Chapter 7 - Globalization and Religious Resurgence: A Comparative Study of Bahrain and Poland

Summary

Religious Revival: Primary Considerations

The role of religion in state politics has grown more significant in modern times, and religious revival (considered as a single phenomenon) has arguably become the most important characteristic of the post-Cold War era. This worldwide increase in religiosity has been studied and documented by a number of scholars, including Martin Riesebrodt (1990), Mark Juergensmayer (1993) and Lester Kurtz (1995), among others. A combination of factors, such as the rejection of modernity and secularism, as well as concerns with safeguarding local culture and identity, underlie religious resurgence. All of the factors mentioned above are closely linked to the concept of globalization, a process which should not be oversimplified. Globalization threatens religious traditions yet has simultaneously contributed to religious revival thanks to the spread of information and communication technologies (ICT). It is also important to assess religious resurgence from geographic and demographic perspectives. The phenomenon of religious revival has been observed not only in developing nations but also in the USA (Bacevich and Prodromu 2004) and to a lesser extent in Europe (excluding Muslim immigrant communities). However, the success of Polish populist religious parties is unique. Poland, a member of the European Union, is unusual even among other Central European post-communist countries (Grün 2008) insofar as no other EU member country has had fundamentalist religious parties gain such influence in politics.