Transcription of the lecture “globalization and the crisis of culture and religion”

Abstract

At its center, this lecture focuses on the crisis of culture and religion – which essentially condenses to a crisis of the state, as globalization is bypassing the state – by addressing Islamic fundamentalism and by providing a more global view on the topic. Fundamentalism is not a product of tradition, but a modern phenomenon – a result as well as an active player of globalization. It disconnects religion and the concept of revelation from culture (as is the case in Salafism). Thus, an iconoclastic concept of culture and history has emerged (e. g. Daesh in Saudi Arabia). There are common traits between different kinds of fundamentalisms: an explicit system of norms and a social life, which reduces life to living in a faith community with high distrust towards society in general. A problem in the contemporary globalized world is the need to make everything explicit, which is opposed to culture. This trend reflects nothing but a normative system that can only be implemented in an authoritarian way. What follows is the crisis of culture – the destruction of the very concept of culture – that such a type of globalization promotes. Breaking this cycle entails refraining from indulging in this kind of systematic “normatization” of everyday life and trying to reopen a space not only between believers and nonbelievers, but between everyone. Ultimately, this calls for the need to reopen the discussion on the relationship between culture and religion in practice.