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the prospects of an ideal new world for the faithful are dealt with. For deliverance is not confined to the Chinese followers of the Tao; who cultivates his spiritual life and follows the true Tao can be saved. As has been noted above, this means that the spiritual tradition of the Tao, which originated in China and today still exists in Taiwan, contains the key to salvation for all mankind. Since the spiritual renewal of the world has to start from China, this universalism is in harmony with the traditionalism which asserts the superiority of the Chinese cultural tradition.
Modernization and the problem of cultural identity
In the last part of this paper I would like to make a few remarks which may contribute something to a better understanding of the intricate relationship between modernization and religious change. To formulate this as a question: can the renaissance of institutional religions in Taiwan be explained, taking into account the secularizing tendencies normally connected with modernization?
Let us first recall that secularization and religious renaissance obviously do not exclude each other. Many forms of diffused religion are continuously disappearing along with the decline of traditional social institutions they were related to. At the same time the symbol system by which the social and natural world is conceptualized in many cases loses its religious coloration. In this process religious legitimations of reality are replaced by more “rational" or "scientific" ones.
Another development which has to be taken into account is the differentiation of the cultural system into more or less distinct spheres, such as politics, economics, science, philosophy, religion, which traditionally were intimately interwoven and integrated into a single legitimation system. The growing importance of institutional religions — as compared with diffused religion — is partly a result of this general process of differentiation, as religion becomes more and more distinct from other social institutions.
As a matter of fact, in the West institutional differentiation of religion went hand in hand with secularization. The relative importance of Christianity as an institutional religion has diminished. The assertion that in Taiwan there has been a decline in traditional institutional religions cannot be accepted without reserve, however, since we are witness to a renaissance of Buddhism, Taoism and popular forms of institutional religions. We may ask, therefore, whether reasons
62
HUBERT SEIWART
the prospects of an ideal new world for the faithful are dealt with. For deliverance is not confined to the Chinese followers of the Tao; who cultivates his spiritual life and follows the true Tao can be saved. As has been noted above"", this means that the spiritual tradition of the Tao, which originated in China and today still exists in Taiwan, contains the key to salvation for all mankind". Since the spiritual renewal of the world has to start from China, this universalism is in harmony with the traditionalism which asserts the superiority of the Chinese cultural tradition.
Modernization and the problem of cultural identity
In the last part of this paper I would like to make a few remarks which may contribute something to a better understanding of the intricate relationship between modernization and religious change. To formulate this as a question: can the renaissance of institutional religions in Taiwan be explained, taking into account the secularizing tendencies normally connected with modernization?
Let us first recall that secularization and religious renaissance obviously do not exclude each other. Many forms of diffused religion are continuously disappearing along with the decline of traditional social institutions they were related to. At the same time the symbol system by which the social and natural world is conceptualized in many cases loses its religious coloration. In this process religious legitimations of reality are replaced by more “rational" or "scientific" ones.
Another development which has to be taken into account is the differentiation of the cultural system into more or less distinct spheres, such as politics, economics, science, philosophy, religion, which tra- ditionally were intimately interwoven and integrated into a single legitimation system. The growing importance of institutional religions - as compared with diffused religion — is partly a result of this general process of differentiation, as religion becomes more and more distinct from other social institutions"1.
As a matter of fact, in the West institutional differentiation of religion went hand in hand with secularization. The relative importance of Christianity as an institutional religion has diminished*2. The assertion that in Taiwan there has been a decline in traditional ins- titutional religions cannot be accepted without reserve, however, since we are witness to a renaissance of Buddhism, Taoism and popular forms of institutional religions. We may ask, therefore, whether reasons
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