Abstract: Chinese religion is neither simply unified nor simply diverse. The varying social relations of its adherents allow interpretation and reinterpretation of religious symbols to create both unities and diversities. Approaching these interpretations as active processes in a social context has helped analyze three main points about Chinese religion in Taiwan: (1) Different groups utilize fundamentally diverse styles of interpretation. At one extreme, the popular tradition offers no systematic explanations for most religious acts. People interpret much of their religion piecemeal, in relation to the immediate social context. The religious ideologies of the state cult and accomplished Buddhists or Taoists are more systematized or more passive. Institutionalized social relations, such as those promoted by the state or a monastery, develop religious ideologies most fully, and they control interpretation by enforcing their own version of orthodoxy. (2) Religious interpretations may change as social conditions change. Less ideologized interpretations may change more flexibly, because they escape most institutional control. More ideologized beliefs change as their institutions change, or when those institutions lose control over their ideologies. (3) Unities and diversities across styles of interpretation rest on the particular social relations of the people involved. Basic unities — like a religious concern for secular politics, community and kinship — persist because they fit the experience of many social groups. Groups like the state or the priestly elite push for unity by trying to universalize their own positions. Yet the flexibility of religion allows diverse social groups to offer very different reinterpretations of unified concerns.
Publication Year: 1987
Publication Date: 1987-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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