Global Religious Transformation and Chinese Community: Secularization, Religionization, Rationalization and Embodiment

doi:10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5579.2017.02.004

Abstract

Abstract:

This paper discusses four of the most important global trends as they were accommodated, adjusted, and transformed on both sides of the Taiwan Strait: the removal of religion from politics(secularization), the attempt to confine it to a purely religious sphere(religionization), the increased interest in textual authority and religious self-consciousness(rationalization), and an increase in the direct physical manifestations of belief through unmediated physical experience(embodiment).The current similarities show the relative importance of shared cultural traditions and share global influences over differing forms of political control. Nevertheless, some significant differences have also appeared in the religious ecology of the two places, especially in the relative importance of local temple worship, Buddhism, and Christianity. One result is that Taiwan's adaption to global religious change has had much stronger indigenous Chinese roots than we see on the mainland.

Key words: secularization, religionization, rationalization, embodiment, Jiangsu, Taiwan

Robert Paul Weller. Global Religious Transformation and Chinese Community: Secularization, Religionization, Rationalization and Embodiment[J]. Journal of East China Normal University (Philosoph, 2017, 49(2): 48-55.

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