On the relevance ofsmall nations. Religion and politics in S.N. Eisenstadt's multiple modernities paradigm

Abstract

In recent years, the paradigm of multiple modernities has spurred a growing interest in theoretical, empirical and comparative studies. Among these, the relationships between religious traditions and social dynamics have received particular attention. Counter to evolutionary accounts of modernisation processes, Eisenstadt studied the persisting and evolving links between religion, politics and modernity in different national and civilisational settings. Indeed, the collective incidence of culture, of religion and of tradition was placed at the very heart of Eisenstadt's thought – hence the many ‘cultural programs of modernity'. It is the originality of this understanding of societies in modernity that we wish to underline and help explain by his interest for small nations and the religio‐political. I first advocate Eisenstadt's version of multiple modernities, highlighting the paradigm's specific knowledge interest. Secondly, we turn our attention to the often ignored importance of ‘Jewish civilisation' in Eisenstadt's thought. In so doing, we underline Israel's ‘smallness' and its characteristics as a ‘small nation'. Lastly, we stress the elective affinity between multiple modernities and small nations in the study of politics and religion. As is the case for small nations, religion constitutes the ‘other half of modernity', too rarely genuinely considered in (large nation) modernists' accounts.

Dialog Agama, Adat, dan Kebangsaan dalam Labuhan Sesaji Pantai Serang Blitar

“…Dengan demikian, diperlukan strategi khusus untuk dapat mendialogkan antara praktek keagamaan, tradisi dan nilai kebangsaan. Laniel (2018) juga menyampaikan hal yang sama…”

Pluralism that is Not an Ideology: The Phenomenology of Collectivistic Catholicisms in a Small Nation

“…The analysis of the phenomenology of Croatian collectivistic Catholicism counters the described consensus and highlights that the latter rests on the notion of modernity as a universalizing, homogenizing, and secularizing project. Put affirmatively, the anaysis that follows highlights the importance of two aspects of Shmuel N. Eisenstadt’s (2000) concept of “multiple modernities.” First, to echo Jean-François Laniel’s (2018) recent analysis of this paradigm, the case of Croatian Catholicisms sustains Eisenstadt’s understanding of the ways in which “small societies” or “small nations” develop cultural and political modernity while also preserving their cultural identity. Rather than understanding Croatian case as one representing the “peoples without history,” then, this article considers it as one of the small nations that contribute to the multiplication of modernity’s programs by virtue, to employ Uriel Aboulof’s notion, of addressing their existential predicament 2 —the necessity that they assert their cultural particularity when responding and creatively adapting to the processes of modernization.…”

Religion et politique au sein des petites nations / Religion and Politics in Small Nations

“…Le nationalisme culturel est régressif, et il est représenté par le nationalisme des petites nations d’Europe centrale et orientale. Tel un jeu à somme nulle, la tradition, comme la religion dans la version forte de la thèse de la sécularisation, est incompatible avec la modernité nationale (Spohn, 2003; Laniel, 2018). Ainsi, lorsque Anthony Smith reprocha à Ernest Gellner, en 1996, de n’avoir tenu compte que de la moitié de l’histoire de la nation, celle débutant avec les processus modernisateurs, négligeant ainsi ses fondements culturels, religieux et traditionnels, Gellner lui répondra que ce n’était peut-être là que la moitié de l’histoire de la nation, mais la seule qui importait véritablement.…”