Analyzing Religion & Globalization: A Critical Review Essay

This essay presents a critical analysis of two articles focusing on the intersection of religion, spirituality, and globalization. The first article, by Casanova (2001), explores the diverse religious communities and their cultural influences, particularly concerning the advent of the new millennium and anxieties surrounding apocalyptic predictions. The second article, by Kale (2004), investigates the impact of globalization on spirituality and religious mindsets, examining the interplay between spirituality, religion, economics, technology, and globalization. Kale's article highlights trends such as reterritorialization, integration of spirituality into lifestyles, individualization of spirituality among consumers, the role of cyberspace, and syncretization of spiritual concepts. The essay concludes by emphasizing the significant connection between spirituality, religion, and globalization, noting the influence of globalization on social groups and religious faiths worldwide. The essay shows how governmental bodies might benefit from interpreting spiritual and religious trends in the market to implement appropriate policies.

Running head: ARTICLE ANALYSIS
ARTICLE ANALYSIS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ARTICLE ANALYSIS
Globalization refers to the trend of the increasing amounts of the communication that has
been taking place within the residents within the various countries that exist all over the world.
The globalization might also refer to the increase in the interaction among the various members
of the numerous societies that tend to exist within the world. The process of globalization might
also lead to the interaction among the various social groups that are miles apart from each other
but are influenced by the practices of the that are followed within the concerned groups. The
concerned residents all over the world tend to abide by the various religious faiths that are
followed by the huge number of population that is present within the world. The following essay
deals with the critical analysis of two articles that are majorly based on the issues that pertain to
the matters that deal with the religion and spirituality and aim to provide the concerned readers
with the influences of the same on the globalization in the concerned present scenario.
The first article that is discussed within this essay is the article that was put forth by
Casanova (2001). The article titled “Religion, the New Millennium and Globalization” was
published in the journal titled “Sociology of Religion” and majorly dealt with the differences that
exist within the various religious communities in the world as well as the influences that might
be present among the concerned cultures. The concerned article on discussion deals with the
various matters that are related to the calendars that are followed within the country and by the
major sections of the population of the world. The concerned article in discussion opens with the
fact that Christianity believes in the fact that the Divine Being aims to know about the various
plans and that the concerned activities should not aim to tie down the Divine Rights to the
various deadlines and the various secular deadlines that are put forth by the concerned human
beings. The article points out the fact that the concerned people who have been following the
Christian faith did consider the advent of the second millennium to be a very important event in

2ARTICLE ANALYSIS
the history of the world. The concerned population of the world was observed to have been
relying on the various incidents that might have led to the huge apocalyptic mayhem as was
predicted by the various members of the numerous cults that were related to the eminent
doomsday that was supposed to have been approaching the world. The author tends to put forth
the various incidents that had been taking place in order to help in the development of the believe
that the concerned millennium might not be dealing with the activities that are related to the
positivity in the matters that pertain to the concerned occurring within the global matters that
might be affected by the incidents that had been taking place. The various sources of information
that were relied upon by the concerned citizens of the world were generally related to the various
paranoid anxieties that were followed by the concerned residents within the groups that might be
termed as the extremist fringes of the various religious beliefs, especially the ones that deal with
the Christian belief of the existence of the world. These groups might refer to the groups that
believed in the apocalypticism of the Catholic Marian group as well as might also have extended
to the various matters that dealt with the various right-wing militia that catered to the
Survivalists. These groups also take into account the Christian Identity movement that had been
active during the concerned time-period. The second millennium, however, according to the
experts was devoid of the various terrors and frenzies that were put forth by the various
rationalists and the romantic historians who were in existence in the eighteenth and the
nineteenth centuries. The experts might also at certain points of time suggest the fact that the
concerned terror scenes that are portrayed by the concerned historians were just a part of their
imagination on the concerned matter and not the actual reality. The concerned period of time in
the history of the civilized world might also pose to be the time of the reform movements that
had taken place within the realm of the Christian language thereby leading to the laying a

3ARTICLE ANALYSIS
foundation stone to the establishment of the western Christianity to be one of the civilizations of
the world. The author states that though the beliefs and the practices of Western Christendom
seem to be existent in the world for the past two millenniums, the actual age of the religious
practices and beliefs date back to only a thousand years. The divisions that exist in the religion
pertain to the two major parts that are present in the time period that is mentioned. The first half
of the thousand years generally are observed to have dealt with the various matters related to the
Papacy that was the major axis of the European Christendom in the Medieval times while the
second half of the concerned time period dealt with the transformation and the reformation of the
Western Christendom and the various expansions that are present within the concerned religion
in discussion. The literature of the concerned tome period further state that the various
philosophies of the period tend to follow the millennialism as proposed by the Bible and might
bear the mark of the older pedigree that was present in the religious views of the yesteryears. The
author views the post-millennialism as the secularized version of Christianism that has been
infused with the rationalism as put forth by the Utopian Enlightenment.
On the other hand, the article by Kale (2004) titled “Spirituality, Religion, and
Globalization” attempts to throw light on the various ways in which the globalization might
affect the spirituality and the religious mindset as discussed by the concerned residents of the
world. The author of the concerned article aims to put forth his views on the various matters that
deal with the interplay that exists among the spirituality and the religious matters that are abided
by the concerned population of the world and tends to further deal with the impacts that might be
found as a result of the interaction of the various subjects like the economic forces, the forces of
globalization and the technological forces that play an active role in the present scenario. The
article tends to examine the various matters that pertain to the reterritorialization of the various

4ARTICLE ANALYSIS
lands, the integration of the various matters that pertain to the spirituality in the various aspects
that should be maintained in the matters that pertain to the lifestyles maintained by the concerned
residents of the world. The concerned article in discussion further attempts to put forth a greater
push to the concerned individual in the matters that deal with the spirituality that is present
among the various consumers in the present world. The article throws further light on the matters
that pertain to the increased role of the internet and the virtual space in the matters that relate to
the domain of spirituality that exists within the concerned field of study that is undertaken in the
modern days. The article also aims to deal with the syncretization of the various concepts of
spirituality as proposed by the concerned experts in the field. The article in discussion,
“Spirituality, Religion, and Globalization” tends to deal with the reviewing of the literature that
existed on the given topic thereby leading to the arrival at the conclusion of a fairy operational
definition that might be obtained from the existing literature on the concerned topic. The article
further aims to discuss the relationship that might exist within the various matters that belong to
the fields of economics, globalization, spirituality and technology that might not have any
common point among them in the apparent view. The article aims to put forth an analysis of the
various trends that are being majorly followed in the matters that deal with the spirituality as
portrayed in the environment that the world has been facing in the present times. The article in
discussion finally attempts to highlight the various issues that are brought to the limelight due to
the implication of the highlighted trends on the micromarketing activities and skills displayed by
the global citizens. The article refers to the studies on spirituality wherein the concerned
respondents had implied that the spirituality of a certain person refers to the feelings of the
concerned person to be connected to the complete self of the person, the others who have been
present in the surroundings of the concerned person and the whole universe on a larger scale.

5ARTICLE ANALYSIS
The author of the concerned article further states that the spirituality might also be defined as one
of the various aspects that deal with the involvement of the concerned matters that deal with the
deeper motivations in the life of the concerned person in order to connect to the Supreme Being.
The author portrays the fact that this might lead to the development of an emotional connect with
the Supreme Being. The author is further observed to have been quoting the previous literature to
state that the nature of spirituality is to raise the questions that might take birth in the minds of
the people regarding the existence of the Supreme Being or the Almighty while the purpose of
religion is to put forth solutions to the various questions that had been raised by the spiritual
sense of the concerned person. The author in this article, unlike the above discussed one, states
that the governmental bodies might be benefitted in the matters that deal with the involvement of
the interpretation of the various spiritual and religious trends in the concerned market. The
governmental bodies might be advised to put forth the various policies that might ensue from the
situations that deal with the various religious and spiritual issues that are functional in the
concerned area.
Thus, from the above discussion, it might be pointed out that there is a huge connection
between the concepts of spirituality, religion and the concept of globalization. The process of
globalization might also lead to the interaction among the various social groups that are miles
apart from each other but are influenced by the practices of the that are followed within the
concerned groups. The concerned residents all over the world tend to abide by the various
religious faiths that are followed by the huge number of population that is present within the
world.

6ARTICLE ANALYSIS
References
Casanova, J., 2001. Religion, the new millennium, and globalization. Sociology of
religion, 62(4), pp.415-441.
Kale, S.H., 2004. Spirituality, religion, and globalization. Journal of Macromarketing, 24(2),
pp.92-107.