Religion really has no concept for us in China. However, when we understand foreign cultures, we will inevitably avoid religious issues. In addition, every hot issue in the world now implies the powerful role of different religious conflicts. Therefore, understanding the essence of religion is indeed an urgent task that we must cultivate.

Peking University Publishing House recently published the second edition of What is Religion. It is said that this book has been selling well for ten years, with sales exceeding 6.5438+0 million copies. This is an amazing print run, which indirectly proves how many readers want to know the nature of religion.

Of course, this book is not an introduction to the knowledge of religion itself, but a book that studies the theory of "religion". Therefore, instead of introducing the theories of various religions, we should jump out of religion itself and stand on the commanding heights of "metaphysics" to introduce the changing history and viewpoint confrontation of "religious academic research".

The author's books are mainly popular introductions, so there are no embarrassing and obscure sentences. Even when introducing the research results of difficult scholars, introduce the connotation and essence of various viewpoints in plain language. After introducing the views of predecessors, the author also made concise comments in his own language. The book at hand basically covers all the viewpoints of religion.

All kinds of atheists, theists and centrists mentioned in the book can be summarized as "opposition theory, relevance theory and separation theory" In fact, they all have a consensus that religion is a cultural phenomenon and an extremely important part of human civilization. Studying religion is actually studying human civilization itself. For example, Toynbee said that "a form of civilization is a manifestation of its religion." (P 169) Therefore, religion studies the history of human civilization, and in the process of defining religion, it actually reflects the process and trend of human cultural history.

Religion has a history of more than 5000 years, but it has officially become a research topic with a history of more than 100 years. Miao Lei, an advocate of religion, officially delivered a speech about religion around 1870, which can be regarded as the first year of the official opening of religion. Since this era, the course of human culture research has involved Weber, Russell, Freud, Jung, Cassirer and other scholars. Their research paths of sociology, psychology, linguistics and culturology have all opened up "back gardens" and "private plots" with their own research characteristics in the field of religious studies, and various theories and theories have planted their own theories on the territory of religious studies. When these different cultural explanations are applied to religion, what we see is that religion belongs to a part of human civilization and is closely related to human spiritual life. For example, "sociology of religion" holds that "the compulsion of social life can only be truly effective through spiritual means." (P60), and although Russell tried his best to liquidate religion and theology, he also pointed out that religion is closely related to people's spiritual life. "I think religion is a disease caused by fear and the root of human disasters." (page 207). It can be seen that Russell actually said that religion has played a role in comforting the human spirit.

It is precisely because the emergence of religion is closely related to the spiritual expectation of human beings that the existence of religion has its own reasons in the era of scientific prosperity. This is a view of maintaining a tolerant attitude towards religion in a gentle tone in the book. For example, Russell's denial of religious belief is also the world view of materialist education that we are familiar with. However, more scholars are thinking about whether science and technology can replace human spiritual belief. I'm afraid the answer is no, the human spirit cannot be directly comforted by technology. Therefore, some scholars put forward: "Science has no right to interfere with faith, and faith has no right to interfere with science." (P232) "There is a fundamental difference between religious truth and scientific truth, and it is forbidden to prove faith by scientific discovery." (page 234). Faced with this irreconcilable contradiction between atheism and theism, the author did not take a stand. Instead, he insisted that "scientific truth" and "religious truth" are two different systems with different uses, and generously proposed "you'd better think twice", which is not a realistic presentation of the "golden mean" in China's cultural tradition, but also reflects the author's emphasis on the irreplaceable role of religion itself in spiritual belief.

The clear context system of this book can be seen from our above-mentioned paraphrases. Writing here, I can't help thinking of China writer Wang Meng's novel Long Live Youth. In the novel, I wrote an orphan girl named Mary who was adopted by a foreign church school. She was indoctrinated by the mothers of those missionary schools, believing in God and religion. These exotic gods also gave her weak body and mind the only spiritual support. It is this spiritual support that enabled her to survive the difficult years in the missionary school. The Young People's Republic is cleaning up the old civilization with a brand-new belief. Humali finally broke free from the shackles of religion and accepted a new belief with more human touch. This is also the "three major religious beliefs in modern western European society" summarized by Toynbee in his book Choosing Life, namely "scientism, nationalism and communism". (P 170). You can take your seats accordingly and ask Mary what kind of faith she chose instead of the old one. At least, we can say that Humali has nothing to do with the "three modern beliefs" summarized by Master Toynbee. Toynbee put religion into the category of belief for investigation and demonstration, and gave us the subtext that human society can't live without faith. Throughout the book, faith plays an important role in condensing, integrating and adjusting the pace of human progress. Technological progress can't replace the persistence of faith and satisfy spiritual comfort. All this needs faith to complete and "ultimate care" to provide.

In the part of Cahill introduced in this book, we can also see some discoveries in the field of religious linguistics, which will help us better understand the secrets of literature. Cassirer's "myth-religion study" began with "myth and language problems" His theory has brought great influence to China literature after the reform and opening-up, including the literary creation of Nobel Prize in Literature winner Mo Yan, which is deeply marked by this theory. For example, Mo Yan used a lot of "myth" elements in his novels (such as the creation of the artistic conception of "Dionysus" in Red Sorghum), so as to build his world with extraordinary imagination. Look at Cahill's analysis of "mythical thinking": "The formation process of mythical concepts is actually materializing individual things. In this process, except the immediate things, everything seems to be' non-existent' or' meaningless', not to mention' connection' and' whole', and all thinking contents are literally translated into' proper names of intuitive objects'. " (P 186) Mo Yan's way of thinking actually has a very obvious "most primitive thinking tendency" (P 187). In Mo Yan's novel language, he always reflects what he sees in the form of materialization, and refuses to correspond to the essential attributes belonging to the spiritual level through logical and abstract methods, so Mo Yan's novels are materialized and visible images, without touching the abstract symbols of the spiritual level. This is mainly because Mo Yan has never experienced systematic academic education since he was a child. His way of thinking has not been combed into a unified thinking system by abstract dogmatism education in class, but is straightforward and primitive, which maintains his language style to the greatest extent, that is, Cahill's style system of "assimilation of language symbols into intuitive objects" (P 186). We can see the intuitive feelings in the religious system, which is clearly verified by Mo Yan's creative methods. This is the strangeness of Mo Yan. He taught himself to make his words conform to the secrets of human thinking and communication. He provided an example of the study of human culture, and at the same time provided new proof that the primitive way of thinking of human beings can reproduce its glory.

As the author of What is Religion said, religion is a rising discipline, and many theoretical blind spots and conflicts are still inconclusive. In this increasingly thin book, the author lists the history and sites of religion and introduces the latest viewpoints, which will enable us to grasp the latest new ideas in the field of religious research and finally get a kind of "ultimate concern" to comfort our souls and soothe our beliefs. Therefore, this book seems far away, but it is close to our hearts and the cultural waterline that ripples in it every day. With these understandings, we can swim better.