The Problem of Assuming Institutional Neutrality in the Transmission and Transformation of Belief

 講題：The Problem of Assuming Institutional Neutrality in the Transmission and Transformation of Belief

主講人：康克（Cole N. Carnesecca, 中原大學宗教所助理教授）

日期：6月22日（一）15:00-17:00 

地點：民族所2420

Debate about the role and progress of secularization in diverse national contexts often overlooks or underplays the role of new and changing institutions in transforming religious belief and practice among a population and, in particular, its social and political elites. The conceit that modern state formation creates a religiously neutral space fails to account for how these spaces either implicitly or explicitly undermine religious practices and beliefs. This study argues that this oversight is produced by weaknesses in how secularization has been debated theoretically and fails to reflect the historical role of institutional influence on changes to religion and religious policy during the transition to “modern” statehood. I draw on the processes of state formation in China and Japan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to illustrate how the crucial role of institutional contexts shaped decisions about religion’s role in a “modern” state.