Socialist Society, Religious Adaptation

The relationship between religions and socialist society was proposed as early as the age of Marxism classical writers. In their opinion, religion as an ideology is creature of the age corresponded to the old society. Soviet Union had once made the serious mistakes in the practice on the issue of the relationship between religions and socialist society, and the Chinese religion's development also traveled a tortuous road. In the 1990s, the Chinese Government put forward the idea of "actively guiding religions to adaptation themselves to the socialist society". This idea got rid of the antithesis in the ideological domain, solved the difficult problem of the relationship between religions and socialist society and showed that religions can adapt themselves to the society on the basis of mutual respect in belief and politics corporately. Nearly two decades, political circles, academic world and religious circles launch argument from various perspectives about this issue. Its contents involve the inevitability, characteristic, connotation and ways of adaptation, etc. This thesis tries to elaborate the question of religious adaptation in socialist society from the perspective of religious sociology and religious ecology on the basis of the previous researches.There are five chapters in this thesis, and the main contents are as follows. The first chapter is about the theoretical analysis of social adaptation of religion from synchronic phenomenon, explaining the nature of religion, social attribute, inevitability of social adaptation, multilevel nature, dynamic complexity, and dynamic succession of religious culture ecology. The second chapter is about the social adaptation of religion in traditional Chinese society, elaborating briefly on the adaptive characteristics and unity & diversity of religious culture ecology. And at the same time, the author compares with modes between Chinese and western religious culture ecology in outline. In the third chapter, the thesis talks about winding adaptation between religions and socialist society in the thirty years since the founding of new China. Its contents involve the origins of the theory of relationship between religions and socialist society, the practice of the theory in Soviet Union, the religious adaptation to the preliminary development of socialist society in China, the development of Marxism religion theory in China and its winding practice, religious culture ecology, and reflection the relationship between the religions and socialist society. The fourth chapter is about religious adaptation to socialist society in China steadily after carrying out the reform and opening-up policy, mainly elaborating the social changes and religious adaptation, the new development of Marxism religion theory in China, and the factors that influence the equilibrium of religious culture ecology. In the fifth chapter, the author expounds the strategy of religious adaptation to socialist society in China in the future. It includes the adaptive measures of religion, the practice of the government's religious policy, and advocating unity & diversity of religious culture ecology, dealing with the relationship harmoniously between native cultures and foreign cultures.Nowadays, while working to expand our economy, we continue to promote Chinese culture and build the common spiritual home for the Chinese nation, to keep its national character and reflect changes of the times. The development of the world cannot be done without sound development of the culture ecology. We should discard dichotomy and cultural hegemonism, count with each other and keep harmony but not sameness. Thus, the culture will present a picture of "letting a hundred flowers bloom, a hundred schools of thought contend". Reviewing the past and looking forward to the future, we can gain a good deal of enlightenment from the mode of unity & diversity of religious culture ecology.