精神生活视角下的重大灾害影响研究：新冠肺炎疫情、风险应对与农村居民的宗教信仰

改革开放以来中国农村信仰结构发生了巨大变化。如何解释此现象是一个亟待解决的重大问题。现有理论指向的一个研究线索是风险。新冠肺炎疫情是新中国成立以来公共卫生领域中最为严峻的一次重大灾害，为考察风险与宗教间的关系提供了一个难得机会。据此，本项目拟以新冠肺炎疫情为例，在充分利用其自然实验属性的基础上，考察重大灾害对农村居民宗教信仰的影响，以期识别中国农村社会信仰结构变迁的原因，探索中国农村居民宗教信仰选择的动机，进而为有效应对重大灾害的冲击以及完善中国的宗教管理政策提供科学参考。具体而言，本项目重点关注以下问题：重大灾害对精神生活的影响有哪些？新冠肺炎疫情与农村居民的宗教信仰之间存在何种关系？这一关系背后的作用机制是什么？农村居民宗教信仰选择的主要动机有哪些？如何理解这一行为，是理性的还是非理性的？中国农村信仰结构变迁的原因是什么？

Great changes have taken place in structure of belief in rural China since the reform and opening up, and the explanation of its cause is an urgent issue. A clue on this puzzle which many theories give is risk. Covid-19 is a most seriously major disaster in public health since the founding of New China. This event gives a good chance to study on the relationship between risk and religion. By treating Covid-19 outbreak as a natural experiment, this study intends to estimate the impact of major disaster on the religious beliefs of rural residents. Accordingly, we can identify the causes of the changes in the structure of belief, explore the motivation of religious choice of rural residents in China. These results will shed lights on the policies aiming at effectively responding to the shock of major disaster and improving and optimizing religious management in China. Specifically, this research focuses on the following questions: What are the effects of major disaster on spiritual life? Is there a correlation between Covid-19 outbreak and religious beliefs? What is the mechanism of this relationship? What are the main motivations of religious choice among rural residents? How to understand this behavior, is it rational or irrational? What are the reasons for the current changes in the belief structure in rural China?