Religion in a Global Society

Guest: Mark Juergensmeyer, PhD, Founding Director of the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies at UC Santa Barbara and Author of “God in the Tumult of the Global Square: Religion in Global Civil Society” The internet, mobile phones and satellite TV have made the world a much smaller place. Through them, you can immigrate to a new country but still feel connected to the people and culture of your home. You can live in the US, but wear a hat knit by a woman in the far reaches of the Himalayas. For a month’s salary or less, you could hop on a plane and be face to face with that knitter in a day’s time. “Globalization” is what experts call this. Boundaries tend to mean less; cultures tend to blend more when we’re all so much more in touch. So here’s the question a group of scholars have been chewing on recently -- what does this smaller world mean for religion? For its place in our lives? And for the power of religious organizations in society?