Embeddedness

We were so fixated with the big threats of war and annihilation in the last century, of titanic conflicts and threats of conflicts, that we missed much of what was happening below the level of Great Power and Superpower conflicts. We were blinded not just by the global threats, but also by advertising and propaganda, and by our unwillingness, at least in America and Western Europe, to look at certain trends. Our liberal ideologies divided politics and religion more or less cleanly. Unless a politico-religious movement obtruded too sharply, we ignored it. We failed to recognize not just that such movements were brewing under the surface and gaining strength until late in the century. We also failed to recognize how much both religion and politics in America were splitting and fragmenting. Theology and ideology were both fragmenting and influencing one another in ways we rarely and dimly glimpsed. The interactions should have troubled us, but, we were so committed to them being separate spheres that we were blind.  Karen Armstrong calls this mutual influence, "... the 'embeddedness' of religion and politics, which works two ways: not only does religion affect policy, but politics can shape theology." (Karen Armstrong, Fields of Blood, 2014, p. 127.)

Before I proceed, let me note that this is not merely a few bad people corrupting religion or politics. This has been a very broad phenomenon. Likewise, I am not limiting this to one religion or ideology, it has happened across the board. It has affected the "new religions" as well, and we find it just as much in the New Age communities as in Christianity, Islam, Judaism, or Hinduism. 

Theology and ideology are two of the main keys to our understanding of the world and reality. As we move away from having two or three broad consensus versions of religion or politics, we move also away from consensus reality. We move into a field of realities more fragmented than any we have seen in centuries, but their effects are magnified more than ever before by our large populations and communication technologies. Even at the time of our Civil War were we so fragmented, for the religious and political divides were divided into two or three big blocks. 

Religion and ideology, whether inherited or adopted later in life, not only reflect our values, our understanding of causality, and our attitudes toward authority, but they are central in shaping them. And it is those three things, plus our experiences (especially our social ones) that shape our sense of reality, that is to say, of how the world works and what we expect from it.