Perspectivas sobre el hecho religioso en el sistema mundial contemporáneo

Abstract

Intrinsically linked with the process of Modernity, the term «World System» reveals an evident secular dimension which derives mainly from the well-known sociological approach established by the Weberian thesis of «Weltentzäuberung». It implies a distinction between political [secular] and religious power, which establishes other parallel dichotomies between the public and the private power spheres, as well as between the profane and the sacred realms. But this typology —though useful and in fact essential in analytical and synthetic terms— is not completely suited to the «real» and effective state of the world. This actual world shows that the political and religious realms are deeply intertwined and that they build an effective net of interests, values, mutual agreements and disagreements, sometimes complementary and sometimes confronted, but in any case related. This situation emerges as a consequence of a process of historical construction. It is also a fact that the overwhelming majority of the world’s population thinks, feels, acts, behaves, decides... in more or less explicitly religious terms. Modern secularized societies and individuals represent a minority in «world affairs». In addition, the relative failure of many secular modernization projects implemented throughout the world —ongoing mainly between the end of the Second World War and the end of the 1980s, especially in many Third World countries— have generated a generalized disenchantment with secularism
and with some of its related values, such as progress, human rights, democracy, development. This disappointment has sparked a renewed regressive interest in religion and also a dramatic revival of the religious consciousness which, in many of its extreme cases, leads to internal and international conflicts. Relatively neglected through decades by International Relations theorists, and reduced merely to a «transnational dynamic», the «religious fact» (fait religieux, J. Delumeau) has become a crucial topic in international studies and has been the focus of many recent publications. As a conclusion, this article proposes an application of the scheme created by Pierre Bourdieu in his renowned study «Genèse et structure du champ religieux» (1971) to the political category «World System». It aims to provide a comprehensive model that may [conceivably] shed light on some of the most complex features and trends in the contemporary world.