Contemporary World Religion

Author: Fan Lizhu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-04-10
Features: This book's first part introduces several fundamental elements of religion: the construction of meaning or the need to confront the deeper meaning of life, as well as the transcendence or search for values worth living or even dying for. The opening chapters include an overview of Western religion and the academic tradition of religiosity, while arguing that these spiritual conversions exist at the core of China's folk beliefs and practice culture. The second part incorporates certain themes related to modern religious consciousness, starting with the secularization hypothesis, which once had a significant impact but is now widely questioned (the secularization hypothesis predicts that religion's fate is inevitably doomed in the process of modernization). The discussion then shifts to the similarities and differences as internal driving forces of modernization in both the East and the West, and analyzes the position and expression of religion and religiosity in late modern culture. The third part proposes several perspectives on the future development trends of religion in China. Chapters 9 and 10 discuss the beliefs and practices of China's traditional heritage as potential resources for China's development in the 21st century. In the final two chapters, the book reflects on the possible contributions of Chinese religion and religiosity to the peaceful development of world civilization. This book conducts academic research on religion in a unique way. With authentic Chinese and English, it explains religion, religiosity, and modernity from the perspectives of both Eastern and Western cultures, serving as a model work for cross-cultural research on religion. The three authors, coming from different disciplines—sociology, social psychology, and religious history—collaboratively achieved this interdisciplinary and cross-cultural study.