This book proposes a post-Cold War paradigm based on the interaction between the contemporary globalization of the political, economic, military, and communication systems and the increasing role of religion in influencing global politics. Rapid technological advances constantly recast politics, economics, armed conflict, and the media. These four systems are thus becoming not just more international each in themselves, but they are also rapidly integrating among themselves. As a result, the four world systems constantly create new environments in which individuals and societies must make rapid choices on the basis of their perceived personal and communal identities. This book constructs its global paradigm by explaining the roles of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Maoist Marxism in world politics.
Part I. Religion and Politics in the New Global Paradigm: 1. A new paradigm for world politics?; 2. A political perspective on religion and politics; 3. A religious perspective on religion and politics; 4. The religions of the book, meditative experience, and public life; Part II. Religion in Contemporary World Politics: 5. The West: Christianity, secularization, and immigration; 6. East Asia: modernization and ideology; 7. South and Central Asia: the legacies of Gandhi and Khomeini and the bomb; 8. The Middle East and North Africa: Jewish and Islamic politics; 9. Latin America: indigenous religions, Christianity, and globalization; 10. Religion and politics for the next millennium.
