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国际社会科学家小组，考虑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、经济变革还是自然灾害，巨大的社会动荡时期往往伴随着宗教创新。在这种情况下，人们可能会被迫改变宗教习俗、机构，甚至创建新的宗教。但是，尽管社会动荡和宗教革新之间存在着因果关系，但人们对这种联系的性质却知之甚少。例如，社会动荡是否会引发宗教革新，相反的情况是否更常见，或者因果关系的箭头是双向的？动荡的性质和所涉及的宗教在全球范围内的多样性使得这些问题很难系统地回答。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。它将集中在一个单一的网站，最近的社会动荡经历了所有，但有多种创新的宗教在动荡后的时期运作，该网站是斯里兰卡，一个多民族，宗教多元的国家，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长达二十六年、极具破坏性的种族间内战，造成数万人死亡。参加这次讲习班的社会科学家包括斯里兰卡所有传统宗教和新宗教运动的专家。本次研讨会的目的有三：经验，理论和实践。从经验上讲，研讨会将记录和比较斯里兰卡战后时期的宗教创新，寻找共同的基本模式。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套共同的研究问题，以协调未来的合作研究，利用在一个单一的战后环境中存在多个宗教所带来的研究机会。研讨会的过程将被录音，供其他学者和学生使用。调查结果将通过学术出版物和公开演讲传播。

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.