A Lateral Reading of Religion: Christianity in Sister Relationships

Sociologists of religion continue to give precedence to parent–child transmission in studies on religion and family. In doing so, other kinds of family relationships that also influence religious beliefs and practices remain in the background. In this article, instead of using a vertical lens, religion in the family is approached through a lateral reading of sisters’ religious lives. Drawing on 13 biographical accounts, which included family diagrams and time-lines, conducted with adult women who identified as sisters and as Christian, this article examines the intersection of religion with practices of intimacy and social context. By looking laterally, this article explores the mutual shaping of religion and sibling ties and gives recommendations for the way this under-researched area can expand the sociological study of religion within families.     

论宗教伦理的世俗性与超越性

宗教伦理有世俗性和超越性两方面。宗教伦理的世俗性,是宗教处理人与人之间的现实联系,使人有序安定地生活在人世间,能够信仰宗教和实践宗教的基础;宗教伦理的超越性,是宗教倡导信仰者要超越自我而与神的规范、教诲相联系,超越人的现实性而与神的永恒性相联系,超越现实世界而与神的彼岸世界相联系。世俗性和超越性是宗教伦理作用于信众的重要特征。     

Global Hindu Communities: Constructing a World Religion in the South Asian Diaspora

International Journal of Hindu Studies -     

An Antiseptic Religion: Discovering A Hybridity on the Flux of Hygiene and Christianity

An antiseptic religion is a form of Protestant Christianity that was shaped in the context of colonization in Korea. This term was coined to explain a religious hybrid that was produced by the intermingling of American Evangelical Protestant Christianity, the concept of hygiene (germ theory) and indigenous Korean religiosity. This research deals with a historical process of making ‘a medicalized religion’ in Asia from a perspective of postcolonialism. Most of the early American Protestant missionaries in Korea were medical doctors who were influenced by the Germ theory of illness and considered Western medicine as an efficient tool to evangelize the country. As a result of their mission, a religious culture which emphasized washing away sins from the soul as analogous to washing away germs from the body was born. In addition, the Korean people developed a very unique form of public bathing ritual centered in the development of public baths to alleviate anxiety and to destabilize the solid strategies of the Japanese and the Americans, the two major colonial powers in Korea’s history in the late 19th century.

Rethinking the Connections between Religion and Civic Life for Immigrants: The Case of the Chinese Diaspora

Through interviews with 33 Chinese American first- and second-generation immigrants, we ask how narratives that describe the link between religion and civic life differ among Buddhists, Christians, and nonreligious Chinese. All groups stress the tight institutional connections between religion and politics in the United States. For Chinese Christians, congregations provide opportunities to serve their fellow parishioners and the wider community, as well as political rhetoric to guide practices. Buddhists actively criticize a religious organizational approach to community service and the US connection between politics and religion, emphasizing the development of inherent ethical dimensions for motivating service to others. And the non-religious stressed the role of religious organizations in facilitating volunteering. There is also a difference between the responses of first- and second-generation immigrants, with first-generation immigrants having a more difficult time understanding the meaning of American community service. Results expand scholarship on the connection between religion and civic life.     

从马克思的宗教批判看其与基督教的联系及意义——以马克思的几句著名格言为例

通过对马克思几句著名格言的分析,我们看到,马克思的宗教批判(主要以基督教为原型),既是一个否定、颠覆的革命过程;又是一个无法决绝断裂的文化承继发展过程.马克思思想与基督教是两种具有许多本质差异的世界观、人生观,但这些差异性的存在,并不一定是两者相互诋毁、相互对抗的根本,也可以成为双方相互尊重、相互补充的前提;马克思的宗教批判不能简单地看成是对上帝存在不存在问题的辩驳,因为这其中包含着对于世界、历史、人的价值、生存意义、人格尊严的革命性宣告;马克思的宗教批判,对近现代基督教思想家产生过巨大影响.     

面对基督教:克尔凯郭尔和尼采的不同取向——兼论尼采对克尔凯郭尔的批判

本文以互读的方法试图揭示克尔凯郭尔与尼采面对基督教信仰所采取的截然相反的态度。克尔凯郭尔坚持生存者需要一个"全知全能"的上帝,而尼采认为上帝的"全知全能"性正是上帝要被杀死的原因;克尔凯郭尔极力张扬基督教人本主义思想,而尼采则批判基督教人本主义的虚妄性和奴隶本性。尼采认为,克尔凯郭尔的基督教上帝正是形而上学式思想的残余,因此克尔凯郭尔的哲学在根本上是一种"基督教哲学";是尼采彻底颠覆了形而上学,真正使哲学的关注点落实到了人的"生活世界"。     

Religion,Health, and the Psychology of Religion: How the Research on Religion and Health Helps Us Understand Religion

An increasing replication of studies find a correlation between religious belief and practice and mental and physical health and longevity. This paper discusses some of the implications of this research for the ways in which religion might understood psychologically. Most interpretations of this data focus on the presence of one or more mediating variables. This paper argues that the presence of these mediating factors helps us understand more precisely some of the ways in which religion actually does impact on human life and in what the psychological uniqueness of religion actually consists.