A forum on "Contemporary Religious Culture and Social Construction", and also the 2020 annual meeting of the Chinese Religious Society held in Yunnan Province featured the sinicization of Christianity and religious studies.
Conducted on September 23 and 24, the meetings were hosted by the Chinese Religious Society, the Institute of World Religions of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Yunnan Minzu University.
According to China Ethnic News, Zhuo Xinping, president of the Chinese Religious Society, said in his speech that in religious studies in China, attention should be paid to the modernization of Chinese culture, help Chinese religious culture play an active role in carrying forward the fine traditional Chinese culture, and contribute to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the modernization of Chinese society. He added that General Secretary Xi Jinping's speech at the 2016 Symposium on Philosophical and Social Sciences stressed the need to "accelerate the improvement of disciplines supporting philosophy and social sciences, such as philosophy, history, economics, political science, law, sociology, ethnoscience, journalism, demographics, religion, psychology, etc., so as to build a discipline system of Chinese characteristics and universal significance".
Zheng Xiaojun, the director of the Institute of World Religions of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and executive vice president and secretary-general of Chinese Religious Society, said that against the background of this complicated international situation, it was of great practical significance and theoretical reference to focus on the relationship between religious culture and social construction and to explore the role of religion in building a harmonious society and promoting the peaceful development of the international community. As in recent years, different religious groups around the world have different degrees of activity, and religions and politics, economic and other factors were intertwined, providing us with a rich case of reflection on the participation of religious culture in social construction and the construction of international order.
Zhang Qiaogui, president of Yunnan Minzu University, said that the purpose of this forum was to develop a religious theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics, promote the construction of philosophy and social sciences, and strengthen the investigation and research on religious and social issues in frontier minority areas. Historically, the socio-economic development of all ethnic groups has been extremely unbalanced, and the traditional culture of the ethnic groups has varied greatly. For example, Yunnan is located in the southwest frontier of China, with many ethnic groups, long boundary lines, and great differences in the natural environment.
The annual conference was divided into 15 sub-forums, focusing on “Theory of Sinicization of Religions”, “Study of Chinese Religions”, “Practice of Sinicization of Religions”, “Research on the Development of Religions in China”, “Study on Religious Governance in China”, “Study of Buddhism”, “Study of Taoism”, “Study of Christianity”, “Study of Islam”, “Study of Religious Philosophy”, “Study of Religious Sociology”, “Research on Hot Issues of Religions”, “Comparative Studies of Religions”, “Study of Religious Communication”, “Religious Studies in Yunnan” and other topics.
- Translated by Sophia Chen
