Globalization

Thus many of the characteristic marks of modernity are in opposition to the traditional religious world views. Hence if religion is to be effective it must find a way of removing this tension. This can be done only if religion is willing to understand and come to terms with modernity.
No religion will long hold the allegiance of those who have acquired as a result of non-religious causes, new aesthetic tastes, new intellectual perspectives, new moral conceptions—unless religion adjusts to these changes.

In India too we find numerous new temples coming up almost everyday. What is interesting is that these temples are filled to capacity very soon. The emergence of new religions can be interpreted as a reaction to the dry rationalism, the ‘meaninglessness’, and the hunger of the human heart for the ‘eternal’ prevalent today.
It is good news that new religions are emerging. Yet a significant number of people remain deeply suspicious of religion and reject it because of the tensions that exist between modernity and religion. Hence, before we can speculate what shape the religions of the future would or should take in order to be effective, we must first understand the characteristics of modernity.

The key elements of the current ‘awakening’ appear to be:
1. A rapid growth of strident, evangelical, fundamentalist and Pentecostal movements.
2. A parallel growth in the popularity of ‘Eastern’ (Hindu-Buddhist-Sufi etc) religions.
3. A similar spread of ‘human potential’ movements.
4. The emergence of several sects or ‘cults’, that seem to appeal especially to a certain type of young people.