Publication
Title
China challenges secularization theory
Author
Abstract
The author proposes a reflection on challenges that the three anthropological articles in this issue present for secularization theory. The first two discuss "performances" of religion in two different Chinese cultural periods: welfare services offered by recognized religious associations in the Peoples Republic of China and the judicial rituals in colonial settings. The author suggests similarities with such "performances" in western culture. The second part of the article discusses some issues raised by Szonyi in his comparison of recent social research literature on Chinese religion and sociological literature on secularization: a critique of the concept of "modernity" in relation to secularization; a reflection on the possibility of establishing a secularization theory with universal validity; how to integrate rational choice theory and secularization theory; the validity of secularization in view of individual religious sensitivity; and secularization as an ideology and a discussion of the so-called "privatization of religion" in secularized settings.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Social compass. - Louvain
Publication
Louvain : 2009
ISSN
0037-7686 [print]
1461-7404 [online]
DOI
10.1177/0037768609338758
Volume/pages
56 :3 (2009) , p. 362-370
ISI
000269982100005
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 19.11.2009
Last edited 25.05.2022
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