公民社会中的宗教:罗伯特·伍斯诺的多维分析模式述评

The Religion in a Civic Society:A Study on Robert Wuthnow's Model of Multi-dimensional Analysis

上世纪80年代末以来,宗教社会学研究逐步突破了世俗化理论的桎梏,从更为宽广的视角考察宗教与现代社会的关系问题。其中,公民社会视域下的宗教研究,是20世纪80年代以来西方宗教社会学领域的重要进展之一。与偏重于政治角度的研究不同,以罗伯特·伍斯诺为代表的一类学者主张对这一主题进行多维度分析,这些维度主要包括构成公民社会外部压力的政治、经济维度以及体现公民社会内部挑战的多元化与共同体维度。在大量经验研究基础上,伍斯诺对作为公民社会要素的宗教在应对这些压力和挑战时的角色和结果作了深入分析,中立客观地揭示了宗教在不同层面、不同领域对现代社会的复杂影响。目前,这位重要学者的思想理论,在国内尚未引起重视,因此较完整地介绍伍斯诺的宗教-公民社会理论,可以为当前中国宗教与公民社会研究提供新的理论视角与理论资源。

To analyze religion in the perspective of civil society is an important progress in Western sociology of religion since the 1980s.Disagreeing with political analyses in the area,Robert Wuthnow advocates a multi-dimensional analysis on this issue.His framework includes:dimensions of politics and economy which compose external pressures on the civil society;the dimensions of diversity and community which challenge the civil society from the inside.Robert Wuthnow studies roles and consequences of religion as an element of civil society,when replying to these challenges and pressures.It is regretted that we haven't paid enough attention to this important scholar's theory and thought.This paper tries to make a relatively complete comment on Robert Wuthnow's studies of religion and civil society,thus providing rich theoretical resources for a further study on Chinese religion and construction of civil society.