作者單位：Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities, Mount Royal University
關鍵詞
religious practice; lay Buddhists; worshipers; monastics; personcentered; Adam Chau; monastery; belief; administrative monks
摘要
In order to understand the lived religion of Buddhist monasteries it is necessary to go beyond doctrinal labels such as Chan or Pure Land which mask more than they reveal when it comes to understanding how religiosity is expressed by varied actors at these sites. One way to get beyond the traditional focus on beliefs and canonical Buddhist ideals is to approach religiosity as a diverse and person-centered phenomenon. This approach enables us to identify groups of actors according to their modes of religious behaviors, rather than by how well they conform to some canonical ideal. While Adam Chau has taken such an approach in his study of popular religion in China (2006), scholars have been slow to apply such an approach to Buddhist monasticism. Based on fieldwork carried out from 2005 to 2012, this article will identify modes of “doing religion” at Buddhist monasteries in contemporary China and propose a typology of such modes to account for the varieties of lived religiosity found there. The person-centered approach enables sharper focus on both the different types of actors found at sites (monastics, lay Buddhists, and worshipers) and a broader range of activity including administrative and charitable activities.
目次
Abstract 411 The Problem with Belief 413 Non-Buddhist Worshipers at Buddhist Monasteries 418 The Monastics 420 Laypersons 421 Worshipers 423 A Consideration of Chau's Modes of Practice 424 Does this typology offer improvements over Chau's? 431 Bibliography 435
