General Study on Religions and Modernity

本研究主要探讨宗教制度与现代性的关系。我们组建了一个由8名正规研究人员和4名非正规研究人员组成的团队。他们的专业是如此不同，以至于我们可以通过两年来组织的五个研讨会来涵盖所有重要的社会。我们开始区分三种类型的现代化进程：1）最先进的社会，如英国和法国，那里的世俗和宗教的对立最明显，自19世纪后半叶以来; 2）次现代化社会，如德国和日本，那里的世俗和宗教神秘地结合在一起，形成了一种称为法西斯主义的混合体; 3）殖民地社会，如印度和马来西亚，同时经历了现代化和西方化。在一些国家，如许多非洲国家，基督教被接受为主要宗教;但在另一些国家，如印度和马来西亚，它被完全拒绝，传统宗教被更急切地塑化。人们普遍认为，现代性是宗教信仰和实践的二律背反。本文还对宗教研究中的主要概念进行了梳理，包括世俗化、神圣化、仪式化、占有化、融合主义、民族宗教、民间宗教、殖民主义与宗教、政治与宗教等。

This study focuses on the relations between religious systems and modernity. We have formed a team composed of eight regular researchers and four irregular researchers. Their specialties are so different that we could cover all the important societies through our five workshops organized for two years.This study aimed a comparative one. We began to distinguish three types of modernization process:1) The most advanced societies like England and France, where the secular and the religious opposed most clearly since the latter half of the nineteenth century.2) The secondary modernized societies such as German and Japan, where the secular and the religious combined mysteriously to form an amalgam called fascism.3) The colonized societies like India and Malaysia, which underwent modernization and westernization simultaneously. In some countries, like many African countries, Christianity was accepted to become a primary religion; but in other countries like India and Malaysia, it was totally rejected and the traditional religion is plasticized with more eagerness.It is generally accepted that the modernity is antinomy of religious belief and practices. But this study has demonstrated that the relations betweens these two is more complicated and that problematizing these altogether is very favorable to deepen our understanding of modernity and of religion.This study has also examined the chief notions of religious studies to make them clear: secularization, sacred, ritual, possession, syncretism, nationalistic religion, folk religion, colonialism and religion, politics and religion.