A Study of Religious Activities in Small Urban Areas

本研究项目明确了以下几点。与大城市或农村地区相比，小城市地区宗教状况的研究相当少。考虑到城市化的结果和人们生活的变化在小城市比较容易观察到，在小城市的研究调查应该更广泛。在过去的研究中，总部设在关东或关西地区的新宗教运动引起了研究者的兴趣。然而，在北九州地区建立了一些新的宗教，他们往往有特色的教义或传教方法。在与神道教神社有关的宗教现象中，祭礼正经历着令人瞩目的复兴。一些祭礼以传统的方式举行，而另一些则以更现代的方式举行。在这两种情况下，祭礼的复兴都被认为与维护或加强当地社区有关。由于近年来信息媒介的迅速发展，大城市和小城市的宗教活动差别不大。其中一个原因是，无论城市的规模大小，信息媒体本身的发展导致传教方法的相似性。另一个原因是，新兴宗教往往会迅速采用对传教工作有用的新技术，有时还会模仿其他宗教使用的方法。

The following points have been made clear by this research project. I. There exist quite a few studies of the religious situation in small uroban areas compared with such studies in big cities or rural areas. Considering that the results of urbanization and changes of the life of the people are relatively easy to observe in small cities, research surveys in small cities should be made more widely.II. In former studies, new religious movements whose headquaters were established in the Kanto or Kansai districts have attracted the interest of the researchers. However, some new religions were established in the North kyushu district, and they often have characteristic teachings or methods of missionary work.III. As to religious phenomena relating to Shinto shrines, matsuri are experiencing remarkable revitalization. Some matsuri are held in traditional style, and others are held in more modern fashion. In both cases, revitalization of matsuri is thought to be connected with the maintenance or reinforcement of the local community.IV. As a result of recent rapid progress in information media, there exist few differences between religious activities in big cities and small cities. One reason for this is the fact that the development of information media it- self causes similarities in methods of missionary work regardless of the scale of the city. The other reason is that new religions tend to quickly adopt the new technology which is useful for missionary work, and sometimes imitate the methods used by other religions.