Belief as cultural performance: towards a new framework for studying the religious and secular life-worlds of young people

作为文化表现的信仰：建立研究年轻人宗教和世俗生活世界的新框架

• 批准号: AH/G016380/1
• 负责人: Gordon Lynch
• 金额: $ 3.18万
• 依托单位: Birkbeck, University of London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2009 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FG016380%2F1
• 关键词: Belief; cultural; performance; towards; new

There are significant changes in the ways in which young people interact with religion in economically developed societies, both in terms of new forms of intense religious engagement and the construction of secular life-worlds. Academic interest in these changes has prompted a number of major studies of changing patterns of belief amongst young people in various national contexts, including Britain, Scandinavia, Holland, North America and Australia. With the exception of particular religious sub-cultures, these studies have tended to show that even in more overtly religious societies, such as the United States, young people tend to be 'incredibly inarticulate' about their beliefs and the role that these beliefs play in their lives. This has led some scholars to express concern about the apparent loss of religious memory and commitment in the wider population of young people, as well as leading others to suggest that this data provides fresh evidence for debates about the secularization thesis.Whilst this body of research has provided valuable data, the concept of 'belief' that underpins it is open to question. Within the anthropology of religion there is a well-established debate as to whether 'belief' - in the sense of individual assent to a particular creed or metaphysical propositions - is a culturally universal phenomenon. Historians have also suggested that such a notion of individual, propositional belief is a product of post-Reformation Western culture, in which questions of individual religious identity and creedal affiliation became more pressing, and that in medieval Europe belief took the form of maintaining pious practices rather than giving concious assent to metaphysical propositions. Where as most contemporary sociological studies of the beliefs and spirituality of young people typically assume that belief as assent to metaphysical propositions is a universal human phenomenon, there are reasonable grounds for exploring the idea that belief is better understood as a cultural performance, learned in particular historical, religious, social and political contexts, which can also take non-verbal and embodied forms. This raises questions about why particular performances of belief become popular or important for young people in specific contexts, as well as the processes through which young people learn to become 'believing subjects'. It also raises questions about the limits of the concept of belief. Is the concept of 'belief' always necessarily a helpful way for framing the ways in which young people experience meaning and value in their lives? And is the performance of belief something to be associated primarily with particular kinds of engagement with religious tradition, or do young people also demonstrate secular forms of belief?This network will use two workshops and a conference, as well as an on-line 'virtual conference', to explore theoretical assumptions about belief, and to discuss how a critical approach to the concept of belief can inform the study of the religious and secular life-worlds of young people. Participants will explore the idea of belief as a cultural performance from a range of disciplinary perspectives - including sociology, anthropology, practical theology, drama, religious studies and cultural studies. Theoretical ideas about belief as cultural performance will also be refined through a range of empirical case studies drawn from different times, places and religious traditions. This will help to clarify the different forms that belief might take in various social and cultural settings, as well as to expand our understanding of different kinds of performances of belief. The network will also place a strong emphasis on thinking about how understanding belief as cultural performance could influence the methods that researchers use to study religion and youth.

在经济发达社会中，青年人与宗教互动的方式发生了重大变化，无论是在新形式的密集宗教参与方面，还是在世俗生活世界的构建方面。学术界对这些变化的兴趣促使人们对不同国家青年人信仰模式的变化进行了一些重大研究，包括英国、斯堪的纳维亚、荷兰、北美和澳大利亚。除了特定的宗教亚文化，这些研究往往表明，即使在更公开的宗教社会，如美国，年轻人往往是“令人难以置信的口齿不清”他们的信仰和这些信仰在他们的生活中发挥的作用。这使得一些学者对更广泛的年轻人群体中宗教记忆和承诺的明显丧失表示担忧，也导致其他人认为这些数据为关于世俗化论点的辩论提供了新的证据。虽然这些研究提供了有价值的数据，但支撑它的“信仰”概念仍有待商榷。在宗教人类学中，有一个很好的争论，即“信仰”--在个人同意一个特定的信条或形而上学命题的意义上--是否是一种文化普遍现象。历史学家还认为，这种个人的、命题性的信仰概念是宗教改革后西方文化的产物，在这种文化中，个人宗教身份和信仰归属的问题变得更加紧迫，在中世纪的欧洲，信仰采取的形式是保持虔诚的实践，而不是对形而上学的命题给予有意识的赞同。当代大多数关于青年人信仰和精神的社会学研究通常认为，作为对形而上学命题的赞同的信仰是一种普遍的人类现象，但有合理的理由探索这样一种观点，即信仰更好地理解为一种文化表现，在特定的历史、宗教、社会和政治背景下学习，也可以采取非语言和具体的形式。这就提出了一个问题，即为什么在特定的环境中，信仰的特定表现对年轻人来说变得流行或重要，以及年轻人学习成为“信仰主体”的过程。它还提出了关于信仰概念的局限性的问题。“信仰”的概念是否总是一种有益的方式，可以帮助年轻人在生活中体验意义和价值？信仰的表现是否主要与对宗教传统的特定参与有关，或者年轻人也表现出世俗形式的信仰？这个网络将利用两个讲习班和一个会议，以及一个在线的“虚拟会议”，探讨有关信仰的理论假设，并讨论如何对信仰概念进行批判性的研究，为青年人的宗教和世俗生活世界的研究提供信息。参与者将从一系列学科角度探索信仰作为文化表现的想法-包括社会学，人类学，实用神学，戏剧，宗教研究和文化研究。关于信仰作为文化表现的理论观点也将通过一系列来自不同时代，地点和宗教传统的实证案例研究来完善。这将有助于澄清信仰在不同的社会和文化背景下可能采取的不同形式，以及扩大我们对信仰的不同表现形式的理解。该网络还将重点关注如何将信仰理解为文化表现，从而影响研究人员研究宗教和青年的方法。

项目成果

Introduction: Belief as Cultural Performance

简介：作为文化表现的信仰

• DOI: 10.1080/13537903.2013.783315
• 发表时间: 2013
• 期刊: Journal of Contemporary Religion
• 影响因子: 1
• 作者: Day A

Abby day, 'Researching belief among young people', RS Review, 7(3), pp.20-22. Specialist publication for A Level RS teachers and students by Phillip Allan Updates.

Abby day，“年轻人的信仰研究”，RS Review，7(3)，第 20-22 页。

• 作者: Prof Gordon Lynch (Technical Report)