公共宗教初探—以台北三個教會的閩南信徒為例

A Preliminary Study of Public Religion – Based on Min-Nan Christian of Three Church in Taipei City

林悌亨(TI-HENG LIN)

指導教授 ： 郭文般

國立臺北大學/社會科學學院/社會學系/碩士(2009年)

摘要

在近代的社會中，公民社會所扮演的角色日趨重要，也引起了許多相關的研究。但將宗教組織
視為一個非營利組織，並檢視其參與公民社會的研究卻不多。因此本文主要由此一角度，來對於宗
教參與公民社會的現象做一個初步性的探討。在基於世俗化理論、公共宗教等相關概念的理論探討
，了解台灣的基督宗教重回公領域的可能性。本研究主要透過研究者自行編制之問卷，對台灣的三
個教會進行問卷調查，來回答上述問題。

研究結果顯示，教派與信仰傾向的差異乃是公共宗教性的最主要差異來源，長老教會具有最明
顯而強烈的公共宗教性，個人宗教性的強弱則具有較低的影響力。在本研究中，教派的不同象徵著
其信仰精神上的差異，這顯示公共宗教的潛在動力可能在於宗教的信仰精神。社會福音信仰傾向較
強烈的信仰精神與公共宗教的發展有一定的顯著關係。

由於資料的限制，本研究無法更加細緻地討論公共宗教在台灣可能的發展，亦無法對台灣整體
的基督宗教進行推論。因此本研究的初步結論：教派差異與入世傾向的信仰精神有較強烈的公共宗
教性，但台灣明顯的宗教私人化現象，有可能對於公共宗教的發展造成反向的影響。因此更確切的
推論仍有待日後更進一步而廣泛的比較研究。

關鍵字

世俗化 ； 公民社會 ； 公共宗教

並列摘要

Civil society as a sociological concept increasingly draws attention of students of religious sociologists. However, only a very few empirical studies have been done in this area of study. The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibility of religious groups in the making of civil society. In light of secularization theory and theory of public religion, this paper tries to tackle with the issue of Christian churches involving in public affairs. A social survey on three churches in Taipei addressing to this issue is administered.

The study finds that denominational membership and the individual belief are the two major sources of Christians’ differential participation in public affairs. Members of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan in average, in comparison with those of the other two churches, show the highest interest in public affairs. Besides, the individual piety makes a differences too. However its impact is comparatively low. The differences that membership make can be traced back to the different traits of these three churches. In other words, different churches beliefs and therefore their religious spirits, have a clear bearing on their members’ differential motivation for participating in public affairs. Specifically, the church emphasizing more on social gospel will inspire its members to be more active in public affairs, whereas the church tending toward evangelicalism will be otherwise.

The limited scope of this social survey prevents us from generalizing the research results. Yet, as a preliminary study, this paper reveals strong association between denominations and their members differential interests in public affairs. However, the general tendency of religious privatization in Taiwan that other studies have revealed may be a deterrent for the development of public religions in the long run.

並列關鍵字

Secularization ； Civil Society ； Public Religion

參考文獻

吳文雄，1987，〈台灣基督長老教會本土化之研究〉，《台灣神學論刊》，4期，頁 47- 67。

董芳苑，1995，〈論長老教會與台灣的現代化〉。《台灣神學論刊》，17期：頁1-36。

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