苦难与宗教增长：管制的非预期后果

Sufferings and Religious Growth:Probing into the Unintended Consequences of Religious Suppression

通过比较历史研究,本文揭示了受压制宗教的成长逻辑,认为压制会产生一些非预期后果:压制往往促进宗教团体进行教义创新,提高信众的来世收益;与压制相伴而生的牺牲和污名有助于降低宗教教义所蕴含的不确定性,从而让宗教变得更可信、更真实,吸引更多的追随者;同时压制构筑了一道防护栏,将搭便车者拒之门外,提高了信众的委身程度,也增加了信众在精神和物质上的净受益;压制会促使宗教进行制度上的创新,维持组织网络,让宗教团体禁而不止,并在动荡的社会中迅猛发展。

Through comparative history studies, this paper seeks to reveal the logics beneath the growth of suppressed religions, holding that suppression can lead to some unintended consequences. Repression are helpful because it not only can induce suppressed religions to create adaptive doctrines, but also can reduce the risk of the uncertainty in religious goods and mitigate free-riding through creating a social barrier that filters out half-hearted members. In addition, suppression drives religious groups to adopt institutional innovations to sustain the networks, to keep the followers ＇ morale and to avoid detection. The sustained networks make massive recruitment possible. All of these unwanted consequences of religious suppression, which fall out of the prediction of religious regulators, contribute to the vitality of suppressed religion.