Holy Ignorance: When Religion and Culture Part Ways

Holy Ignorance is an excellent book. Not an easy read; in part, because of its original French academic writing style, in part, because of the rather mechanical translation, and, in part, because it forces the reader to think slowly and systematically. The sheer amount of information and the complex interrelationship between the various described phenomena makes understanding a slow process. The importance of the author's central thesis of the separation of religion and culture (public life) cannot be underestimated, nor can the complex social forms that manifest when institutional religion is decoupled from culture. The author's range of subjects is awe inspiring. Taking on such on wide and intricate religious subjects such as Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, and Judaism, as well as, difficult concepts such as secularism, ethnicity, and "nationality," he is equally comfortable delineating small groups like the Syriacs or Hebrew Catholics (an interesting political ploy by the late Pope, John Paul II).The author's central thesis of the separation of religion and culture leads to the proposal that fundamentalism is very much a product of the triumph of secular culture in which an attempt is made to create a "pure" religion to counteract the seeming negative characteristics of secular life. Most often this impulse is devoid of any serious knowledge/acceptance of the religion in question, and is an emotional reaction to a specific social reality--hence the term "holy ignorance." A religion decoupled from culture essentially becomes a consumer product.The separation of religion from culture and place (territory) on one hand, creates a global virtual community, on the other hand, makes the passing-on of this global religion to the next generation very difficult.A book of the range and complexity of Holy Ignorance inevitable will have errors. Some errors are minor, but irritating, such as the misspelling of Russian term inorodtsy (foreign-born), others are more serious, such as neglecting to note that the Constitution of the Russian Federation recognized Judaism as one of the traditional religions of the Russian state. In my view, however, this is probably less likely the result of the author's lack of knowledge then the policy of hiring non-knowledgeable editors by Columbia Press.

It's a typical approach by "larger-than-life" French academic by stating opinions without rigorous methodological backing.

Olivier Roy recalls a time when religion and culture lived together harmoniously. Religion was embedded in culture and culture was permeated with religious values. Not any more. "Deculturation" is upon us. Religion has been wrenched out of its natural habitats and is no longer tempered by local custom and tradition, and secular culture is driven by the imperatives of the market. This has led to the spread of fundamentalist religions, which are not new cultures but "pure," extreme movements like the Taliban, "refusing all reference to history and culture." Globalization is a major force behind these developments as it scatters products, ideas and people without regard to their cultural origins and offers fundamentalism "a new space." It is therefore not a clash of civilizations that causes religious violence, but religion stripped of culture, including religious culture. Zeal replaces doctrine as the test of true faith, producing "holy ignorance." This is a bold departure from conventional thinking and Roy presents an encyclopedic range of data, observations and anecdotes to support his thesis. So should we change our minds about the roots of violent fanaticism? Not really. One difficulty, amply documented by Roy, is that deculturation often fails to bring either extremism or violence. Whether it takes the form of separation from the surrounding culture, as with the Amish; or of a break with a religion's own origins, as with the Hare Krishna, who are not very Hindu; or of a rejection of all profane culture, even sometimes including reason and language, as with Pentecostal speaking in tongues, it can lead to very pacific outcomes. Deculturation is obviously not sufficient to cause violence, but nor is it necessary. Tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, steeped in Moslem tradition, are more abundant sources of Jihadis than the Moslem suburbs of western Europe. And there was religious violence before there was globalization. Deculturation, with resentful alienation can be a source of violence, but it's the cultural context that makes the difference, including economic factors, such as youth unemployment, and political factors, such as conflicts over Kashmir and Palestine and between Shias and Sunnis. Moreover, religious deculturation in the West is associated with the free flow of ideas and a fragmentation and fluidity of personal identity. Urbanization, specialization and consumerism are also parts of the picture. Which is to say that deculturation is itself a cultural phenomenon. It could not have thrived in closed, homogeneous communities. Escape from culture is harder than Roy supposes.

Although the book is a tedious read because of its convoluted sentences, the author's arguments are supported with an excellent grasp of history in a variety of cultures. The author's central thesis is the separation of religion and culture, a monumental and praiseworthy task. As I followed the development of the thesis, I was impressed with the excellent job the author did of debunking religious fundamentalism or holy ignorance, especially Christian fundamentalism in the United States and Muslim fundamentalism in the Middle East. Moreover, I was impressed with the job he did of debunking arguments in support of multiculturalism, arguing that it is absurd to claim that cultures are merely alternative life styles and cannot be judged in terms of which one, or ones, among them do a better job than the others of providing people with the trappings of basic human dignity. As an economist, I applaud the author's treatment of religion as a product with a market for it like any other product--once territorial and now global. His examples provide support for his argument that suppliers of religion increasingly cater to demand, not simply in terms of packaging but in terms of substance. In short, demand creates its own supply, a principle put forth in economics by John Maynard Keynes. I enjoyed reading the book very much. It's uplifting to think about things that people with absolute truth consider unthinkable.