试论希克的宗教解释

约翰·希克是当代著名的宗教哲学家之一,宗教多元主义的积极倡导者.他通过对传统的宗教解释和自然主义的宗教解释的区分,试图做出一种综合性的宗教解释.他把宗教视为一种"家族相似"概念,并从人的认知规律和生活经验出发,对宗教的合理性做出某种辩护.他从神圣者因素和属人因素两方面来描述宗教,提出了他的"实在者"概念和救赎论结构,从而形成他的宗教多元时代里的宗教观.     

试论近代中国宗教概念的形成与近代儒释二教变迁之关系

"宗教"是中国古已有之的概念。19世纪末至20世纪初,西方现代宗教学背景下的宗教概念传入中国,逐渐与中国本土宗教观念相融合,形成了一个既具备西方文化特质,又具有中国传统思维特征的中国化的宗教概念。中国近代宗教概念的形成不是一个单纯的学术事件,而是中西方文明冲突的结果,是传统思想在现代语境中的挣扎和变革,是西方文明在传统环境中的妥协和调适,是传统中国社会接受西方观念制度的一个缩影。近代中国宗教观念的形成以儒教地位在近代中国社会中的变迁为切入点,最终落脚于对以中国佛教为主要样本的中国宗教形式的考察。特殊复杂的背景下形成的宗教概念具有超学术层面的价值取向,其形成对近现代儒释二教及其他中国传统宗教发展产生深远的影响。     

略论东方哲学与宗教

"东方"这个概念,人们往往从地域、文化或政治等不同的角度来使用它。在不断的文明创造中,东方孕育了许多在人类历史上产生过重要影响的宗教,也创立了自己发达的哲学。世界文明是在多种文明的交互影响中发展起来的,有时甚至很难简单地把某种宗教或哲学划归为东方的还是西方的。随着"文明冲突"理论的提出以及与之相对的"文明对话"观念的大力倡导,对东方文明的研究和东西方文明关系的反思得以纳入世界文明未来前途的广阔论域加以讨论,也使得关于东方文化的研究有可能突破传统"东方学"的偏见和逻辑而获得新的意义和内涵。对于包括中国在内的东方国家和包括中国学术界在内的东方学术界来说,重视和开展对东方文化的研究,有着重要的学术价值和现实意义。     

建设现代宗教文明积极引导宗教与社会主义社会相适应

倡导建设宗教文明①应与积极引导宗教与社会主义社会相适应结合起来。沿着这一思路进一步深入思考,建设宗教文明的提法略显宽泛,因此,本文提出现代宗教文明的新界定,并认为建设现代宗教文明是积极引导宗教与社会主义社会相适应的基本途径和主要方式。并从基本概念、命题内涵和任务目标三个方面作了详细论证。     

宗教媒体与文化自觉

##正##宗教媒体是宗教传播媒介的重要载体,也是宗教理念和利益的重要表达渠道,承载着宗教传统和发展的历史使命,也肩负着精神文明建设的社会责任。笔者认为,提升宗教媒体的素质、品味,发挥宗教媒体对宗教自身和社会文明的积极作用,其核心是一个文化自觉问题。本文拟就宗教媒体与文化自觉的一些基本关系,作一初步的探讨和论述,以就教于方家。     

宗教的认知科学解释

宗教认知科学从认知和进化的角度,对宗教信仰的机制提出新的解释.目前主要有认知副产物理论和社会适应理论.认知副产物理论认为,宗教信仰并不具有任何进化的适应性,而是人类自身认知倾向的副产物,是一种无害的噪音.社会适应理论认为,宗教信仰能促进群体的团结合作,是一个精巧的社会适应机制,有助于群体的自然选择.宗教认知科学发展了核心概念,建立了新的宗教理论,为宗教研究提供了新的思路和方法.     

信众的网络体验和权威的流变治理——国外和国内“互联网+宗教”研究述要

正20世纪80年代以来,在互联网技术和互联网思维(平等、共享、普惠等)的基础支撑下,大数据、云计算、物联网(IOT)、人工智能(AI)等现代科技迅猛发展,并正将人类社会由工业文明迁徙到数字文明之中。在这个迁徙中,传统宗教等也面临着如何与互联网融合的发展问题。这些问题包括,互联网是宗教复兴的必要条件吗,传统宗教理论如何解释人工智能、区块链等带给人的困惑问题(比如技术理性对精神自由的控制问题),物联网武装起来的虚拟宗教场所带给远程信众的心理体验有何"殊相",信仰者的网络宗教生活是否会被技术逻辑"异化",教职人员如何应对网络中意见领袖的挑战等等。回答好上述问题不仅     

论海舍尔宗教哲学对象征主义的理解

关于"雅典还是耶路撒冷",西方文明在讨论哲学与宗教关系时对之有许多思考。20世纪著名的美国犹太哲学家亚伯拉罕·约书亚·海舍尔为此对希腊哲学和希伯来宗教即两希传统的关联及思想差异作了深刻而细致的剖析,他通过对象征主义的哲学考量而在理解两大传统的思想张力上起到了非常关键的作用。从分析象征主义的不足及缺陷出发,海舍尔向我们展现出希伯来《圣经》宗教传统究竟在何种意义上弥补了哲学理性思维的局限,从而说明构成西方文明的这两大支柱均不可或缺,由此使西方涉及哲学与宗教关系的讨论得以深化。在当今时代西方科技文明昌盛而同时却面临道德滑坡和精神危机的困境之际,海舍尔有关象征主义的理论探究对反思当代文化的处境及走向具有重要的思想价值和现实意义。     

从功能分析到礼物模式——论杨庆堃中国民间宗教研究的社会学范式

杨庆堃关于中国宗教研究的社会学范式,给后期的研究奠定了重要的学术基础,但中国学界对其学术价值与理论意义的探讨主要聚焦在弥散性宗教概念的界定与运用上。本文关注杨庆堃关于中国宗教研究的理论在学术史中"承上"与"启下"的作用,梳理了该理论对韦伯"理性化与现代化"旨趣的超越、对民间宗教划分人群属性传统的弥合,以及与当代理论包括宗教生态论、宗教场域论及礼物模式的对话。本文认为,杨庆堃的宗教概念、宗教与社会的关系等经典解释在现今社会仍具有理论生命力。而且这种宗教社会学理论的解释力并不只局限汉族社会,也可以适用于我国少数民族民间宗教的分析。     

走向第二轴心时代:论跨文化宗教对话的可能性

在当今多元宗教传统并存的背景下,不同宗教传统如何相处,彼此如何互益,不仅是一个学术问题,也是一个现实问题。传统本质主义的实在论已经没有能力真正处理好不同宗教传统之间的关系,对话到了它的极限。而基于非本质主义的非实在论认为我们正进入第二轴心时代,可以把各宗教传统视为仅仅是人的创造,视为艺术。这一非实在论的思想视角为跨文化对话提供了广阔的空间,可以最大限度地避免文明、文化和宗教传统之间的冲突。     

Introduction: W. E. B. Du Bois: Religion and Social Inequality

W.E.B. Du Bois understood the critical role religion plays in power inequities in the, world. He was very acquainted with how it is used as a tool to exclude and subordinate human beings and yet, at the same time, serve as a source of refuge. This special issue of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion is a collection of articles that examines religion and social inequality from a variety of different angles with a Du Boisian lens. When we focus our lens on religion and social inequality, we are highlighting the ways in which religion plays a part in the unequal distribution of power across social groups in society. This special issue focuses on how religion impacts social life and the way individuals and groups embody or struggle to reclaim their agency within a context of silent oppression at times and not-so-silent oppression at others times at the personal-, group-, and global levels.     

Rationality in Religion

Religion can be defined narrowly as belief in anthropomorphic supernatural beings. For Levy-Bruhl this meant that prelogical ‘mystic participation’ preceded true religion. For Donald Wiebe and others it means that philosophical-scientific rationality has been struggling to replace religion since the axial age. A broader definition of religion interprets rational post-axial theology as a development within religion, not a replacement of true religion. Both definitions are legitimate. The narrow definition highlights a tendency to superstition in religion. The broader definition recognizes the possibility of an evolution of religious thought.     

Rationality in Religion

Religion can be defined narrowly as belief in anthropomorphic supernatural beings. For Levy-Bruhl this meant that prelogical ‘mystic participation’ preceded true religion. For Donald Wiebe and others it means that philosophical-scientific rationality has been struggling to replace religion since the axial age. A broader definition of religion interprets rational post-axial theology as a development within religion, not a replacement of true religion. Both definitions are legitimate. The narrow definition highlights a tendency to superstition in religion. The broader definition recognizes the possibility of an evolution of religious thought.     

Religion without Metaphysics1

In this paper I will argue for a conception of religion that does not presuppose metaphysics in the traditional sense of the word. In a trivial sense we always have ideas of what is given and are all realists, living by our realist intuitions. But the philosophically crucial question is what conclusions can be reasonably drawn from this. In Part I, I will argue against metaphysical realism in general. In Part II, I will argue against its materialist challenge by showing in what sense it too can be conceived of as an example of metaphysical realism. In Part III, I will show why there is no point in defending or in arguing against religion en bloc. Finally in Part IV, I will argue for a conception of religion without metaphysics in the traditional sense by taking account of the existential function religion actually has in human life.     

Religion as culture

When we understand religion as culture, we can value religion as a many-thousand year expression of lived human experience with accumulated wisdom. If we ask religion to carry the torch of civil harmony into the election battles, however, religious leaders will have to give up one quite precious thing, namely, the claim to absolute and unchanging truth.     

The Turning of the Tide: Theology,Religion, and Economics1

Abstract : Although capitalist free market economics is in crisis, its assumptions continue to shape not only how we do business or politics but also how we think and feel, and even what we believe. For theologians and scholars of religion this means that we can no longer do our work without taking into consideration what is happening in the economy and how it affects us; before religion can become part of the solution we need to understand how it has become part of the problem. This article investigates how economics has shaped religion and theology and develops alternative perspectives.     

The Autonomy of Morality from Religion. The End of Religion and of Relativism. Howard Mounce on Peter Winch

My aim is to defend Winch's view that morality must be autonomous from religion. I defend him from Mounce's criticism, who claims that unless morality is supported by divine law, moral relativism cannot be avoided. Winch considers the Samaritan's behaviour and says (i) that the background of divine law is irrelevant to the parable; (ii) that we do not need divine law to understand the Samaritan's impossibility to ignore the victim; (iii) and that the absolute moral ought requires no external support provided by religion. Winch adds that God cannot make any moral demand on humans, and thus He cannot reward them with salvation or punish them, without turning Himself into a means of moral corruption. All this spells the end of religion at least as far as the relation between God and man's moral and spiritual life is concerned; while relativism is shown to be morally corrupt and internally inconsistent.     

Western Cultural Psychology of Religion: Alternatives to Ideology

This essay is an extended reflection on Belzen’s (2010) groundbreaking book Towards Cultural Psychology of Religion: Principles, Approaches, Applications. We will critically examine the terms culture, psychology, and religion separately and in relation to each other. The question we address is whether unconsciously Western understandings underlie these concepts and then are exported into non-Western cultures. The concept of ‘culture’ may reflect a Western bias and may be injurious when exported if culture means de facto becoming self-consciously modern, remains an abstract idea, reinforces “othering,” and serves to colonize the other. It is proposed that we listen to voices of non-Western scholars as they reflect on what ‘culture’ means to them rather than assuming that the meaning of the word ‘culture’ is universally the same. Second, we examine briefly the ways in which our understanding of religion reflects our Western biases in terms of the presumption of secularization, the meaning of religiousness, the Christian influence on defining religion, the use of religion in Western colonization, and the degree to which religion is defined abstractly. Third, we are concerned that the psychology utilized in the emerging discipline of psychology of religion is Western in that it reflects a capitalist, industrialized, individualistic, and pluralistic culture that may be less present in other cultures and perhaps even eschewed. Further, we think that in various cultures of the world, psychological knowledge emerges less from scientific observation but from the local religious/cultural traditions themselves. Finally, we examine how cultural psychology intersects with religion. We propose a model in which the specific religious cultures nurture the attitudes, emotions, behaviors, and relationships that reflect their critical values.     

Religion and spirituality. Linkages to physical health

Evidence is presented that bears on 9 hypotheses about the link between religion or spirituality and mortality, morbidity, disability, or recovery from illness. In healthy participants, there is a strong, consistent, prospective, and often graded reduction in risk of mortality in church/service attenders. This reduction is approximately 25% after adjustment for confounders. Religion or spirituality protects against cardiovascular disease, largely mediated by the healthy lifestyle it encourages. Evidence fails to support a link between depth of religiousness and physical health. In patients, there are consistent failures to support the hypotheses that religion or spirituality slows the progression of cancer or improves recovery from acute illness but some evidence that religion or spirituality impedes recovery from acute illness. The authors conclude that church/service attendance protects healthy people against death. More methodologically sound studies are needed.     

American Psychology of Religion and the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion

It is doubtful whether there ever has been a rise‐fall‐rebirth of the psychology of religion. While the claim has marginal merit for American academic psychology, it has little application in other cultures or even within American psychology of religion outside mainstream psychology. The psychology of religion has always been and remains tied to key individuals who sustain the field. This historical fact is important in understanding the role of the JSSR in the field. Early psychologists of religion such as Hall and James set the pattern for two distinctively different approaches to the psychology of religion. Hall's approach was methodologically restrictive, inherently reductive, and came to dominate the academic psychology of religion. James ‘approach was methodological plural, receptive to the evidential force of religious experience, and quickly marginalized within American psychology. These opposing orientation continue to influence the psychology of religion in societies such as the SSR and its journal. A review of the psychologist editors of JSSR illustrates that the psychology of religion remains a marginal interest of mainstream psychology. It survives because of the interdisciplinary nature of the SSSR and its journal.