God to Power

Abstract

This paper aims to make a commented reading on the book The revenge of God by Gilles Kepel where he studies the relationship between politics and religion, illustrating that this relationship has been present in the latest international developments in Christianity, in the followers of Islam and of Judaism. The contribution is to show that this relationship has been also present in Buddhism, a process which does not account Gilles Kepel in his book. It is important to address this issue, to understand how for a considerable length of time a large number of Buddhist monks in Myanmar (formerly Birmania), have been leading protests against the military regime in power. The interest to discuss this is not simply casuistic, but entails a reflection that is not included in the text by Gilles Kepel, i.e., unlike the re-Christianization, re-Islamization and re-Judaizing processes that have emerged since the 70’s as a negation of the modernity; Buddhism, in particular as a non- theistic religion, claims modern values such as democracy; at least this is the reflection left by Dalai Lama’s words in Paris regarding the last Olympic Games held in China.