Peace Studies From The Perspective Of The Religious Sociology

In the era of globalization, those who have the good will want to build a world where violence is eliminated, or at least reduced to a certain extent. However, the problem is that what efforts human beings should make to achieve this goal? Peace studies show that conflicts and peace are extremely complex and interrelated social phenomena, and they are not fully understood in many ways. There is no one simple method to avoid conflict and violence. It is certain that the absence of the strong support of the faith, a better vision of peace will inevitably become illusion. In terms of the construction of peace, the effects of religion are worth taking seriously consideration.Since the end of the Cold War, the social definitions of religion invariably focus on the role of religion play in causing chaos. Given the international situation, you can easily give examples of fights and wars caused by religion. All these help strengthen people’s tendentious awareness that religion is dangerous and destructive. Coupled with the growing recognition of the idea "clash of civilizations" and "9.11"event, more and more people tend to ascribe to religion when it comes to analysis of war motives. In contrast, in the nearly150years of religious studies, there is few discussion on peace related issues, and even fewer on the promotional role religion plays in world peace. In this case, although people are emotionally resist to the opposition between Religion and Peace, they still have to face them, or at least, they need to understand how this opposition comes into being. More importantly, in view of the basic trend of world peace and conflict, and religion as a source of culture innovation that have huge effects on real life, it is necessary to figure out the special relationship between religion and peace out of an objective and rational attitude towards religion.This paper manages to assess the current situation of world peace in the era of globalization with methods of analysis and research tools of the religious sociology. From individuals, groups, and society, these three levels, and identity, definition, and order, these three key words to distinguish the role and influence of religion.Under the conditions of globalization, we are taking peace-building into study as a religion related social phenomena; we are to create a new typology of religious study in the context of globalization and current sociology of religion research so that the sociology of religion research can achieve a more suitable position in human experience. In terms of research methods, this paper is to examine a theory based on the religious sociology.The core thesis of this paper is "what role does religion play in the construction of peace?" The main part of this paper includes five chapters:the first chapter defines the two basic concepts of "religion" and "peace" and regard religion as a social force that categorized into explanatory force, uniting force and controlling force. Peace is defined as "non-violent and creative conflict transformation," and is analyzed from views of individuals, groups and societies. Finally, through the argumentation of the possibility and necessity, we point out that religion is the basic force in the construction of peace.Chapter II explores the basic framework of the peace of religious sociology from the perspective of religious and social interaction, and it analyzes the religious understanding of the social and religious characteristics and outlines the basis of peace’towards individuals, groups and social dimensions corresponding to the features and elements, reflecting the characteristics of the study of the sociology of religion.Chapter III takes "identity" as the theme and reveals the significance from the individual perspective. Chapter IV based on the universal concern of "meaning", pointing that through effective sense religion can play a constructive role in terms of group integration. Based on the "order" in the process of social development, Chapter V reflects the value of religion in promoting a harmonious society as a whole.The innovation of this paper is mainly reflected in the following three aspects: First, in terms of structure, this article attempted to follow the "society-organization-individual" analysis model and analyze the construction of the role of religion for peace construction. Second, in terms of content, this paper discusses peace from the perspective of the religious sociology and has its own unique perspective and theoretical limit threshold. Third, in terms of the point of view, the paper argues that "religion is a fundamental power to construct peace". This is different from the behavioral level. Through in-depth exploration of this paper, the religious sociology will establish a necessary awareness of critical thinking and achieve greater development.