宗教在現代社會必然衰退嗎？－世俗化理論的再思

Is the Decline of Religion Inevitable in Modern Society? - A Re-Examination of the Secularization Theory

關啟文(Kwan Kai Man)

《道風：漢語神學學刊》 9期 (1998/07) Pp. 235-268+307-308

並列摘要

In recent centuries, the whole world has undergone a process of modernization. Several founders of sociology had a common interest in the fate of religion in the modern world. They proposed a theory of secularization which suggests that the process of modernization will cause the decline of the social significance of religion. In this essay, I mainly look at the version of secularization theory proposed by Bryan Wilson and his defender Steve Bruce, both contemporary English sociologists. They analyze ＂modernization＂ in terms of differentiation, societalization and rationalization, and they believe these processes will remove the social basis of religion. Hence, the decline of social significance of religion ensues which manifests in three main forms: 1) privatization of religion, 2) secularization of thought (including internal secularization of theology), and 3) decrease of the vitality of religion. I survey the prima facie evidence for the secularization theory: the decline of the churches in Europe and former Soviet Union, the worldwide secularization of the academy and the education system. I then introduce the dissenting voices within sociological circles: Andrew Greeley and David Martin from the seventies, and the more recent critics Jeffrey Cox, Robin Gill, Callum Brown, Roger Finke and so on. I then adduce empirical data from the study of religion and modernization in East Asia, Latin America, USA and Europe to show that the secularization theory in general do not fit the data. I also consider the replies of Wilson and Bruce and find them wanting. I finally conclude that in so far as the traditional theory includes the thesis that modernization will bring about the decrease of the vitality of religion, the theory is far from generally valid.