A Survey of Religious Studies in Japanese and American Higher Education Systems

由于宗教几乎完全被排除在日本公共教育的学校课程之外，对大多数学生来说，大学是他们能够充分了解宗教和宗教研究的第一个地方。具有讽刺意味的是，由于经济困难，这种宗教本科课程最近已经缩小了规模。鉴于宗教在全世界越来越受到重视，宗教教育是宗教学者在日益多样化的社会中可以发挥的一个主要公共作用，这种情况尤其严重。在这样的背景下，这项调查给出了，第一次，关于本科课程，其中宗教研究是一个中心焦点的硬数据。调查结果的英文本载于本表所附的小册子。本论文于2005年3月作为论文发表于第19<th>届国际历史学会世界大会。主要结果与分析1.其中最受欢迎的课程之福尔斯属于“日本研究”的范畴，这是一门从民族学的角度研究日本一般文化传统，包括其宗教方面。可以认为，美国大学的“基督教或圣经”课程对应的是“日本研究”课程，而不是“神道研究”（即神道历史、文本等的研究）课程。在日本的大学里。宗教课程在公立大学中相当均衡，但在私立大学中则不然。“生物伦理学/环境伦理学”课程越来越受欢迎，其中40%是从宗教角度教授的。生命伦理学和环境伦理学越来越被认为是人们期望自然科学和宗教研究之间合作的新领域。“性别与宗教”课程由男性教授的人数是女性的五倍，这与美国大学的情况截然不同。

Since religion is nearly entirely excluded from school curricula in Japanese public education, colleges, for most students, are the first places where they can learn about religions and religious studies substantially. Ironically, such undergraduate programs of religion have recently been downsized due to economic difficulties. The situation is especially critical, given that religion is gaining more and more attention worldwide and teaching about religion is a major public role that scholars of religion can undertake for an increasingly diversified society. Against such a background, this survey gives, for the first time, the hard data about undergraduate curricula in which the study of religion is a central focus. Its results are available in English in the booklet attached to this form. It was originally presented as a paper at the 19^<th> World Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions in March, 2005.Main Results and Analyses1. One of the most popular courses falls under the category of "Japanese studies," a study of general Japanese cultural traditions, including its religious aspects, from a largely ethnological perspective. It can be assumed that courses in "Christianity or Bible" in American colleges correspond to courses in "Japanese studies" rather than those in "Shinto studies" (that is, the study of Shinto history, texts etc.) in Japanese colleges.2. Courses in religion are fairly balanced in kind among public colleges but not among private colleges.3. Courses in "Bioethics/Environmental Ethics" are becoming popular, and 40% of them are taught from religious perspectives. Bioethics and environmental ethics are increasingly recognized as new fields where people expect the collaboration between natural sciences and religious studies.4. "Gender and Religion" courses are taught five times more by men than by women, which is quite different from the case of American universities.