時間過得真快

從馬來西亞回來不足兩個星期, 生活就很忙. 除了一星期要看三晚足球外, 也要為不同聚會作準備 (講章). 嚴重睡眠不足, 再加上情緒大起大落就是我當下狀態. 在這期間, 我終於完成一篇文章修改. 查實, 這文章是在2008年5月投稿, 但到今年3月才有回覆. 死味! 現將文章的引言貼上. 讓認識我的人知道在時代論壇寫稿和出版一些基督教書藉之外, 我的正式工作 (因為這些文章不會在本地傳閱).

From Manipulation to Exchange relation: Reframing Religion-State Relation in China

Since the Chinese authorities have introduced the ideology of a harmonious society in 2004, all aspects of cultural, social and political life are gradually oriented to the realization of this vision. Religious life is no exception. What is the context of the introduction of the ideology of a harmonious society? What does the state expect from religion? How does religion respond to the government request? And what kind of new horizon of religion-state relation will it be emerged? These are the concerns of this paper. This paper adopts a theory of exchange relation as a theoretical framework to interpret the religion-state relation in China under the ideology of a harmonious society. This paper suggests that exchange relation is a product of the modern Chinese bargaining politics, which is a result of the elite politics of the government for the objectives of legitimacy in accord to the so-called an authoritarian new ‘political civilization’, in contrast to western style deliberative democracy as a global constitutive norm. (Feng, 2006; Lynch, 2007; Weatherley, 2006) In fact, today the technocrats of the elite politics of China focus on problem solving motivated by the rise of an interest-based social and public order rather than 'isms’ or ‘ideologies’. (Feng, 2006; Fewsmith, 2001; Zheng, 2004) Exchange relation suggests that the elite politics of the government makes the religion-state relation in a give and take relation rather than simply a manipulative relation. This new phase creates a new possibility for religion in society. However, this does not mean that exchange relation in the religion-state relation has never existed before, but under the ideology of a harmonious society, religion in an exchange relation has a more explicit role to play in the public life. Since the government has adopted different attitudes towards different religions, religion referred in this paper is primarily the Protestantism.