从语义困境到理论潜力——中国本土宗教学理论建构的“术语”问题

From Semantic Dilemma to Theoretical Potential: Some Terminological Issues about the Construction of the Theory on China's Domestic Religious Studies

随着对中国本土信仰生活的田野观察,以及从文化和社会史角度出发的信仰传统研究日益深入,适应本土文化及信仰语境的宗教学理论建构,已经成为宗教研究的重要课题。中国宗教研究的术语概念多是以白话文的形式译自西方宗教学概念体系的,因此,术语概念在跨文化和跨时代的双重翻译中呈现出与理论来源及研究对象的语义交叉关系。通过对身体、宇宙及宗教等几个术语概念的语义结构分析,从梳理出术语概念的语义结构的几种形式中,分析在宗教研究中运用术语概念可能面临的理论挑战。以此为基础,在语义困境的分析中发现中国本土宗教学理论建构的资源和潜力。

Based on the fruitful research in the domestic religious life and practice in China, as well as the religious traditions that have been rooted in her cultural context, the academics of religious studies in China are gradually focusing their theoretical reflection on the methodological construction on the basis that the understanding of the nativeness of Chinese culture is considered as the contextual foundation of religious studies. Through figuring out three kinds of semantic frameworks, this essay is designed to analyze the semantic structure of the key terms for religious studies with a comparison between the theoretical framework imported from Western academics and the traditional Chinese cultural context. In this way, the essay attempts to demonstrate the difficulties of making religious studies in China＇ s cultural context, due to the vagueness of the key terms in meaningwithin the semantic overlapping caused by cross-cultural and diachronic vicissitudes. However, the author tries to clarify that the semantic dilemma in defining the meanings of the key terms could be the startingpoint of the theoretical reflection and reconstruction of the methodology of domestic religious studies in China.