做好农村和少数民族中的宗教工作

党中央、国务院对切实做好农村和少数民族中的宗教工作历来都十分重视。去年在北京召开的全国宗教工作会议强调指出：做好农村宗教工作对于保持农村社会政治稳定，巩固基层政权，维护农民利益和促进农村社会主义物质文明、精神文明建设具有重要的作用。     

佤族宗教的特质及其文化意义

中国西南地区的佤族宗教,具有原始宗教多神信仰的特点.论文通过对佤族宗教的神灵和信仰,佤族宗教的木鼓、铜鼓,佤族宗教民俗与占卜法术的详细分析,认为佤族宗教保存着较多原生古朴的特质,在西南少数民族宗教类型中具有典型意义.     

加强宗教活动场所规范化管理 以会昌县为例

江西省会昌县是全省宗教工作重点县之一,登记备案的宗教活动场所128处,各类教职人员60人,信教群众3万余人。近期,对照《宗教事务条例》《江西省宗教事务条例》,会昌县及整个赣州市对宗教领域深层次问题开展专项调查,进一步研究和完善宗教活动场所规范化管理工作。一、现有措施1.抓制度建设,确保有章可循。     

哈尼族自然宗教的神职人员——莫批

莫批是哈尼族社会生活中的重要角色之一。他们既是自然属性的人,又是人神交界的代言人;他们曾经是哈尼族社会政治领袖人物,又是宗教祭司。莫批作为哈尼人民为人处事的楷模,又是哈尼人人生价值的标榜。本文在分析莫批产生的历史演变基础上,阐述莫批在哈尼族社会中的功能和地位及其在哈尼族地区构建和谐社会和保护生物多样性中具有的重要现实意义。     

谁是休谟的宗教代言人?——《自然宗教对话录》解析

对休谟的《自然宗教对话录》的解读历来存在一个核心问题,即谁是其宗教观点代言人的问题。以史密斯为代表的学者主张斐罗代表休谟的宗教立场;以亨德尔、莱恩为代表的学者认为克里安提斯的观点体现了休谟的真实意图。实际上,休谟的宗教立场与其哲学立场紧密相关,既包含一种怀疑主义,也包含一种自然主义,二者并非相互对立。相应地,斐罗的宗教怀疑论和克里安提斯的自然主义有神论也并非互不相容,二者最终在恪守上帝存在这一宗教情感的层面达成一致,并分别从两个角度展示了休谟的宗教观。     

以“三个代表”为指针，做好新时期的宗教工作

江泽民总书记提出的：中国共产党始终代表中国先进社会生产力的发展要求、中国先进文化的前进方向、中国最广大人民的根本利益的重要思想,是在世纪之交国际形势错综复杂,国内改革开放战略实施的关键时期,总结我们党80年历史经验和国际共产主义运动150年历史经验,适应时代发展要求提出来的,“三个代表”的重要思想,是我们党的立党之本、执政之基、力量之源,是新时期宗教工作的指导方针。这个重要思想对我们认真贯彻党的宗教政策,依法管理宗教事务,积极引导宗教与社会主义社会相适应有着重大指导意义,我们必须深刻领会,全面贯彻,努力推进我省宗教事务管理工作。     

以宗教文化为切入点 全面提升宗教工作水平北大核心CSSCI

近年来,辽宁鞍山市宗教局致力于以宗教文化为切入点,引导宗教教职人员提升自身素质,践行社会主义核心价值观,促进教风建设,提升宗教活动场所建设水平。     

自然、文化和自然遗产：走向自然之文化

人们常把自然和文化看作是对立的。按这一看法,自然因为文化的发展或作用而逐渐衰落。人们需要根据“文化景观”的概念,对这两个术语间的关系进行新的分析。通过分析认识到,即使承认文化结构的创建作用,也可把自然视为是一重要的、独特的范畴。谈论并且追求自然的文化是明智的,所以人们不必把文化和自然考虑成彼此对立的,这些思考对自然遗产的保护具有重要的意义。     

正确理解和全面把握社会主义初级阶段党对宗教问题的基本观点和基本政策

正确理解和全面把握社会主义初级阶段党对宗教问题的基本观点和基本政策,是做好新世纪初宗教工作的关键。中央一再强调,全党同志一定要清醒地理解党的宗教政策。并希望从事宗教工作的同志系统地学习马克思主义关于宗教的理论,全面把握党对宗教问题的基本观点和基本政策。中国正处在社会主义初级阶段,认识和处理宗教问题都应当立足于这样的基本国情。     

文化传播视野下的信仰与仪式——以中国西南少数民族与道教关系为例

宗教学研究中的信仰与仪式密切相关,信仰与仪式始终是宗教的两个重要范畴。本文以文化传播视野下的信仰与仪式为中心,来探讨中国西南少数民族与道教的关系,比较分析原始宗教与神学宗教相互融摄的文化意义。认为当今中国西南少数民族传承的道教,是经历长期历史文化积淀的结果。中国西南少数民族与道教的关系是双向渗透、相互影响的,从而形成具有中华特色的道教与西南少数民族传统宗教。     

The Field of Science and Religion as Natural Philosophy

“Natural philosophy” is an important term from the history of science because it was used to describe the study of nature during medieval and early modern Europe. This article gives an overview of the history of natural philosophy, since the use and eventual disuse of the term helps one to understand the emergence of modern science. Following a suggestion by the historian of science Peter Dear, I argue that the term deserves to be rehabilitated because it draws attention to the complexities of scientific theorizing. The article concludes with an argument that the field of science and religion should be seen as an updated version of natural philosophy.     

Religion and Sexuality: The Perversion of a Natural Marriage

From the beginning of human history religion and sexuality have shared certain characteristics. But what existed in early history as a natural linguistic and liturgical marriage between two activities with certain shared emotional, psychological, and even physical goals, ended in most of the great religions centuries ago in divorces fueled by patriarchal fear and prejudice. The split between sexuality and religion is especially evident in the repression of women and the criminalization of sexuality characteristic of our Abrahamic religions, factors that have led all too often to tragic and perverted parodies of the old natural marriage.     

Religion as Cultural Models: Developing an Emic Measure of Religiosity

Despite a century's worth of work, lacunae remain in our understanding of the religion‐health relationship. Scholars in this field have called for increasingly sophisticated conceptualizations of religiosity that refine its connection to well‐being, accounting for both positive and negative associations, while being sensitive to the cultural variations in the experience of religion. This article argues that cognitive anthropological methods provide a novel approach to these issues by conceptualizing aspects of religion as culturally shared “styles of life.” Specifically, the combined approaches of cultural consensus and cultural consonance provide an emically valid measure of religiosity that is then linked to health through the psychosocial stress paradigm. Utilizing research among Brazilian Pentecostals within the state of São Paulo, this intrareligious study evaluates the predictive power of religious cultural consonance relative to widely used and established religiosity scales. Religious consonance is found to have a stronger correlation with psychological well‐being than comparable measures, suggesting that existing standardized measures miss important dimensions of the religion‐health relationship. As such, this article outlines an important area of collaboration between anthropologists and other religion‐health researchers.     

Religion and Self: Notions from a Cultural Psychological Perspective

After a brief introduction of a cultural psychological perspective, this paper turns to the concept of self. The paper proposes to conceive of that reality to which the concepts of self refer as a narrative, employing especially autobiographies and other ego-documents in empirical exploration. After discussing some psychological theories about “self,” the paper points out that they may well be applied in research on personal religiosity.     

Video Methods,Green Cultural Criminology,and the Anthropocene: SANCTUARY as a Case Study

Documentary criminology is a burgeoning, open-ended methodological technique that crafts and depicts sensuous knowledge from the lived experiences of crime, transgression, and harm. This ‘video ethnography paper’ examines my 74 minute documentary, SANCTUARY, as a case study to demonstrate how documentary criminology draws upon green cultural criminology, video methods, and sensory studies to provide an experiential understanding of crime (in this case, against donkeys) and rehabilitation in the contested notion of an ‘anthropocene’ epoch. I trace how documentary criminology can evoke and enact the lived experiences of “donkey rehabilitation” as sensuous scholarship.     

Walter Burkert and a Natural Theory of Religion

In his studies of ancient cultures, Walter Burkert has usually focused on materials derived from Greece and the ancient Near East. In Creation of the Sacred, he examines religious universalia in order to account for the ubiquity and persistence of the phenomenon of religion and to produce a general theory of religion. The themes and problems he has examined in previous books have led him to the claim in Creation of the Sacred that religion can be traced to origins in biology, and that religion derives from biology and language as genes and culture co-evolve.     

The (Dis)similarity of a Minority Religion to Its Broader Religious Context: The Case of American Jews

While much research shows the relationship between individual-level variables, such as Jewish background, education, age, and income and an individual’s Jewish identity, very little research has systematically addressed the question of community context, either general or Jewish, as a factor influencing Jewish religious or ethnic identity. This lack of research has been partially a result of the lack of an adequate data set to facilitate such analysis. Using the newly-aggregated Decade 2000 data set, with its 19,800 cases spread across 22 Jewish communities, we find that despite the anecdotal evidence and the logic that suggests that environment impacts behavior, the environmental impact on Jewish identity is clearly weak. Individual characteristics are much stronger than community context in explaining variations in the strength of Jewish identity.