什么是“信仰”，什么是“社会”？此乃当下使用最多的两大词汇，但它们却同时缺乏严格的社会学定义。“信仰”似与宗教有关，却更与现实权力、利益、个人身份及其对信仰模式的建构紧密相关；人们一旦谈及信仰或宗教信仰，似乎就嵌入了一个内涵多样的语境及其现实关系之中，最后构成了信仰方式的中国问题。而在与信仰方式紧密相关的层面，是否也存在着与国家对应甚至与市场独立的“社会”领域？在传统的“天下”家国体制、近现代的民族与革命、当代的国家与经济市场，各种资源与关系结构之间，人们对社会的理解也无最后结论。正是在社会学意义上的”社会“缺席的基础上，社会大众的信仰几乎成为一种现实利益的私我补偿，变异为一种私人化的信仰方式，这就构成了当代中国社会治理与信仰方式之间的深层分离，导致当下社会治理层面缺失了深厚而规范的道德资源。这是目前中国宗教——信仰社会学研究之最重大问题之一。

What is “faith”， and what is “society”? These two terms are used most frequently but they lack strict sociological definitions. “Faith” seems to be religious， but it is more closely related to practical power， profits， individual identities and the construction of faith modes. A discussion of faith or religious faith seems to be immediately inserted in a context with rich connotations and realistic relations， which consequently forms the issue of the ways of faith in China. Is there a “social” domain independent of the state and the market as far as the ways of faith are concerned? There is no determined understanding of “society” in complicated contexts of traditional political order tianxia， modern nation and revolution， and contemporary state and economic market. It is due to the absence of “society” in a sociological sense that the mass peoples faith almost becomes an issue of seeking practical personal benefits and then mutated into a privatized way. Thus， social governance and the way of faith are deeply separated， resulting in the missing of profound and normative moral resources at the layer of social governance. This is one of the most serious issues in the sociological research of faith.