论儒学对民间神明信仰的影响——以闽台民间神明信仰为例

儒家通过人的神化和神的道德化两个方面的造神运动实现了对民间神格塑造的影响。在鬼神信仰上的宗教伦理理性的价值取向是儒学对民间信仰产生影响的思想渊源,国家机器的神道设教和知识分子推动是这一影响的现实途径。     

琉球家族的宗教观与宗教生活——以祈愿文、结愿文为例

本文以家文书中祈愿文、结愿文为基本资料,分析琉球家族的宗教观和宗教生活。由于受到特殊的自然地理和历史文化的影响,琉球家族的宗教观是多神信仰,其中御岳、火神、祖灵、观音为其信仰的主体。琉球家族的宗教活动主要围绕着与现实生活密切相关的祈福禳灾而展开,具有浓厚的功利性色彩。琉球家族的宗教观和宗教活动,从一个侧面反映了琉球王国的宗教信仰。     

A Religious Diversity Tale: A Multi-Faith Case Study

This article examines the creation of a network of diverse religious leadership in a Midwest suburb where the intersection of religion and national pride fomented a community-wide conflict. Activated during a heated controversy over displaying a Christmas tree in a public school, the Network became a laboratory for testing viable strategies for community healing. The case of a Jewish student suspended for fighting when taunted for not singing Christmas Carols became a catalyst for debating what is religious, what is secular, and what is culturally American. The interaction of the key players is noted; educators, religious leaders, students and their families, particularly the mothers who regularly interacted across religious boundaries. The article describes the Network's experiment with deploying resources that accommodated diverse experiences of religion and patriotism, historically and culturally, within an American context.     

Religious Life Under Theocracy: The Case of Iran

The occurrence of the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, followed by a large‐scale “Islamization” of society, resulted in some unique developments with regard to religious life in this country. Over the past two decades, there has been a lively debate among social scientists about the nature of such developments, and over their implications for other Middle Eastern and Islamic societies. Most of the contributions to this debate so far have been limited to the examination of different theoretical possibilities, without strong references to empirical evidence. In the present study, we attempt to address this shortcoming in the existing literature on religious developments in Iran by relying on a rich set of empirical data recently gathered through a large‐scale national survey of values and attitudes in Iran. Through a composite index of religious sentiments, we explored the magnitude and the nature of religious sentiments among groups of different age and gender. Also, we examined changes with regard to religiosity in the period between 1975 and 2001. The outstanding finding is that the establishment of a theocratic regime in Iran has led to the transformation of the nature of faith, marked by a noticeable shift from “organized” to a more “personalized” religion, in which the emphasis is placed on beliefs rather than on practices. Also, among both beliefs and practices, more emphasis is placed on those with a purely individual nature, or with a social nature but organized through civic and nongovernmental bodies, as opposed to those commanded by the government. The article ends with a brief discussion of the implications of such developments for the existing debate among sociologists of religion on secularization and “de‐secularization.” Our findings indicate that any linear perspective on the demise or survival of religion in society will unreasonably brush aside the fact that religion is not merely a social institution, but also a “cultural resource” that individuals may draw upon, depending on their surrounding sociopolitical circumstances and their reading of those circumstances.     

Handling Doubt in Teaching Religion: A Turkish Case Study

Abstract. This study ventures to sketch the dimensions of stress in religious thinking among young Muslims studying theology in Turkish universities and the ways in which these tensions are handled in educational institutions. As a result of a review of related literature, together with the use of a questionnaire with 382 respondents and interviews with 15 participants, the extent of experienced intense religious stress, the source, the content, the ways of resolution, the duration, and the period of religious stress were identified. Finally, the cognitive, educational, theological, and socio‐cultural challenges to which young Muslims were exposed were delineated and possible ways to overcome these problems were outlined, with some suggestions for educational settings. (The questionnaire mentioned in this essay can be found on the Wabash Center Web site < http://www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu/journal/ok.html >.)     

Teaching Religion in Its Contemporary Contexts: A Case Study

Abstract. After the disheartening results of an informal investigation of content knowledge and reading comprehension among her students, the author ponders the implications for her teaching objectives. What are we, as educators in religious studies, really teaching and how are we doing it? How are we accommodating students with less traditionally honed academic skills without diminishing content? She describes her experiments with several new teaching strategies for enhancing student learning by helping them improve basic skills, develop cultural literacy, and relate course content to their personal experience.     

Religion and Coping: A Contribution from Religious Studies

Freud and Marx pegged religion as a beguiling painkiller. Recent social scientific research has exposed the not-so-simple reality of religious coping, identifying differential usage, means, and outcomes. Appropriately, psychologists, many with clinical training, lead the way. This article is a contribution from religious studies. It describes two thus far neglected modes of religious coping that are prominent in traditions and distinctly representative of religious responses to suffering—magical rituals and religious experiences. Consideration of these forms will address deficiencies and imbalances in the literature apparent from the study of religions. Specifically, the current investigation of religion and coping would benefit from historical perspective, greater attention to unconscious coping processes, heightened use of qualitative data, and fuller recognition of the challenges inherent in the therapeutic use of religion .