After Said,After Ayodhya: New Challenges for the study of Indian Religions

Gerald James Larson, India's Agony Over Religion. Albany, New York, SUNY Press 1995. ISBN 0-7914-2411-11 (cl), 0-7914-2412-X (pa). Peter van der Veer, Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India. Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1994. ISBN 0-520-08220-6 (cl), 0-520-08256-7 (pa).     

The Christianization of African Traditional Religions

In studies of the historical growth and spread of Christianity in Africa, the focus has been too much on Christianizing African social and religious institutions and structures, and not enough on African traditional religion itself, which needs to be addressed by Christianity. This article addresses the core – that is, the theology and worldview – of the African traditional religion. It argues that this core needs to be Christianized and shows how this can be done. In order to achieve this task, the article uses a new theological method, a “systematic theology” of African traditional religion, as the basis for a theological method of engagement and interaction of religions and worldview. This new method explains in practical terms how Christianity can effectively Christianize African traditional religions and worldviews.     

宗教在当代社会的蜕变

当前世界宗教发生的变化表现为:宗教日益重视社会参与和政治参与,日益发挥其文化的社会功能,宗教国家化的趋势的发展以及宗教与社会冲突和民族冲突的关系日趋紧密。这一切与宗教的蜕变有密切的关系而又有所不同。由于它的蜕变,使宗教极端主义成为当代宗教的一个新的动向;造成这种变化的原因在于宗教的政治化。但是宗教极端主义并不仅仅在伊斯兰教中存在,在其它宗教中也以不同形式、不同程度存在。分析这个情况,旨在说明宗教与政治、宗教问题与政治问题、宗教与宗教极端主义是不同的概念,也是不同领域的问题,我们不能等同看待,混为一谈。     

日本宗教的文化定位

日本宗教常游离于本体之外，从而表现出极强的融合性。这不仅使其本体模糊，也为诸种宗教的彼此渗透和社会文化的侵淫提供了可能。因此，今天的日本宗教在很大程度上是一种大众文化，有时甚至是文化实用主义者随意使用的一种工具或名目。     

Religions in Europe

The breakdown of European society is changing rapidly, particularly in the field of religion. Culture is of vital importance to the presence of religion in all nations. Religions also have exerted a certain degree of political power, thus influencing the economy and other related spheres of life.The different religions in Europe exhibit a variety of attitudes towards religious pluralism. The religious differences between Western and Eastern Europe depend mainly on issues of national identity related to religious adherence.This essay provides an overview of religion and politics, or Church and state, in Europe. It will conclude with some reflections about possible future developments within religious traditions in Europe. New religious communities and religious organisations are reaching different parts of Europe, sometimes very far from their place of origin. Christianity (Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Protestantism) is the most widespread religion in contemporary Europe. Catholic religion is well diffused in Europe, but there are substantial differences in belief, behaviour and practice within different Catholic communities. There are various branches of Orthodoxy in Europe, such as the distinct autocephalous churches. In general Orthodox religion is closely aligned with national culture. Islam is also present in Western countries, and its impact is evident.     

The Role of a Merit Principle in Distributive Justice

The claim that the level of well-beingeach enjoys ought to be to some extent afunction of individuals' talents, efforts,accomplishments, and other meritoriousattributes faces serious challenge from bothegalitarians and libertarians, but also fromskeptics, who point to the poor historicalrecord of attempted merit assays and theubiquity of attribution biases arising fromlimited sweep, misattribution, custom andconvention, and mimicry. Yet merit-principlesare connected with reactive attitudes andinnate expectations, giving them some claim torecognition and there is a widespread beliefthat their use indirectly promotes thewell-being of all. After critically evaluatingarguments for and against assigning a prominentrole to merit in a distributive protocol, it isargued that an entitlement to the ``doubtful andspeculative' but not the ``known andpresumptive' components of well-being can flowfrom perceived relative merit. However,statistical equality of outcome with respect togroups is mandatory. Semi-meritocracies aredefensible institutions, but existing rewardschemes by and large do not meet the conditionsof social justice.     

从温州宗教现状看宗教的世俗化

本文以实地调查材料揭示了新时期温州宗教的发展和重大变化,指出在经济体制急剧改革和社会经济迅速发展的背景下,广大教徒的思想观念、价值取向和生活方式都表现出明显的世俗化倾向;他们更关注物质世界和世俗利益,宗教保守主义和禁欲主义受到了极大的挑战。并指出在市场经济和世俗文化的冲击下,宗教自身水准下降,内涵和灵修削弱,宗教道德滑坡等消极腐败现象。文章还针对温州宗教现状及其走向提出了自己的看法。