Capitalism is modernity's most beguiling and dangerous form of enchantment

posted by S. Abbas Raza in 3 Quarks Daily: Eugene McCarraher in Aeon:

Perhaps the grandest tale of capitalist modernity is entitled ‘The Disenchantment of the World’.

Crystallised in the work of Max Weber but eloquently anticipated by Karl Marx, the story goes something like this: before the advent of capitalism, people believed that the world was enchanted, pervaded by mysterious, incalculable forces that ruled and animated the cosmos. Gods, spirits and other supernatural beings infused the material world, anchoring the most sublime and ultimate values in the ontological architecture of the Universe.

In premodern Europe, Catholic Christianity epitomised enchantment in its sacramental cosmology and rituals, in which matter could serve as a conduit or mediator of God’s immeasurable grace.

But as Calvinism, science and especially capitalism eroded this sacramental worldview, matter became nothing more than dumb, inert and manipulable stuff, disenchanted raw material open to the discovery of scientists, the mastery of technicians, and the exploitation of merchants and industrialists. Discredited in the course of enlightenment, the enchanted cosmos either withered into historical oblivion or went into the exile of private belief in liberal democracies.

As Marx put it, all that was solid melted into air, and the most heavenly ecstasies drowned in the icy water of egotistical calculation.

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Eugene McCarraher

is an associate professor of humanities and history at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. His work has appeared in Dissent, The Nation, Commonweal, The Hedgehog Review and Raritan. His latest book is The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity (2019).

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What does self-actualization mean in different cultures?

a post by Matt Davis for the Big Think blog

Critics complain that Maslow's hierarchy of needs focuses too much on the West. Yet other cultures often have similar ideas about personal development.

• When Abraham Maslow developed his hierarchy of needs, he focused entirely on students, peers, and historical figures, all of whom were from the West.
• This led many critics to argue that his model of human development and the concept of self-actualization were not universal; they merely reflected Western ideas about development and self-improvement.
• Other cultures ranging from Blackfoot Native Americans to the Chinese have similar ideas that run parallel to self-actualization. What are they, and how do they differ?

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Just to remind myself, and you, of Maslow's Hierarchy

via Simply Psychology

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Why Secular Humanism can do what Atheism can't

a post by Scotty Hendricks for the Big Think blog

Atheism doesn't offer much beyond non-belief, can Secular Humanism fill the gaps?

• Atheism is increasingly popular, but the lack of an organized community around it can be problematic.
• The decline in social capital once offered by religion can cause severe problems.
• Secular Humanism can offer both community and meaning, but it has also attracted controversy.

People aren't as religious as they used to be.

The decline of these traditional belief systems is a tragedy for some and a cause for celebration for others. There is an element of it that causes a problem for everybody, though. As the old religious ties that bind decline, the communities associated with them start to go too. This isn't to say that a neighborhood without a church will immediately start to decay into poverty, violence, and misery but that the social element of these organizations was essential to people and without it, we've got problems.

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Hazel’s comment
Are social conditions any different in the UK from those described by Scotty in this piece? Probably not but as a committed Christian I am maybe not as aware of the issues as I could/should be.

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Religion, Gender, and Social Welfare: Considerations Regarding Inclusion

an article by Susan Crawford Sullivan (Department of Sociology and Anthropology, College of the Holy Cross, USA) published in Social Inclusion Volume 7 Issue 2 (2019)

Abstract

There is increased interest in faith-based social service provision in recent years, both in the United States and across Europe.

While faith-based organizations provide welcome and needed services, there are several potential problems of social inclusion which involve gender, including decreased availability of social services when faith-based organizations are expected to compensate for cuts in government spending, potential for religious discrimination in employment, and potential for religious discrimination against recipients.

Full text (PDF 4pp)

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Teleological explanation and positive emotion serially mediate the effect of religion on well‐being

Jonathan E. Ramsay (James Cook University, Singapore), Eddie M. W. Tong and Avijit Chowdhury (National University of Singapore) and Moon‐Ho R. Ho (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) published in Journal of Personality Volume 87 Issue 3 (June 2019)

Abstract

Objective
Previous research has demonstrated a robust relationship between religion and well‐being, and it has been proposed that positive emotions are important mediators of this effect. Yet the mechanism via which religion promotes positive emotions has not been widely studied. We sought to examine whether teleological explanations of daily events and resulting positive emotions serially mediated the effects of religion on well‐being.

Method
These hypotheses were tested over three studies involving full‐time and part‐time university students in Singapore. In Study 1, participants completed measures of religiousness and well‐being, and explained and described three recent personally significant events and their resulting emotions. Studies 2 and 3 adopted an ecological momentary assessment approach to measure teleological explanations, resulting emotions, and well‐being in almost real time.

Results
In Study 1, teleological explanations and positive emotions serially mediated the effects of religiousness on well‐being. In Study 2, momentary teleological explanations of daily events mediated the positive relationship between religiousness and momentary positive emotions. In Study 3, serial mediation of the relationship between religiousness and momentary well‐being by momentary teleological explanations and positive emotions was observed.

Conclusions
These results provide evidence of the importance of teleological explanations of daily events in religious enhancement of well‐being.

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When God is your only friend: Religious beliefs compensate for purpose in life in the socially disconnected

an article by Todd Chan,  Nicholas M. Michalak and Oscar Ybarra (University of Michigan, USA) published in Journal of Personality Volume 87 Issue 3 (June 2019)

Abstract

Objective

Social relationships supply purpose to life. How can socially disconnected people, who show lower levels of purpose, compensate for purpose in life?

We propose that religious beliefs can compensate for the purpose in life that social relationships would otherwise provide, through providing

1. greater purpose to turn to and 
2. divine figures that can substitute for social relationships.

Method

In three studies, we analyze three nationally representative and longitudinal data sets (N = 19,775) using moderated regression and cross‐lagged panel analyses.

Results

Consistent with our hypotheses, religious beliefs were of minimal influence on purpose in life for socially connected individuals, who already held higher levels of purpose than socially disconnected individuals.

However, for socially disconnected individuals, being highly religious predicted higher levels of purpose in life.

Conclusions

Results suggest that although people primarily derive purpose from social relationships, socially disconnected individuals may leverage their religious beliefs for purpose and social comfort until they can reconnect.

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The Comedy of Reflexive Modernity: Reason, Religion and the Ambivalence of Humour

an article by Simon Speck (University of Derby, UK) published in Cultural Sociology Volume 13 Issue 2 (June 2019)

Abstract

This article utilizes Ulrich Beck’s concept of ‘reflexive modernity’ to account for the ambivalent view of humour in the public sphere: its celebration as a form of criticism of irrationality and injustice and its censure as a vehicle for the denigration of subordinate or marginal groups and identities.

The article argues that the power and ambivalence of humour in contemporary culture can be understood with reference to the two key features of reflexive modernization: the demand for the discursive justification of all claims to cognitive and normative authority and the obligation to respect the equal rights of all individuals.

Drawing on Beck’s distinction between a ‘first’ and ‘second’ modernity, the article uses the example of the Danish ‘Muhammed Cartoons’ to show that critical-emancipatory joking cannot simply lay claim to an ‘Enlightenment’ view of secular-scientistic reason in conflict with an atavistic and backward ‘religion’ due to the transformation of reason by reflexive scientization and the transformation of religion resulting from the effects of globalization and cultural cosmopolitization.

The article draws on accounts of the comic practice of Muslim comedians and a consideration of the British TV sit-com Rev to demonstrate the possibility of a ‘religious’ joking that is thereby eminently ‘modern’ whilst respecting the values of human universality and individual dignity.

The article concludes by reiterating the centrality of Beck’s theory for the understanding of the enduring power of comic representation to constitute a cultural reflexivization endemic in contemporary society and argues for the relevance of ‘reflexive modernity’ to cultural sociology.

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Why Spirituality is Good for Your Mental Health

a post by Monique Hassan for the Spirituality & Mental Health blog [brought to us by World of Psychology]



Spirituality, or being concerned about your connection to the human spirit and the light all around us, is beneficial and uplifting for our overall mental health and quality of life. The secular world often looks at spirituality as hocus pocus when dealing with mental health or physical concerns, but the truth is the human body is not a car, it is more than just mechanics.

Technology and science are needed and beneficial, but they are not the solve-all that some people hope they are. We have a growing disconnection from that sacred light and love within our bodies, even our physical environments have grown into more concrete and steel with less nature and beauty. This lack of spirituality leaves a void; which we fill with overeating, anxiety, sex, money, fighting, career or some other placeholder which we shove into that void thinking we are doing just fine.

Spirituality or Religion
To be clear, spirituality and religion are not the same thing although they do interact. Religion is organized, has standards and provides structure to someone on how they should interact with and grow their spirituality. While spirituality is very individualized and resides within our hearts, no one has access to that spiritual core except for the one who created it. We can think of religion as more external and spirituality as internal. One impacts the other, one can feed off of the other or hurt the other, but they are not the same.

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Religion is about emotion regulation, and it’s very good at it

a post by Stephen T Asma for the Big Think blog

Religion does not help us to explain nature. It did what it could in pre-scientific times, but that job was properly unseated by science. Most religious laypeople and even clergy agree: Pope John Paul II declared in 1996 that evolution is a fact and Catholics should get over it. No doubt some extreme anti-scientific thinking lives on in such places as Ken Ham's Creation Museum in Kentucky, but it has become a fringe position. Most mainstream religious people accept a version of Galileo's division of labour: 'The intention of the Holy Ghost is to teach us how one goes to heaven, not how heaven goes.'

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Communism, religion, and unhappiness

a column by Simeon Djankov and Elena Nikolova for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal

While the existing scholarship has explained long-run institutional development across countries with a variety of different factors, the literature remains largely silent on the role of religion.

Using survey data, this column shows that deep-rooted theological differences between Orthodoxy, and Catholicism and Protestantism affect life satisfaction and other attitudes and values in large parts of Europe today.

Although totalitarian governments suppressed religious activities, they preserved those aspects of Orthodoxy – such as tradition and communitarianism – which were helpful for advancing the communist doctrine.

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Is Buddhism a religion?

a post by Derek Beres for the Big Think blog

Buddhism lends itself to emergent sciences in ways no other faith has.

If you were to go by the stream of psychology and neuroscience books published over the last two decades, you’d think Buddhism is an intricate philosophical system designed by a man with a keen insight for the emergence of psychoanalysis and philosophy some 2,400 years down the road.

Indeed, Buddhism lends itself to emergent sciences in ways no other faith has. In fact, many modern thinkers, including Sam Harris and Stephen Batchelor, question if faith is even necessary to understand Buddhism. The question of faith is one Siddhartha Gotama generally avoided. As Batchelor writes:

Gotama’s dharma opened the door to an emergent civilization rather than the establishment of a “religion”.

In an early instance of transcending tribalism, Buddha opened up his teachings to the entire world; it was not a gender- or race-dependent practice. Monks and nuns were in a co-dependent relationship with the public: the clergy offered spiritual sustenance while commoners provided them with food and money. Anyone could partake in the Three Jewels, either for a lifetime or, in some nations (such as Japan), for a season: dharma, Buddha’s teachings; sangha, the community; and the Buddha. Faith in these three aspects offers ground-floor entry into the Buddhist life.

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Neurotheology: How Spirituality Shapes the Human Brain

a post by Viatcheslav Wlassoff for the World of Psychology blog

We are the only species on the planet known to practice religion. This behavior is universal: there is no nation on Earth that does not practice one or another form of spiritual belief.

The question is what makes our brain different so that we practice spirituality? Does religion serve any purpose in terms of benefiting our survival and progress? These questions are very philosophical. Many thinkers believe that religiosity is what distinguishes Homo sapiens from the rest of the animal kingdom, and brought our species to dominate this planet. On the other hand, a large numbers of thinkers believe that religion impedes progress and keeps our society in a barbaric state.

There is no doubt that religion played a very important role in early human history: providing the first explanations for the existence of the world around us. The need for such explanation highlights an important step in the development of the brain and cognitive processes.

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I would love to know whether by brain is significantly different in any way from the brain of my sister who became "ultra" religious quite early on in life, or what the brain of my elder daughter can tell us about her non-belief in as spiritual life and so on.

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Clergy in place in England: Bias to the poor or inverse care law?

an article by Michael Hirst (University of York, UK) published in Population, Space and Place Volume 23 Issue 8 (November 2017)

Abstract

Faith traditions frequently proclaim priority for the poor and socially marginalised, emphasising individual and collective responsibility towards those in poverty. Ordained ministers or clergy – possibly the main investment of religious organisations – play a key role in encouraging and fulfilling that commitment in their local settings.

This paper considers the availability of clergy to provide pastoral care in areas of high socio-economic deprivation. Data from the 2011 census of England are used to correlate area variations in the number of clergy with household and neighbourhood deprivation.

Findings show that clergy are distributed inversely to socio-economic deprivation at the ecological level. Fewer clergy are available or readily accessible in the most deprived areas, raising questions about their ability to respond pastorally and act politically on behalf of the poor.

Market forces that draw clergy deployments towards less deprived areas warrant further investigation.

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Multicultural integration in British and Dutch societies: education and citizenship

an article by Christopher Adam Bagley (Liverpool John Moores University, UK and University of Southampton, UK) and Nader Al-Refai (Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan) published in Journal for Multicultural Education Volume 11 Issue 2 (2017)

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review and synthesize published studies and practice in the “integration” of ethnic and religious minorities in Britain and The Netherlands, 1965-2015, drawing out implications for current policy and practice.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper is an evaluative review and report of results of work on citizenship education for young Muslims and their peers in English schools.

Findings
Young Muslims have positive attitudes to “good citizenship”, as Islamic socialization makes them particularly responsive to citizenship messages. But there is hard-core racial prejudice and Islamophobia in about 25 per cent of adults. In The Netherlands, this xenophobia has supported far-right politicians who are strongly anti-Muslim. This paper cites evidence that continued prejudice may lead to alienation and radicalization of some minorities.

Research limitations/implications
Unchecked prejudice concerning minorities can have negative implications for both majority and minority groups – this broad hypothesis deserves further research in both Dutch and British societies.

Practical implications
In Britain, success in Muslim schools in fostering positive citizenship implies that Muslim groups can maintain “quiet dignity” in following Islamic pathways to good citizenship.

Social implications
State support for religious-foundation schools should be offered to all religious groups and should not be withheld from Muslim minorities for “security” reasons.

Originality/value
This overview by two Muslim educators offers new insights and proposals in the acceptance of Muslim minorities in Europe.

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Confessional technologies of the self: From Seneca to social media

an article by Norm Friesen (Boise State University, USA) published in First Monday Volume 22 Number 6 (June 2017)

Abstract

Foucault’s general notion of “technologies of the self” provides an invaluable starting point for investigating a range of broadly “confessional” practices and technologies over time – from medieval confession to contemporary forms of networked identity construction. Foucault defines technologies of the self as “reflected and voluntary practices by which men not only fix rules of conduct for themselves but seek to transform themselves, to change themselves in their particular being, and to make their life an oeuvre.”

These are practices or techniques, in other words, that are both undertaken by the self and directed toward it. Specifically confessional technologies involve a deliberate and often structured externalization of the self, often with the help of a confessor or a confessional text or context.

Building on existing work (e.g., by Fletcher and Hall), this paper begins by some of the earliest Western confessional practices and “technologies” as described by Foucault, and then proceeding to explain medieval Christian confession and its subsequent “reformation.”

Next, by appealing to Louis Althusser’s notion of interpellation, it develops this conception of confession further, comparing it finally to today’s digital media of social self-disclosure, focusing on Facebook in particular. Such contemporary media, the paper concludes, build upon practices and technologies of the self that have been evolving for centuries, if not millennia.

Full text (HTML)

Hazel’s comment:
I had to work hard to read this article but it was worth it, and the illustrations really do illustrate the text.

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Religious Diversity and the Challenge of Social Inclusion

an article by Gary Bouma published in Social Inclusion Volume 4 Number 2 (2016)

Abstract

As societies have become religiously diverse in ways and extents not familiar in the recent histories of most, the issues of how to include this diversity and how to manage it, that is, questions about how to be a religiously diverse society have come to the fore.

As a result religion has become part of the social policy conversation in new ways.

It has also occasioned new thinking about religions, their forms and the complexity of ways they are negotiated by adherents and the ways they are related to society, the state and each other.

This issue of Social Inclusion explores these issues of social inclusion in both particular settings and in cross-national comparative studies by presenting research and critical thought on this critical issue facing every society today.

Full text (PDF download)

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Religious Non-Places: Corporate Megachurches and Their Contributions to Consumer Capitalism

an article by George Sanders (Oakland University, USA) published in Journal of Critical Sociology Volume 42 Number 1 (January 2016)

Abstract

The corporate megachurch represents a pecuniarily driven institution that both emphasizes marketing for the purposes of constant growth, and focuses on the manufacture and delivery of consumer-centric goods and services.

This article draws on the theory of the non-place as conceptualized by Augé, who argues that the non-place is a direct effect of contemporary capitalism’s incessant incursion into ever more areas of life. The non-place refers to any variety of transitory sites that lack historical, cultural, or geographic reference points, and while they seem to be everywhere one is left with the sense of being ‘nowhere’ in particular.

One such place that lacks distinguishing features and fails to provide any contextual reference is the corporate megachurch. Because of its strategic work to distance itself from traditional Christian churches and focus instead on creating homologies with entertainment, self-help, and retail, the non-place church normalizes the banality of consumer capitalism.

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Why was there no religious war in premodern East Asia?

an article by David C. Kang (University of Southern California, USA) published in European Journal of International Relations Volume 20 Number 4 (December 2014)

Abstract

In premodern East Asia, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and China rarely experienced anything like the type of religious violence that existed for centuries in historical Europe, despite having vibrant religious traditions such as Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, and numerous folk religions. How do we explain a region in which religion was generally not a part of the explanation for war and rebellion?

A unique data set of over 950 entries of Chinese and Korean violence over a 473-year span allows granular measurement of religious violence. I argue that the inclusivist religions of historical East Asia did not easily lend themselves to appropriation by political leaders as a means of differentiating groups or justifying violence. Addressing the paucity of religious war in historical East Asia is theoretically important because it challenges a large body of scholarly literature that finds a universal causal relationship between religion and war that is empirically derived mainly from the experience of only Christianity and Islam.

In contrast, it may be that certain types of religious traditions are less amenable to mass mobilization for violence. Moving beyond Christianity and Islam to include East Asian religious traditions promises both to address a potentially serious issue of selection bias and also to be a rich field for theorizing about the relationship between religion and war.

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Faith in unions: From safe spaces to organised labour?

an article by Jane Holgate (University of Leeds, UK) published in Capital & Class volume 37 Number 2 (June 2013)

Abstract

Despite the UK trade union movement’s avowedly secular nature, its antecedents show that religious beliefs greatly influenced many early trade unionists and, in some cases, contributed to the formation of a trade union consciousness.

This paper considers the way trade union leaders in the 19th and 20th centuries drew upon religious teachings of social justice to organise their fellow workers. This context provides background for understanding how today a similar ideological commitment to collectivisation and social justice may be held by workers of faith; and how the adoption of a ‘militant secularism’ by some trade unionists may result in the closing of these conceptual spaces.

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Discourses of inclusion and exclusion: Religious students in UK higher education

an article by Jacqueline Stevenson (Leeds Metropolitan University, UK) published in Journal Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning Volume 14 Number 3 (Winter 2012-13)

Abstract

Despite a decade of research into ‘inclusion’, religious students have been largely ignored within the widening participation and diversity literature. Researching religion and higher education (HE) in the UK, unlike within the US context, is seen as potentially risky territory.

Where religion is discussed it is largely in relation to a discourse that problematises and demonises religion around ideas of religious fundamentalism – in particular within the Muslim community – or as formal and technical responses to equality legislation.

Consequently, unlike considerations of class, race or gender, the widening participation literature has mostly ignored or racialised religious affiliation, and religion remains, for the most part, unrecognised within institutional policy making.

Drawing on research with Christian, Sikh, Muslim and Jewish students, this paper highlights the ways in which such a tacit avoidance of the subject of religion on the ‘secular’ campus, punctuated only by the discourse of fundamentalism, results in the silencing and marginalisation of many religious students.

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