The religious position - an approach from Ulrich Beck’s risk social theory

Abstract

Ulrich Beck's theory of risk society in his two works Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity and A God of One's Own as a reflection on the process of modernization in four dimensions: technological progress, globalization, secularization, and individualization. The article focuses on the issue of secularization and individualization as a starting point in the vision referring to the position of religion in postmodern society.

In the intertextual approach, the content of the article is developed mainly by the phenomenological and hermeneutic methods imbued with the existential philosophy. In addition to the introduction and conclusion, the article is divided into three chapters: Chapter I. From the concept of modernity, the relationship between modernity and secularization and the relationship between modernity and individualization are explored; Chapter II. Analysis of the consequences of modernity has created a society that is always insecure, and personal safety that is threatened when individualism is institutionalized, leading to consequences that people have to bear; Chapter III. On a personal God as a form of personal spirituality that responds to both religious fundamentalism and modern insecurity. However, Ulrich Beck still asserts that the religious position, even in its individualized form, is still a potential mediator of peace in a risky society.

With arguments and evidence from theory and practice, the authors have sent a warning message for this assertion. “In the face of the challenges of a risky postmodern society, religious status may not be able to perform its “healing” function for the world but may contribute to the pain of the world”. The authors' counter-arguments are presented at the end of chapter III and are also the purpose of the article.