The Dialectical Construction Of The Religious Meaning System

New religions are an objective reflection of the social changes in the field of religions,under the backgrounds of globalization and modernization.Countries like America,Japan,Korea etc.all have experienced an New Religious Movements(NRM)boom in their transition to a modern society.And this phenomenon made people began to think about the issues of meanings in a modern society.In essence,the emergence of New Religious Movements is a new attempt for modern people to chase their life meanings.Therefore,be as an inevitable product in the process of social transformation,how do the new religions construct their unique meaning systems,which provide new meaning substitute for the lost people in modern society is the core question the research intends to shed light on.Based on the case study of the Church of Almighty God,by using field investigation method and textual analysis of the internal documents of the church,this article linked the church's believers with its meaning system.Under the guidance of the social constructivism in religious sociology,this article has analyzed the dialectic construction of the Church of Almighty God as well as the profound social reasons behind the prosperity of the prosperity of new religions thoroughly and carefully.In addition,this article proposed an assumption about a new kind of new religions classification system in the conclusion part to predict the new religions social influences.This article is divided into six parts.The first chapter sets forth the social backgrounds and meanings of new religions studies,clarifies the definitions of three main concepts:new religions,cults and meaning system,making the author position clear that a cult is a destructive new religion.The second chapter reviews the relevant theories of religious sociology from the perspective of religion and meaning system and summarizes the researches on new religions from home and abroad.The fourth chapter is the core part of this article.It elaborates the process of the construction of the meaning system from perspective of the church's theodicy,believers,organizational institutions,and analyzes the source of its legitimacy.The research finds that the doctrine is the foundation of new religions' meaning system;it's the starting point of the "objectifIcation" of the meaning system.The relationship between the new religions and social mainstream culture is contingent on the tension between theodicy and social mainstream culture,the destructive effects of Almighty God are precisely come from the theodicy it propagates.Meanwhile,the new religions'believers also play an important role in the process of construction.They are the subjects of the "externalization" of the meaning system.By absorbing the believers who are low educated strategically,the Church of Almighty God expands its group steadily.And this provides endless energy for its meaning system.The organizational institution is the system carrier of the whole meaning system as well as the key to internalizing the whole system to the inner hearts of the believers.The church not only owns a complete hierarchical organization structure under the leadership of the high priest Zhao Weishan along with the "female Christ" as the symbol of the supreme power but also has a set of interconnected regulations in the field of church life,information management,dedication and finance.And by complying with the regulations,individual believer digests and absorbs the church's meaning system continually.In the end,the meaning system of Almighty God replaces their personal meaning system completely,and becomes the root of the believers' souls and lives.The fifth chapter ponders on the emergence and construction of new religions'meaning system from two aspects----secularization and the social contradictions.On one hand,the appearance of the diverse social meaning systems and the personal forms of faith caused by the increasing disenchantment of the world gives the new religions unprecedented developing space.On the other hand,as the social contradictions intensified,the destructive new religions catch the chance to grow rapidly in the lower class.At last,this chapter proposes some advices on the governance of new religions.The sixth chapter is the summary of this paper.It points out three essential elements of the construction of the new religions' meaning system i.e doctrines,believers and organizational institutions.Based on them,the article puts forward a comprehensive classification system on new religions to forecast the social effects of new religions and lend some insights to the management of new religions in China.