At present, there are heated discussions about "religion", "philosophy" and "theology". The author thinks that the names of these theories are terms used by thinkers in different contexts to emphasize a certain nature (publicity) of specific objects (religion, philosophy and theology). These terms have their specific connotations and meanings in a specific context, and cannot be universally applied, but their applicability and limitations should be analyzed.
First, the public and the religious public.
Thinking about "publicity" and "publicity of religion" first reminds the author of a story of an ancient Greek philosopher. Plato, a great philosopher in ancient Greece, and Diogenes, a cynic, discussed philosophy together. Plato advocated his "theory of form" (theory of ideas) and used terms such as "mesa" and "cup". Diogenes said, "Plato, I can see the table and the cup, but I can't see yours." Plato said: "That's because you have a pair of eyes that can see tables and cups, but you have no reason to recognize the essence of tables and cups." [1] On this issue, Plato affirmed the reality of the essence of things and further confirmed that the essence of things has an independent position; Diogenes denied the independence and self-existence of things. We can say that Plato's wisdom penetrated the surface of things and reached a universal understanding of the essence of things, but he regarded the essence of things as independent and self-existent, which was wrong; Diogenes thinks that the essence of things can't exist independently like entities, which is right, but if he thinks that people's understanding can only stay at the level of perceptual experience and can't reach a universal understanding of the essence of things, then it is wrong.
At present, the concept of Gong * * * has been clearly explained in academic circles, but when we understand Gong * * * religion, Gong * * * philosophy and Gong * * * theology, we will be at a loss if we don't contact the specific meanings of these names. Because, what kind of religion, philosophy or theology in this world is completely devoid of any publicity? What kind of religion, philosophy or theology can't give itself the name Gong * * * or call itself Gong * * * in a special sense? What is important is not to judge whether religion, philosophy or theology is public as a whole, but to judge in what scope and in what sense it is public by contacting specific objects.
We can see this explanation in the English dictionary: public is the noun form of adjective public. There are two definitions of public. The first is: (1) public and public-related; (2) for the public, public and public; (3) Engaged in public affairs, mass entertainment activities and social services. Category II: (1) open to the public; (2) As we all know. [2] We should pay attention to the fact that publicity is a noun, but it still refers to a certain nature of things and objects, not things and objects.
Religion is not an empty name, but a reality, an organization that connects members of society with faith. In this regard, no religion can be private or personal. However, in modern society, the establishment of the principles of freedom of religious belief, separation of church and state, and separation of religion and education makes religious groups become private or personalized, and even gives people the illusion that they can have completely private religion or completely private theology. However, as long as we think about it carefully, we will understand that the so-called privatization (personalization) of religion, philosophy and theology only means the weakening of its publicity, or the compression of its publicity, rather than the complete loss.
Generally speaking, scholars who use the word "publicity" want to advocate expanding the publicity of religion, philosophy and theology, but it is precisely because the concept of publicity is so general that we must associate it with specific objects in order to judge the significance of this proposition. Here, in what field, expanding publicity has become the most critical issue. It is meaningless and even dangerous to advocate expanding religious propaganda in different scenes.
John Mays the Baptist emphasized the publicity of Christianity and its church. The original meaning of the church is public assembly, and its original meaning is "propaganda". Before the Enlightenment, the social function of Christianity was closely related to all aspects of western European society. The publicity of Christianity has reached the extreme, but people's public life has been ruled and dominated by the church and privatized in church institutions. When analyzing the privatization of Christian tradition, Mertz believed that the separation of the church from the state and society in the Enlightenment was the root of the current predicament of Christianity. He said: "It is valuable to distinguish between private space and public space, but it does not seem to make up for the lost position and role of Christianity." [3 ]
Protestant theologian Duncan B. Forrest explored the possibility of establishing public theology. He said: "Public theology is to discuss the theology of God. It has the truth that the public can enjoy, participates in public discussions, witnesses the legitimacy of that truth to what is happening in the world, and cares about the severe problems that people and society are facing today. It provides firm beliefs, challenges and insights from the entrusted tradition, rather than seeking the same expression or repeating everyone's statement. " [4] Such an appeal has its special purpose, and its main purpose is nothing more than to pay more attention to public affairs and participate in social reform and construction.
In my opinion, the concepts used by these scholars who advocate and call for publicity are more noteworthy. Raymond plante, for example, demonstrated the publicity of theology itself, pointing out that the key to the publicity of theology lies in the understanding of the relationship between universality and individual. He said: "The tension between the general and the individual is the core of political theology. Theology can be regarded as a discipline, trying to draw some universal truths about the nature and behavior of God in this world. On the other hand, political organizations, their beliefs and values are very professional and personalized. The essence of God (at least in classical theism) can be regarded as eternal, and politics always involves the lifestyle of a specific community at a specific time and place. " [5] 17 He added: "How can theology ... be related to the political field? Politics is completely formed in a field full of differences. In this field, members of different countries, races, sexes and groups have different interests and goals that are not harmonious with each other, and these interests and goals are interpreted as different in different times, places and environments. " [5] The meaning of18 is more clear in Moltmann. He said: "The theme of Christian theology makes it a public theology. It involves the public affairs of society. It thinks about what is the universal care of the kingdom of heaven according to the expectation of Christ. " "Public theology must be related to the public relevance of theology, which is the core of Christian identity. It focuses on the public world where the kingdom of God comes to human history. " "Without public relevance, there would be no positioning of Christian theology. On the contrary, without the positioning of Christian theology, there is no public relevance. " [6] It can be seen that emphasizing the publicity of theology means emphasizing the concern of theological themes for social publicity, that is, the publicity of religious beliefs.
In a word, emphasizing the publicity of religion, philosophy and theology is a development trend of western social thought. It is a challenge to traditional religion, philosophy and theology, and an attempt to construct or rebuild religion, philosophy and theology under the situation of social, political and economic globalization, human cultural diversification and scientific life world. Second, the propaganda of traditional religions in China.
The discussion on religion, philosophy and theology in western academic circles has had an impact on China academic circles. According to my personal observation, there are some differences in the understanding of publicity between Chinese and foreign scholars, but they are not big, and these differences are not caused by the confusion of words themselves, but by the different cultural backgrounds and situations of Chinese and foreign scholars. With the process of globalization and the narrowing of the gap between China and the West, these differences in understanding will be weakened and will not hinder the mutual understanding between Chinese and foreign scholars.
In modern Chinese, the word "publicity" is translated from English public. As we know, the biggest lexical difference between modern Chinese and ancient Chinese is that they prefer to use disyllabic words rather than monosyllabic words. The closest ancient Chinese word to modern Chinese "Gong * * *" is "Gong". Its modern interpretation as an adjective mainly includes: (1) justice; (2) public (* * * all); (3) open. [7]
The word "Gong" in China's pre-Qin period has three meanings: one is the people, the court and the government; The second is the same as * * *; The third is fairness and justice. The first meaning is the most important and has profound religious connotation. Those monarchs and nobles who have the status of * * * are, of course, religious leaders and the host of religious ceremonies. Countries, politics, society, individuals, morality, the universe, nature, religion, ghosts and gods are mostly unified in this "public * * *" field (political ruling field).
China ancients' understanding of religion also reflected the meaning of "public". "Zong" refers to clans, clansmen, ancestral halls, etc. "Teaching" refers to the meaning of doctrine, ethics, rules, enlightenment and teaching. "Rite" also coincides with the connotation of today's "religion", which includes not only ethical system and doctrine, but also religious ceremonies and festivals. "Shinto" reflects the concern of the ruling class or social sages for the publicity of religion. "Heaven" has transcendental publicity and supremacy. "Heaven Emperor", "Destiny" and "God's will" are the foundations of China's social order and spiritual belief. In the form of cosmology, it has become the basic method to prove the legitimacy of ancient social order. As the saying goes, "the sky is selfless, the earth is selfless, and the sun and the moon are selfless." "Heaven" is the origin of "Gong". "Heaven" is the best, the highest and the greatest. As a fair standard, "public" has evolved into public, public welfare, fairness and justice. Fate is the selfless presentation of meaning.
Such a "public" mode is not only a way of political thinking, but also a social behavior norm; Not only the cosmic order, but also the moral spirit; It is both absolute monarchy and religious worship. Under the restriction of this model, religion is brought into the field of public politics and directly becomes an integral part of the ruling structure. Religion is a kind of power or resource, which is not entirely owned by private individuals. Compared with the "public" religion, those unofficial, informal and illegal things, such as worshipping private ghosts, building temples privately, entering the Tao privately, becoming a monk privately, etc., are all listed as the opposite of public nature and called "private". The difference between public and private is religious orthodoxy and heresy, political legality and illegality, and moral justice and intolerance. [8]
China's transformation from ancient society to modern society not only changed the cultural and psychological structure of China people, but also greatly changed the language of China. After a long period of development, the concept of "Gong" in ancient Chinese in China has been used for different objects, and many meanings have been derived, such as public security, solving crimes, informing, publishing, tolerance, public property, justice, morality, arbitration, public law, public housing, public expense, public indignation, announcement, high seas, official letters, public money, justice and public interest. "Total" can be added to almost any "existence", whether it is entity or quantity, nature, relationship, place, time, posture, situation or activity. The above analysis shows that the western concept of "Gong * * *" and the ancient concept of "Gong" in China are not completely symmetrical, but after long-term communication and development, modern Chinese has enough means of expression to relay the various meanings of propaganda without causing too many misunderstandings. On the contrary, if the users of these words don't know the nature of the objects they refer to, and abuse or misuse them, it will be confusing.
Thirdly, the participation of religions in public affairs in contemporary China.
As far as the main meaning of "publicity" is concerned, the traditional religions in China are not short of publicity, but the publicity of different religions is different in different periods. In the social changes of contemporary China, the meaning of the word "Gong" has changed, and the existence and expression of religious Gong have also changed accordingly. To put it simply, this change is that the unified "public" (official) has become a hierarchical "public", and the original religious publicity has weakened and the public space has gradually increased.
In the early days of the founding of New China, religious management was an "internal administrative affair", and religion was regarded as controlling the superstructure and adopting a closed administrative mode. It is this simple administrative system arrangement and management that relies on a few religious cadres, uses administrative means, and conducts strict closed management of religions according to policies. In this institutional space, the government implements top-down management; Religious groups engage in various religious activities under this premise. This management mode basically follows the "public religion" mode in China history, and religion and its activities are difficult to adapt to the publicity required by modern society.
After 1980s, the management of religion in China changed from one-way administration to the combination of autonomy and administration of religious organizations, and religious groups can participate in social public undertakings in the form of "non-governmental organizations". The publicity of religion in the modern sense has been initially presented. The openness and openness of religious affairs have changed the original administrative mode of taking religion as "internal affairs" and the administrative habit of "religion is not open to the outside world". (Note: Article 4 of the Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Religious Affairs stipulates: "Religious affairs mentioned in these Regulations refer to various social affairs between religion and the state, society and the masses." Ye Xiaowen, director of the Bureau of Religious Affairs of the State Council, once pointed out in the historical chapter of Socialism and Religion that religious work should be further managed by the government as public and social affairs, relying on traditional ideological and political work and internal work, and this management should be pushed to the track of legalization and standardization. See Ye Xiaowen: Historical Chapters of Socialism and Religion, Religion in China,No. 1 2002. This openness has become the symbol and necessary condition for the legal existence of religion in China society.
On the basis of establishing a modern social system, the publicity of traditional religions has been transformed into a public system. The enlightenment function of religion is no longer broad and infinite, which ends the development mode of traditional religion as a social group. It is an important phenomenon in the social changes in contemporary China that the boundaries between the government and religious groups and personal beliefs are clearly defined, and then the boundaries between the government and religious groups and social affairs are clearly defined. [10] In this change of religious system, private beliefs are guaranteed by law, while religious groups have eliminated the form of government organizations and become social groups.
This socialization will be the development trend of religion in China. Therefore, religions in China will become more and more social and public welfare. This development trend is private compared with the traditional publicity (politics and official), but public compared with the publicity (society) in the modern sense. The government's control over religion has changed to management according to law, while religious groups are autonomous, non-administrative, non-profit and non-market, and participate in social affairs as social groups.
In China, a country with atheism as the dominant ideology, if any religion wants to develop normally, it must properly handle the relationship with the government, other religious groups and social groups. History and present situation determine that it is impossible for China to take the "public" religious road of combining politics with religion. As far as the relationship between the government and religious groups is concerned, its best state should be mutual adjustment, coexistence and harmony. In contemporary China, legitimate China religion can play a role in many fields, which requires religious groups to think about where to use their power mainly. Professor Fang pointed out that China's religion should take the road of cultural religion. He said: "To build a harmonious socialist society, we need to give full play to the inherent positive factors of China's religious culture, which is the demand of the society for China's religion and the demand of the times for China's religion; At the same time, it has also opened up a broad, healthy and benign development path for religion in China. " [1 1] I believe this road will bring more publicity to Chinese religions.