伍嘉誠
北大文学部研究論集 13 13 511 - 530 北海道大学大学院文学研究科 2013年
[査読無し][通常論文] Originating from the American contexts, the religious economymodel has provided new insights to the study of religion in the UnitedStates using the market perspectives to explain, interpret, and predictthe dynamics of religious suppliers and consumers. And because of itsrather successful application in the American settings(i.e.a free marketof religion with relative dominance of Christianity), scholars of religionsbegan to adopt this model to study the sociology of religion ofvarious areas from a market perspective. However, this presents bothopportunities and challenges to these scholars dedicated to use thisapproach to study non-American societies where religious cultures andsocial contexts are very different. On the one hand,it provides a veryinteresting perspective to understand religious movements as marketeconomies, especially when the secularization theory has failed torespond to the revival of religion in most parts of the world (i.e.Asia,North and South America,and Africa). On the other hand,given thenature of the model,it is very difficult,if not impossible,to apply it tosocieties where the religious landscape and social and cultural backgroundsare not identical to the American context,though advocates ofthis model claim that it has the potential to develop into a "dominanttheoretical frame of reference with the social scientific study of religion"(Lawrence 1997: xii). As a piece of work dedicated to thisongoing project and debate, this paper first sets out the main tenets ofthe economic approach to the sociology of religion and the key argumentsof its leading critics. Then, by reviewing how scholars ofreligion have attempted to improve and modify this theory and appliedit on different cultural contexts,it also suggests how this model may beanalytically useful in studying religion in the East Asian settings,especially China and Japan, and discusses the modifications that mayadd value to the model by taking political, economical, social, andcultural factors into consideration.