Workshop: Social Upheaval and Religious Innovation

该奖项支持一个研讨会，该研讨会将召集一个由社会科学家组成的国际小组，讨论社会动荡和宗教创新之间的关系。在人类社会中，无论是由于战争、经济变化还是自然灾害，社会大动荡时期往往伴随着宗教创新。在这种情况下，人们可能会感到被迫改变宗教习俗、制度，甚至创造新的宗教。但是，尽管社会动荡和宗教创新显然是有因果关系的，但人们对这些联系的性质却知之甚少。例如，社会动荡是否会引发宗教创新，反之亦然，或者因果关系的箭头是双向飞行的？动乱的性质和所涉宗教的全球多样性使得这些问题很难系统地得到回答。因此，为了更好地理解社会动荡和宗教变革之间的关系，这次研讨会选择了一种独特的方法。它将聚焦于一个地点，在那里，所有人都经历了最近的社会动荡，但在动乱后时期，有多种创新的宗教在运作。地点是南亚国家斯里兰卡，一个多民族、宗教多元化的国家，佛教、印度教、伊斯兰教、基督教和许多新的宗教运动共存。2009年，斯里兰卡结束了一场破坏性极强的长达26年的族裔间内战，造成数万人丧生。参加该讲习班的社会科学家包括斯里兰卡传统宗教和新宗教运动的所有领域的专家。本次研讨会的目的有三个：经验、理论和实践。从经验上讲，研讨会将记录和比较战后斯里兰卡各地的宗教创新，寻找共同的潜在模式。这种模式的存在或不存在将为进一步的工作确定明确的理论方向。实际上，研讨会的目的是利用这些发现来创建一组共同的研究问题，以协调未来的合作研究，以利用在一个单一的战后背景下出现多种宗教所带来的研究机会。研讨会的记录将被录制下来，供其他学者和学生使用。研究结果将通过学术出版物和公开演讲进行传播。

This award supports a workshop that will convene an international group of social scientists to consider the relationship between social upheaval and religious innovation. In human societies, periods of great social upheaval, whether due to war, economic change or natural disaster, tend to be accompanied by religious innovation. In such circumstances, people may feel compelled to change religious practices, institutions, or even create new religions. But while it is clear that social upheaval and religious innovation are causally related, much less is known about the nature of these linkages. For example, do social upheavals give rise to religious innovations, is the reverse more often true, or do the causal arrows fly in both directions? The global diversity of both the nature of the upheavals and the religions involved make such questions hard to answer systematically. Therefore, to better understand the relationship between social upheaval and religious change, this workshop has chosen a unique approach. It will focus on a single site where a recent social upheaval has been experienced by all but there are multiple innovating religions operating in the post-upheaval period.The site is the South Asian country of Sri Lanka, a multi-ethnic, religiously plural state, where Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, and many new religious movements co-exist. In 2009, Sri Lanka concluded a highly disruptive, twenty-six year long, inter-ethnic civil war, costing tens of thousands of lives. The social scientists participating in this workshop comprise specialists in the full gamut of Sri Lanka's traditional religions and new religious movements. The aims of this workshop are three: empirical, theoretical, and practical. Empirically, the workshop will document and compare religious innovation across Sri Lanka in the post-war period, searching for common underlying patterns. The presence or absence of such patterns would set distinct theoretical directions for further work. Practically, the workshop aims use these findings to create a set of common research questions to coordinate future, collaborative research, to leverage the research opportunity presented by having multiple religions present in a single post-war setting. The proceedings of the workshop will be taped for use by other scholars and students. Findings will be disseminated through scholarly publication and public presentations.