对本土宗教的认识误区及其负面影响

Misunderstandings of Indigenous Chinese Religion and Their Negative Effects

近现代中国透过西方宗教观的有色眼镜看待本土宗教,造成对本土宗教的诸多认识误区。中西宗教的存在形式和状况都有巨大差异。忽视这些差异,用建立在建制性基督宗教范式基础上的西方宗教观看待中国本土宗教,造成对宗教的认识高度混乱,将本土宗教判定为建制性宗教、将我国绝大多数人判定为无宗教信仰者、片面注重对各宗教信徒人数的统计、宗教学研究以建制性单一宗教分科等一系列认识误区。这些认识误区负面影响我国的宗教、社会和宗教政策,造成多种危害。

The modern society has viewed indigenous Chinese religion through the tinted glasses of Western religion, causing many misunderstandings. Indigenous Chinese religion is fundamentally different from Western religion, not only in existing forms, but in social status as well. By ignoring these differences and interpreting indigenous Chinese religion according to the Christianity paradigm of institutional structure, the modern society has created a series of misunderstandings, including but not limited to： a） chaotic views of indigenous religion; b） classifying indigenous religion as institutional religion; c） categorizing the majority of Chinese as non-religious believers; d） over-emphasizing the value of statistics on the numbers of believers of various religions; e） branching religious studies according to institutional religions only. These misunderstandings have strong negative effects on Chinese religion, society and religious policy.