economic and political life has
cast established religious moral traditions in a new light. Preferences for non-violent
conflict resolution and alleviation of the plight of the poor – broad commitments across
the major world religions – have gained new salience and urgency within an emergent (if
still fragmented) global public sphere. This more global identity has driven collaboration
across religious groups in support of economic and social development as well as
interfaith efforts to address violent regional conflicts. This more global engagement is
marked by new forms of cooperation with states and international organizations.
Conference participants are invited to address the construction and contestation of
global identities within and across religious communities in both their reflective and
ethical dimensions. They may also address how the emergence of religious communities
as transnational actors shapes our understanding of globalization as a whole.
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Conference on The New Religious Pluralism in World Politics, March 16-17, 2006
Thematic Paper, July 5, 2005
Thomas Banchoff, Georgetown University
INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
The new religious pluralism in world politics also has a competitive dimension. As they
interact with one another and -- through new communications technologies -- project
their identity more globally, religious communities contend for some of the same
adherents. There is nothing like a global religious "market." Religion is not a commodity
and conversions are relatively rare. Moreover, some faith traditions forswear missionary
activities altogether. Nevertheless, all religious communities seek to at least maintain -- if
not increase -- their numbers and preserve core collective identities against erosion. The
universal drive to survive and thrive creates a competitive transnational religious sphere
framed by both international norms and national policies.
International norms. International norms of freedom of religion, broadly shared across
societies and institutionalized in international law, frame transnational religious
competition. The major world religions all generally assert that faith is a matter of free
choice, albeit in different idioms and with different degrees of emphasis. International
law and the UN system institutionalize the same principle. Article 18 of the 1948
Universal Declaration of Human Rights underscores the freedom of individuals to
"change religion or belief." In a similar, if somewhat weaker vein, the 1966 International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights establishes the freedom to "have and adopt"
religion or belief. In 1981 the UN approved a more formal legal instrument, the
Convention on the Elimination of Religious Discrimination and Tolerance. Since 1986
the UN Commission on Human Rights has sought to monitor infringements on religious
liberty and discrimination on the basis of religious affiliation.
National policies. International consensus about the value of religious freedom coexists
alongside a range of national policies more or less supportive in practice. There is no
level playing field for transnational religious competition. States provide national legal
frameworks ranging from theocracy through state-sponsored subsidies and strict churchstate separation that favor some groups over others. Since the 1990s the politics of
religious freedom has taken on an increasingly salient transnational dimension. In 1998
the US Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed into law a bill mandating an
important role for international religious freedom in US foreign policy, including
comprehensive annual reports on violations worldwide. For some observers, subsequent
US condemnations of China, Iran, and other countries is a welcome reassertion of
established international norms. For others the policy is a concerted effort to export
Christianity and interfere in the domestic affairs of other states.
Conference participants are invited to examine the evolution of international norms of
religious freedom or to explore its role in US foreign policy in particular. They may also
address the impact of controversy surrounding religious freedom on our understanding
of religious pluralism in world politics more broadly.
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