宗教性的测量:历史与脉络

基于对过去50多年较为知名的宗教性测量工具的回顾,本文以因子分析为切入点,解析宗教性测量工具的研究方法、历史和脉络、动力和作用,进而阐述中国的宗教性测量研究状况,包括中国宗教不同于西方宗教的特性,以及为应对这种差异而提出的不同研究路径,强调宗教性测量研究应坚守自己的使命意义。     

关于儒家传统的思考——读彭国翔的《儒家传统——宗教与人文主义之间》

彭国翔先生著《儒家传统———宗教与人文主义之间》于2007年1月由北京大学出版社出版。本书汇集了作者十年间研究儒家传统宗教性问题的重要论文。书中将儒家传统的基本性质界定为一种宗教性的人文主义,基于西方晚近拓展的宗教观念诠释了儒家传统的宗教性,并讨论了儒家传统的多     

宗教性的常态与变态:一个解读儒学的新视角

儒学是否为宗教是学术界长期争论又无结果的问题。一些学者为扩大对话的平台,从“宗教性”这个“最大公约数”入手,探讨儒学与宗教的关系。笔者以为,仅仅停留在宗教性上仍然是不够的,还应进一步追问:儒学作为一种封建社会官方“独尊”的信仰体系,其宗教性在历史上是否发生过某种变异?这种变异对中国古代社会发展有何影响?本文即试图从宗教角度探索中华文明由先行变为落后的文化原因。一、“宗教性”的常态与变态一般说,任何宗教都包含对某种超凡力量的信仰以及由此而来的崇拜。其中“超凡”是一个关键词,它就是宗教性的本质体现。在高级宗教…     

儒教问题的讨论与儒学在新时期的发展

关于儒学的人文精神,人们已有普遍的共识,但对于儒学是否宗教与儒学宗教性的讨论,则至今仍有争议。反思近代以来关于儒学是否宗教以及儒学宗教性的讨论,将有助于全面认识儒学的特质与价值。我们在肯定儒学人文精神的同时,也应看到儒学同时具有的宗教性,这对于儒学在今天更好地发展并发挥积极作用具有重要的意义。     

网络宗教生活对基督徒的宗教性的影响——以长沙市在线基督徒的宗教生活为实证研究基础

本文立足于长沙市网络基督徒的宗教生活现实,通过问卷调查和个别访谈的方法,试图考察网络宗教生活对于基督徒的宗教性的实际影响状况.结果表明,网络宗教生活不仅没有削弱信徒的宗教性水平,反而加强了信徒的宗教性水平.在对于结果的进一步讨论中,我们认为有两方面的原因导致了信徒宗教性的不降反升.一,在网络化逻辑下宗教所实现的电子物质化过程;二,宗教性作为人所潜藏的天性,当遇到适宜的社会环境时,它就有可能茁壮地成长起来,成为人的"第二伦理语系".     

信仰与教化之间:儒学宗教性之历史性格刍议

通过探析制度框架下之孔教运动,以及现代视域下之新儒家"宗教问题",经由历史向度之比较以求了解儒学宗教性之历史性格,意在揭示中国传统儒家文化中不可忽视的宗教性之原义,乃是一类不同于基于对神"信仰"的,而是基于对民"教化"的宗教意识。简言之,信仰与教化之间不容忽视的契合性,是儒学在其宗教性维度应有之历史性格。     

我所见到的"德友"

初闻“德教”,是在我国的一些媒体上,知道这是在东南亚华人中间流行的一个宗教性的组织,以复兴中华传统文化为己任,内部盛行扶乩的活动。我们这个“东南亚华人宗教文化学术考察团”将以“德教”的主要考察内容。因此,在离开北京飞往泰国曼谷的5个小时的     

古典儒学宗教性的不同解读

杜维明与安乐哲对古典儒学宗教性的诠释 ,分别强调儒学中的超越性和共同创造性 ,代表了诉诸超越和非超越话语两种诠释方向。成中英从比较神学的角度对古代中国神性观念的讨论则突显了儒学中的神性问题。本文选取杜维明、安乐哲与成中英三者为研究个案 ,来看他们对儒学宗教性的理解以及在他们的理解中儒学的宗教思想有何特质。论文第一部分以杜维明对儒学宗教性的研究为主 ,阐述分析“内在超越”理论 ;第二部分介绍分析安乐哲对古典儒学宗教性的诠释 ,重点阐述“共同创造”观念和“礼”的宗教维度 ;第三部分介绍成中英“无神学的神性”观念 ,展开古典儒家对神性的理解。这些研究表明 ,在扩展了的宗教观念的基础上来认识儒学时 ,可以肯定儒学具有宗教性。有争议的仍然是儒学的“超越性” ,而这对一部分学者来说 ,仍是儒学宗教性的问题。     

中国宗教性公益组织发展模式刍议

本文从宗教社会学的角度,回顾、梳理了宗教慈善公益组织的相关研究和理论文献,探讨了中国宗教性公益组织的运作特点和发展方向,及其在现代化、全球化背景下所面临的机遇和挑战。文章指出,当代中国的宗教性公益组织不仅具备独立性、公益性、志愿性等非营利组织的一般特征,亦具有宗教性组织核心、参与性多元合作以及全球性项目开展等特殊的组织运作机制。这些组织特性不断地交织互动、彼此作用,共同构成了中国宗教性公益组织独特的发展模式。     

儒家思想的宗教性问题(下)

四、牟宗三：“即道德即宗教”的超越论到了五十年代末期,当代儒者有关儒家思想之宗教性问题的认识有一转向,这突出地表现在以下两个方面：一是明确肯定儒家思想中包含了宗教的层面;二是,不是从功能方面,而是从思想内涵本身特别是从对宗教性的超越存在的肯定方面,说明儒家思想的宗教性。其中尤以牟宗三先生的有关论述最具代表性。（一）性与天道：儒家对于宗教性存有的认识及牟宗三有关思想的演变牟宗三指出：“在西方,宗教问题,当然是指自古犹太思想体系中衍生出来的基督教而说的;印度,则是印度教和佛教。中国以前虽然没有产生像…     

The Public Perception of "Cults" and "New Religious Movements"

The term "cult" has attracted much criticism from several sociologists of religion and religious studies scholars in recent years, and many scholars have dropped the word for a less pejorative term such as "new religious movement" (NRM). This research note seeks to determine if simply substituting an alternative term for cult changes people's attitudes toward a religious group. To this end, over 2,400 randomly selected Nebraskans were asked how comfortable they would feel if their neighbor joined a cult, NRM, or a "new Christian church," and whether the government should regulate the activities of these groups. The survey results reveal the remarkably negative view Nebraskans have of cults, their general acceptance of NRMs, and their broad support for new Christian churches.     

Effects of objective feedback and "single other" or "average other" social comparison feedback on performance judgments and helping behavior

In two studies, participants received positive or negative feedback about their performance on a verbal task and then provided hints to another person on a subsequent, different task. It was expected that participants would give more helpful hints after positive than after negative feedback but that this would be more apparent when the feedback was based on performance comparisons with the "average participant" than on comparisons with another person or an objective standard. This effect was expected to be mediated by judgments of one's performance on the first task. These predictions were supported. Participants seemed aware of the effect of feedback on their hint choices, and their hint choices did not alter their affect levels. Also, participants receiving comparative (single or aggregated target) feedback exhibited changes in self-ascribed importance of the performance domain. Implications for social comparison theory and self-evaluation maintenance theory are discussed.     

"Knowledge by acquaintance" and "Knowledge-about": A psychometrical demonstration

In two studies, students were asked to rate their knowledge of a number of different topics, extracurricular as well as drawn from their textbooks of the history of psychology and philosophy. The score distributions on a scale from "unknown" to "well known" were in all cases distinctly U-formed, as if knowledge were a question of either/or, rather than one of degree. However, when knowledge was rated on a scale from "know nothing about" to "know much about", the U-pattern failed to appear, and the students tended generally to give more cautious ratings. The differences are interpreted as evidence for the philosophical and linguistic distinction between "knowledge by acquaintance" (German: "kennen", French: "connaître") and "knowledge-about" (German: "wissen", French: "savoir").     

PREFERRING "HOUSEWIVES" TO "FEMINISTS"

Four studies are described outlining the favorability of attitudes toward women. In Study 1, participants indicated their attitudes toward women and men and their construal of the term "women". The results revealed that women were evaluated more favorably than men, but that male right-wing authoritarians (RWAs) who construed women as referring primarily to feminists were least favorable in their attitudes. In Study 2, participants indicated their attitudes toward both "housewives" and "feminists". The results revealed that feminists were evaluated less favorably than housewives, and that the most negative attitudes toward feminists were expressed by authoritarian men. Study 3 revealed that high-RWA males held more negative symbolic beliefs concerning feminists (i.e., beliefs that feminists failed to promote participants'values) and that these beliefs accounted for variation in attitudes among high RWAs and much of the RWA-attitude relation. Finally, Study 4 revealed that high RWAs perceived greater value dissimilarity between them-selves and feminists. The implications of the findings for future research are discussed.     

"Self-execution" and state execution

In the United States from 1977 to 1999, the suicide rate of death row inmates was not associated with their probability of execution (r = -.25).     

"Existential" therapists and their group therapy practices.

Existential philosophical thought insists that human behavior is indeterminate and subject only to the individual's will. It is, therefore, skeptical of all dynamic psychologies based as they are on Freudian determinism. Group therapists imbued with this philosophy stop short of its extreme. Their existential position, however, does greatly modify treatment, and yet they preserve both the form and goals of therapy. They place properly selected and prepared patients in a group where their individuality and authenticity are highly valued. Finding most technical procedures irrelevant, the therapists themselves, that is, their evolving personalities are central. The key to patient change is the spontaneous meeting of members and the therapist which the therapist orchestrates. Instead of the usual interpretation, members are encouraged to confront the paradoxes in their lives, their humanness, and especially their finitude. Patients are to be brought up to the threshold of their self-knowledge so they can choose. Choice, therefore, along with action coupled with responsibility are frequent themes. Unless the individual is incompetent, decisions made for him or her by the therapist or by group consensus are thought to be nontherapeutic.     

Sleeping beauties in psychology: comparisons of "hits" and "missed signals" in psychological journals

Scientific publications tend to be forgotten quickly. A few works, however, are still cited 100 years and more after their publication. The author used bibliometric methods to compare "hits" (works noticed by the scientific community soon after their publication) with "missed signals" (works that went unnoticed until much later) by investigating 2 psychological journals founded in the 1890s: Zeitschrift für Psychologie and Psychological Review. All articles that were published in either of these journals up to 1920 and cited more than 25 times in the Web of Science up to the year 2000 were considered for inclusion in the analysis. It emerged that hits corresponded more closely to the focus of scientific attention at the time of the publications than missed signals.     

"Us" and "Them":

Abstract: In the Aristotelian tradition, politics is a matter of public deliberation over questions of justice and injustice. The Bush administration's response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, has been uniformly hostile to this notion, and it has instead promoted a jingoistic politics of self‐assertion by an America largely identified with the executive branch of its government. This is doubly disturbing, as the executive branch has sought to free itself from international law, multinational commitments, and domestic judicial regulation, even as it has sought to validate itself by demonizing its enemies. This essay draws out the disturbing echoes here of Carl Schmitt's work of the 1920s, in particular of Schmitt's conception of the sovereign as the ungrounded ground of the law and the political as the site of mortal conflict between friend and enemy. The essay argues that Schmitt's position in the twenties, for all of its evident problems, is superior to that of Bush, Wolfowitz, and Ashcroft in at least two senses: Schmitt condemns the idea of waging war for profit and recognizes that such wars will often be disguised as moral crusades waged against the “inhuman”; and he acknowledges that claiming to fight a war for humanity denies one's enemies their humanity, leaving them open to torture and even extermination.     

"Evidence-debased medicine" and the integrity of the medical profession

Patients trust physicians to prescribe based on their fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of their patients, and physicians prescribe based on confidence in research data and clinical guidelines. Recent reports erode confidence in evidence-based medicine. Through self-regulation and a willingness to change, the medical profession can assert its status as a profession distinct from outside influence, serving one interest: the healthcare of patients and the public.     

"Enactment" in the lives and treatment of Holocaust survivors' offspring

This paper explores an aspect of "enactment" often seen in Holocaust survivors' offspring: the compulsion to re-create their parents' experiences in their own lives through concrete acts. At the core of this compulsion is a psychic hole, a gap in the child's emotional understanding, stemming from identification with the parents on one hand, and the parents' denial or repression of the trauma on the other. The compulsion to enact can be transformed into a cognitive mode when such offspring are helped to find the meaning of the trauma in their parents' lives, as is illustrated here by clinical examples.