Modernization and Related Phenomena

Modernization is the general process through which societies transform economically, socially, and culturally to keep pace with an increasingly competitive global marketplace. Its net effects include increased literacy, improved education, enhanced technologies, self- sustaining economies, the increased roles of women in various aspects of society, and the greater involvement of the general populace in government (as in democracies).

Bongeunsa Temple, founded in 794 ce, is surrounded by the ultramodern cityscape of Seoul, South Korea.

Urbanization

Urbanization, the shift of population centers from rural, agricultural settings to cities, is a significant demographic effect of modernization. A century ago, only about 10 percent of the global population lived in cities; today, this figure has risen to more than 50 percent. Many religious traditions developed within primarily rural settings, with calendars of holy days and rituals patterned around agricultural cycles. For most religious people, such patterns have far less relevance today.

Globalization

Globalization is the linking and intermixing of cultures. It accelerated quickly during the centuries of exploration and colonization and has been nurtured considerably by the advanced technologies brought about by modernization. The extent of this linking and intermixing is evinced in the very term World Wide Web, and the pronounced and rapidly evolving effects of the Internet and other technologies have been extraordinary. The almost instantaneous exchange of information that this technology allows is more or less paralleled by better means of transportation. In sum, we now live in a global community that could hardly have been imagined a few decades ago.

Multiculturalism

The most pronounced religious effects of globalization pertain to the closely related phenomenon of multiculturalism, the coexistence of different peoples and their cultural ways in one time and place. Many people today live in religiously pluralistic societies, no longer sheltered from the presence of religions other than their own. This plurality increases the degree of influence exerted by one religion on another, making it difficult for many individuals to regard any one religious tradition as the only viable one. This circumstance, in turn, fosters general questioning and critical assessment of religion. To some extent, such questioning and critical assessment erodes the authority traditionally attributed to religion. Globalization, then, like modernization, has nurtured the notably modern process of secularization, the general turning away from traditional religious authority and institutions.