The economic approach to religion has confined its application to Christendom in spite of the ambition of the core theorists for its universal applicability. Moreover, the supply-side market theory...

The red, black, and gray markets of religion in china

Religion in Chinese Society

Using a multimethod strategy, we identify and analyze mobilization processes associated with the rapid emergence of the 1989 Chinese Democracy Movement. We propose that the confluence of macro-, me...

Mobilization Processes and the 1989 Chinese Democracy Movement

International surveys have documented wide variation in religious beliefs and practices across nations, but does this variation in the national religious context make a difference? Building on existing theory, we explain why religion should have both micro- and macro-level effects on morality not sanctioned by the state and why the effects of religion differ from other forms of culture. Using two international surveys and hierarchical linear modeling techniques we sort out the effects of national context and personal beliefs on morality with and without legal underpinnings. We find that national religious context, the respondent's age, and religious beliefs and practices are the most consistent predictors of the sexual morality index. For morality sanctioned by the state, however, the effects for personal beliefs and practices are attenuated, and the effects of the national religious context are no longer significant.

/pdf/cross-national-moral-beliefs-the-influence-of-national-4ancizb14z.pdf

CROSS‐NATIONAL MORAL BELIEFS: The Influence of National Religious Context

The Price of Freedom Denied shows that, contrary to popular opinion, ensuring religious freedom for all reduces violent religious persecution and conflict. Others have suggested that restrictions on religion are necessary to maintain order or preserve a peaceful religious homogeneity. Brian J. Grim and Roger Finke show that restricting religious freedoms is associated with higher levels of violent persecution. Relying on a new source of coded data for nearly 200 countries and case studies of six countries, the book offers a global profile of religious freedom and religious persecution. Grim and Finke report that persecution is evident in all regions and is standard fare for many. They also find that religious freedoms are routinely denied and that government and the society at large serve to restrict these freedoms. They conclude that the price of freedom denied is high indeed.

/pdf/the-price-of-freedom-denied-religious-persecution-and-411doasr3b.pdf

The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the Twenty-First Century

This article focuses on Chinese ritual activities during the Cultural Revolution, when all the traditional religions were abolished by the Chinese Communist Party. It shows that China has never been an atheist country and explores the similarities of Chinese communist rituals to Western religious rituals; it spells out the differences between Chinese political religion and Western civil religion. The analysis is based primarily on the personal experiences and observations of the author during that period. Throughout Chinese history, the legitimacy of the political regime was built upon the charismatic authority of the emperor, an authority strengthened by hereditary successorship (Weber, 1964). This style of leadership did not change when the Chinese Communist party came to power. Because of the agrarian nature of the Chinese economy and the lack of political differentiation, the new regime still relied on the charisma of the national leader. After the 1949 revolution, the exercise of charismatic authority reached a peak during the Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of China (1966-1976), characterized by the near deification of Chairman Mao Ze-dong. Although China delcared itself an atheist country, this deification, combined with Mao's interpretation of Marxism, created a form of "political religion" that affected millions of people and profoundly transformed Chinese society (see Murvar, 1985).

https://www.jstor.org/stable/info/3710718

Jiping Zuo

Papers

Political Religion: The Case of the Cultural Revolution in China