中欧社会论坛 - China Europa ForumTranscendent Dimension of a Disenchantment Era
Authors: Yang, Xusheng
Published by DuShu (Reading), 2009, No. 6, pp.89-96
In the spiritual context of contemporary China, the matter of religion is a significantly unique cultural and social topic. This article hopes to provide a general outline on a number of fundamental issues, problems and other related issues in this area. Furthermore, issues of plights which contain many paradoxes that require closer inspection. It also aims to restate its initial horizons.
Problem I: The concept of religion in the special context of China: name and reality
In modern religious studies, ( when coming from the perspective of employing academic criticisms to deal with human civilisation, which is evolving in step with the phenomenon of religion in the world ) a paradox has arisen to a certain extent between name and reality. In ancient China, most of the notes recorded in classical books indicated that “religion” was basically used for the values of traditional Confucianism, with the main point always being that “Teachings are performed by masters of great learning and integrity”. In the Buddhist scriptures, the meaning of the religion is “being faithful to a certain school”, to be willing to embrace a certain ideological trend, or to directly convert to “the teachings of a religion”, which could be a unique teaching method or a special school of thought.
The contemporary academic concept of “religion” was introduced from Japan in modern times, as the modern academic term which was correspondingly translated from the western word Religion into Chinese. The concept consists of the key elements of modern religion: the transcendental level prescribed for the nature of religion, the issue of “the establishment of religion”, the positive social function of religion which embraces sociology of religion and ethics. In terms of understanding the concept of religion, the concept of ancient religion is different from that of modern religion.
Problem II: The history and spirit of religion: has China been a religious country or a non-religious country since the beginning?
Investigations relating to religion and religious issues are an important area of Chinese intellectual history. Confucianism, Witchcraft culture, Taoism, Buddhism all receive mutual recognition from religious and secular circles. So far, apart from Buddhism, a history of communication of Chinese and Western religions has not only become prominent in overseas Sinology schools, but has also supplied endless topics in the field of comparative studies of world religion. In addition to these clearly established religions, various folk religions and worships, such as Tibetan Buddhism, (known as Lamaism), Shamanic Traditions, and the worship of Matsu, are all powerful examples of the religious history of China. In the Chinese context, the paradigm of the monotheistic religions with prophets and revealed religions has become the reference standard and the evaluation criteria. In Europe, Christian theology and religious studies are becoming more open with more flexible models and norms of the 20th century. Chinese scholars have selected the internal framework of Christian theology as the standard of conservative religious views. From the perspective of the religious spirit, if religious studies is placed in the morphological vision, then maybe the plight of epistemology can be avoided.
Problem III: Religion in the Modern Construction Process: Entzauberung and Verzauberung
German sociologist Max Weber believes that the entire modern history of the world is actually a spiritual history of “Entzauberung” in which religion is one of the “evil spirits” which are constantly being dispelled. “Verzauberung” refers to a new cycle of worldwide religious revival over the past decades, such as the New Age Movement and the other numerous kinds of new religions or quasi-religions.
Entzauberung and Verzauberung offer a starting point to understanding China’s religious fever over the last twenty years. Modern individuality, spirituality and internal levels, are all to some extent inseparable from a religious life. The deep thoughts about religion and religious issues have become important aspects which are inevitable for the modern construction process in China.