Introduction

At the beginning of the twenty-first century a shift occurred from the political conflicts that characterized the Cold War period to the religious conflicts of the post-9/11 era. These latter religious confrontations appeared at a time when many people expected the world to become more and more integrated. In the 1990s, the process of globalization seemed to be unstoppable, but the situation changed in 2001 with the destruction of the World Trade Center. The sudden radicalization of the Islamic world was quickly interpreted as a religiously motivated rejection of the process of globalization. However, it could be argued that such an interpretation obscures the fact that globalization is itself the result of a religious doctrine. This chapter analyzes the impact of religion itself on the process of globalization, especially the connection between the liberalization of world markets and the universalization of Western values. It begins with a definition of the term “globalization,” turns to a discussion of the causes of globalization and then offers a short description of the historical development of globalization. Finally, the origin of the idea of free trade is linked to the work of Adam Smith and his neo-Calvinist religious beliefs. From here it is argued that free trade, rather than representing a concept of secular origins, was from the beginning a tool to motivate all non-believers and sinners in the world to follow God’s universal rules.