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

在经济发达的社会中，年轻人与宗教互动的方式发生了重大变化，无论是新形式的强烈宗教参与，还是世俗生活世界的构建。学术界对这些变化的兴趣促使了许多关于不同国家背景下年轻人信仰模式变化的主要研究，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“难以置信地不清楚”他们的信仰和这些信仰在他们的生活中所扮演的角色。这导致一些学者对越来越多的年轻人明显丧失宗教记忆和信仰表示担忧，也导致其他人认为，这些数据为有关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，但支撑这些数据的“信念”概念还有待商榷。在宗教人类学中，关于“信仰”——在个人对特定信条或形而上学命题的认同的意义上——是否是一种文化普遍现象，存在着一个根深蒂固的争论。历史学家还认为，这种个人的、命题式的信仰观念是改革后西方文化的产物，在这种文化中，个人的宗教身份和信仰归属问题变得更加紧迫，在中世纪的欧洲，信仰的形式是保持虔诚的实践，而不是有意识地同意形而上学的命题。大多数关于年轻人信仰和精神的当代社会学研究通常认为，信仰作为对形而上学命题的认同是一种普遍的人类现象，而我们有合理的理由去探索这样一种观点，即信仰最好被理解为一种文化表现，是在特定的历史、宗教、社会和政治背景下习得的，它也可以采取非语言和具体化的形式。这就提出了这样的问题：为什么在特定的环境中，特定的信仰表演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。它也提出了关于信仰概念局限性的问题。“信念”的概念是否总是对年轻人在生活中体验意义和价值的方式有帮助？信仰的表现是否主要与宗教传统的特定形式联系在一起，还是年轻人也表现出世俗形式的信仰？这个网络将使用两个研讨会和一个会议，以及一个在线的“虚拟会议”，来探索关于信仰的理论假设，并讨论对信仰概念的批判性方法如何能够为年轻人的宗教和世俗生活世界的研究提供信息。参加者将从社会学、人类学、实践神学、戏剧、宗教研究和文化研究等多个学科角度探讨信仰作为一种文化表现的概念。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得到完善。这将有助于澄清信仰在不同社会和文化背景下可能采取的不同形式，并扩大我们对不同类型信仰表现的理解。该网络还将重点考虑将信仰理解为文化表现如何影响研究人员用于研究宗教和青年的方法。

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.