In 1978, with the restoration of colleges, universities and other academic
institutions, the Institute of World Religions, which was put under the newly
founded Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), began once again to take
up its research project, fourteen years after its founding. The major results
were Zongjiao Cidian(A Dictionary of Religions, Ren [ed.] 1981b) as well
as the commencement of a multi-volumed Zhongguo Fojiao Shi(History of
Chinese Buddhism, Ren [ed.] 1981a). More than twenty graduates from various
specialities entered the Graduate School of CASS and the Institute for Religious
Studies of Nanjing University, majoring in studies of religions, including
Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Daoism, Confucianism, and even atheism. That
was the first time such education had been pursued since 1949. In 1979 the
first academic association in this field, the Chinese Association of Religious
Studies, was founded in Kunming, offering some opportunities for academic
networking among professional and amateur scholars in various institutions
and universities throughout the country. In addition, the two institutes in
Beijing and Nanjing initiated three journals or magazines: Shijie Zongjiao
Yanjiu(Studies in world religions), Shijie Zongjiao Ziliao (Information on
world religions, nowShijie Zongjiao Wenhua, Religious cultures in the world)
and Zongjiao (Religion).
All three events—the education of young researchers, the organization of
academic associations, and the setting up of journals—are obvious marks of
the revival of religious studies in China. Although various social causes
conspired to keep enrollments in graduate programs, the activities of the
professional associations, and the founding of additional publications relatively
low, courses in religious studies were added to the curriculum of the Department
of Philosophy at Peking University with the help of the Institute of World
Religions. By the mid 1980s two more academic institutions in this field, along
with their journals, had been founded: the Institute for Religious Studies at the
Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, with its journal Contemporary Study of
Religions, and the Institute for the Study of Daoism and Traditional Culture
at Sichuan University, with Research in Religious Studies.The development of the study of religionsFrom the debate on ‘religion as opium’ to the idea of ‘religion as culture’.As
mentioned above, the revival and development of religious studies in China
required subjective conditions, such as the liberation of thinking, along with
objective ones, namely, a reformed and open society. If the latter was formed
decisively by the politicians in power, the former was to be realized basically
by the scholars working in the field. There were two landmarks in the liberation
of thinking for scholars of religions: the debate on ‘religion as opium’ and the
idea of ‘religion as culture’.164
HE GUANGHU, CHUNG CHIN-HONG, AND LEE CHANG-YICK