宗教问题与社会变迁的双重探索——宗教社会学在当代中国的发展轨迹

从1980年代以来,中国宗教社会学的研究就已经从欧美宗教社会学的译介开始了。30年以来,中国宗教社会学的研究,无论是对欧美经典的翻译,还是对中国本土宗教的社会学研究,都已经形成了一道可观的学术风景线,成为当代中国宗教学领域中一个重要的构成。本文对30年宗教社会学在中国的引进和发展,有一大致的综述,希望能够从中总结出中国宗教学、宗教社会学研究的某些发展规律。     

在跨文化的诠释中确立典范——杨庆堃关于中国弥漫性宗教概念的意义

在充分认识不同宗教的本质与差异的前提下,相对于西方的制度性宗教,杨庆堃创造性地提出了"弥漫性"宗教的社会学概念,使中国宗教研究得以在社会学的话语体系中获得空间。本文从宗教之间彼此诠释的重要性入手,探讨杨庆堃为中国宗教研究树立的典范:在不同文化、不同宗教间相互诠释与理解的基础上进行宗教社会学的研究,在跨文化(宗教)的诠释中来深化对中国宗教的解说与理解。     

略谈宗教学的起源与发展

本文回顾了19世纪宗教学产生之前人类对宗教问题的探索和关注。在宗教学作为一门独立的人文学科形成之后，学者们讨论了宗教的本质、起源和分类等问题，并发展了多角度的宗教学研究方法，使这门学科渐趋完善。     

试论当代宗教哲学的历史背景和主要论域

本文不仅尖锐地提出了在后休谟-康德时代,特别是在后逻辑实证主义时代,宗教哲学是否能够继中世纪和近代"再次成为哲学的可以承认的分支学科"的问题,而且从"现代经验主义的英美哲学传统"的理论维度描述了当代宗教哲学产生和存在的"历史背景",并对当代宗教哲学的主要论域,如"上帝的本性"、"宗教语言"、"对有神论的辩护"、"宗教经验"及"恶的问题"等,作了颇具特色的概述.     

社会学视野下宗教定义的讨论

本文试图以探讨社会学学科语境下宗教的定义为切入点,从源头出发确立宗教社会学的研究视野。通过对经典理论与后继理论的述评与比对,发现关于宗教的定义与各个理论流派的方法论直接关联。经典理论在定义宗教时维度相对单一:或是结构的、或是行动的、或是文化的;而后继理论则主张将心理机制、传统等因素纳入宗教定义的范畴,并反对建立关于宗教的普适性定义。     

宗教社会学研究的新视角:宗教组织研究

随着社会转型的深入,宗教在此过程中宗教性、社会性的表现形式已成为当前宗教社会学研究的重要论题之一.不论是从社会现实情况要求,还是从完善现有研究路径来看,对于推进我国宗教社会学的发展来说,宗教组织研究不失为一个较好的视角切入点;此外,我们还可借助"通过组织来研究宗教,通过宗教研究社会,通过社会来研究宗教"的分析思路来整合宗教组织研究中的不同思路.     

“全球社会”视域中的宗教变迁——宗教社会学研究中的“大问题”

随着全球社会的兴起,宗教社会学研究迎来了新的发展阶段。全球社会背景下的宗教变迁表现出"世界化"与"本土化"的互动、"现代化"与"传统化"的交融、"世俗化"与"神圣化"的嬗变等错综复杂的形态。而对全球宗教变迁的有效探讨和反思,有利于宗教社会学确立问题意识,获得新的发展。     

2000年以来国内宗教学理论研究述评

本文概述和评析了2000年以来国内宗教学理论及宗教人类学、宗教社会学、宗教心理学、宗教现象学等分支学科所关注的问题、代表性论著及其研究进展情况,并在此基础上提出了国内宗教学界有待于进一步研究的理论与现实问题.     

宗教社会学的演变——主题与变奏

宗教社会学的演变呈现出这样一条轨迹:开始是给予宗教理所当然的重要性,然后是假设宗教在衰落,继而又重新与之一席之地。宗教社会学的创立者为这个学科确立了一些基本的观点,在后来的学者中得到不同的发挥,并在欧美形成不同的学术议程和理论流派。当今学者应该采纳更复杂的分析工具,创造性地结合普遍性和差异性,才能有效地理解全球性愈来愈强的宗教现象。     

论早期黑格尔的“爱的宗教”

黑格尔早期宗教思想发生了一次转折,由康德式的道德宗教转到"爱的宗教"上来。如何理解这种"爱的宗教",其本质是什么?目前学界尚未提出和思考这一问题。从黑格尔对道德和伦理的区分来看,"爱的宗教"肯定不是道德宗教,而应是一种伦理型宗教。     

The Role of Attitudes Toward White Privilege and Religious Beliefs in Predicting Social Justice Interest and Commitment

The current study examines links among attitudes toward White privilege, religious beliefs, and social justice interest and commitment for White Christian students. Two distinct patterns of results emerged from a path analysis of 500 White Christian students. First, a willingness to confront White privilege was positively associated with the sanctification of social justice (i.e., attributing spiritual significance to working for social justice) and both were positively associated with social justice interest and commitment. Second, awareness of White privilege was negatively associated with religious conservatism, and religious conservatism was negatively associated with social justice interest. These patterns show that White privilege attitudes directly (i.e., willingness to confront White privilege) and indirectly (i.e., awareness of White privilege through religious conservatism) predicted social justice interest and commitment. Moreover, religious beliefs demonstrated opposite patterns of association with social justice interest and commitment such that the sanctification of social justice positively predicted social justice interest and commitment whereas religious conservatism negatively predicted social justice interest. Overall, findings demonstrate direct and indirect links between White privilege attitudes, religious beliefs, and social justice interest and commitment. Limitations and implications for future community psychology research and collaboration also are discussed.     

A Child of the Empire: British Sociology and Colonialism, 1940s–1960s

British sociology was established as an academic discipline between 1945 and 1965, just as the British Empire was gearing up for a new phase of developmental colonialism backed by the social and other sciences. Many parts of the emerging sociological discipline became entangled with colonialism. Key themes and methods in sociology and the staff of sociology departments emerged from this colonial context. Historians have tended to place postwar British sociology in the context of expanding higher education and the welfare state, and have overlooked this colonial constellation. The article reconstructs this forgotten moment of disciplinary founding and explores three of the factors that promoted colonial sociology: the Colonial Social Science Research Council, the so‐called Asquith universities, and the social research institutes in the colonies; and the involvement of sociologists from the London School of Economics in training colonial officials.     

Social Justice and Religious Participation: A Qualitative Investigation of Christian Perspectives

This investigation examines how self-identified Christians in the Midwest U.S. understand and work for social justice, with a focus on their process of social justice development and the role of religious congregations in promoting social justice. Using a grounded theory analysis of 15 in-depth interviews, results indicated multiple understandings of social justice such as meeting basic needs, fixing social structures and systems to create equal distributions of resources, promoting human rights and dignity, and as a religious responsibility. Participants also described a process of social justice development facilitated by exposure to injustice, mentors, educating others, and the importance of finding a social justice community. Distinct personal barriers to social justice engagement were identified such as resources and negative emotions, whereas congregational leadership was important for congregational involvement. General frustration with congregations was expressed regarding low social justice engagement; however, participants balanced this frustration with hope for the positive potential of congregations to promote social justice. Together these findings show multifaceted understandings of social justice and a dynamic process of social justice development for these self-identified Christians. Implications for future research and partnership with religious individuals and congregations also are discussed.     

Women, piety and practice: A study of women and religious practice in Malaysia

While the definition of religion in sociology has been highly contentious, we define religion in this article as simply the acts of piety that are conducted within the religious sphere. The point of this definition is to draw attention to practice and away from belief. This approach to religion appears to be especially useful in the case of contemporary Islam, where female piety has become a significant aspect of religious renewal. The idea of a religious sphere is taken from the work of Luc Boltanski and his colleagues who have coined the expression ‘the inspirational city’. Religion thus consists of acts of piety within the inspirational city, where this space is seen to be in tension with the secular city. The measurement of piety in everyday life sharply differentiates the profane world from religion. These ideas are explored in this article through qualitative data that are drawn from a small sample of pious women in contemporary Malaysia. We explore three aspects of female piety: veiling, polygamy and child-rearing. The article attempts to understand the terms in which piety is measured within the broader context of the Islamization of public life in Malaysia.     

Religiousness,social support and subjective well‐being: An exploratory study among adolescents in an Asian atheist country

Few studies have focused on the relationships among religiousness, social support and subjective well‐being in Chinese adolescent populations. This study tries to fill this gap. Using cluster sampling, we selected two groups: Group A, which included 738 Tibetan adolescents with a formal religious affiliation and represented adolescents from a religious culture, and Group B, which included 720 Han adolescents without a religious affiliation and represented adolescents from an irreligious culture. Structural equation modelling showed that only in Group A did social support mediate (partially) the relationship between religious experience and subjective well‐being; furthermore, the results of a hierarchical regression analysis showed that only in Group A did social support moderate the relationship between religious ideology and subjective well‐being. Possible explanations for the discrepancies between the findings obtained in this study and those obtained in previous studies are discussed.     

Social capital and religious and civic participation in Riga,Latvia: findings from the 2014 social survey

The article discusses the link between religious and civic participation in Riga based on the data obtained from a social survey in 2014. Religious and civic participation is a prerequisite for building social capital within a local community. Four types of relationships between civic and religious engagement have been identified: (1) individuals with no religious or civic activity; (2) religiously active individuals with no civic activity; (3) individuals involved in civic activities but who are religiously inactive; and (4) individuals involved in both religious and civic activities. Although the survey data indicate a weak correlation between civic and religious activities, religiously active individuals are more likely to be involved in civic activities.     

Religious Congregations as Mediating Structures for Social Justice: a Multilevel Examination

Scholars in the field of community psychology have called for a closer examination of the mediating role that religious congregations serve in society, especially in relation to the promotion of social justice. The current study provides such an examination, offering a multilevel examination of religious individuals (n = 5,123) nested within religious congregations (n = 62) with a particular focus on how individual and congregational level variables (i.e. theological orientation, frequency of religious attendance, bonding and bridging social capital) predict individual prioritization of and participation in congregational social justice activities. Findings indicated that individual level theological orientation was associated with prioritization, and demographics and social capital bonding were associated with prioritization and participation. Furthermore, congregational bridging social capital was associated with the prioritization of justice, whereas congregational theological orientation moderated the associations between frequency of religious participation for both prioritization of and participation in congregational justice activities. These findings show that specific aspects of the congregational setting (i.e., congregational theological orientation) are important to the individual prioritization of and participation in social justice activities. These findings provide support for the role of religious congregations as mediating structures for social justice. Implications for future research are also discussed.     

A Commentary on Religious Conflicts and a Call for a Focus on the Best the Traditions have to Offer

The casual observer of the religious traditions cannot get a very good impression when attending to the daily news. One might easily conclude that much of the troubles in the world today are caused by religious conflicts and the inability of the religious communities to get along. Sometimes, it appears that the planet would be better off without religion at all. Tragically, most of the general population are perhaps religious illiterates who focus on religious differences and conflicts rather than similarities and what they offer at their best. While there are a number of efforts by scholars and others to improve interfaith respect and conversation, our world would be better off if we focused on the best the religious traditions have to offer rather than the worst as well as respecting and being open to traditions other than our own. This could be accomplished if religious education and training were greatly altered.     

Immigrant students’ educational expectations: the role of religious affiliation and practice

A body of scholarly work has emerged on educational expectations. More recently, the relationship between educational expectations and immigrant background in Western Europe has been investigated. Although the results of this type of inquiry show that students with an immigrant background tend to have higher educational expectations, potential explanations of this relationship remain unarticulated. In this article, we investigate whether religious affiliation and practice help explain the relationship between immigrant background and educational expectations. We use the Flemish survey data from the 2009 wave of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS). In comparison with students who claimed to have no religious affiliation, students with a Muslim and other religious affiliation were more likely to have these expectations. This relation does not hold for the students with a Christian religious affiliation. However, the effect of religious affiliation disappears when the effects of religious participation were included. We also found that the more religiously active, the higher the educational expectations are for the students. This effect diminished when we controlled for talking with parents about political or social issues. The relationship between immigrant background and educational expectations is partially explained by the level of religious practice and religious affiliation of students.