Re-understanding of the Social Role or the Cultural Functionof Religion——Theoretical Reflections drawn from International Hot Issues after
the Cold War and Religions
Zhang Zhigang

I. Theoretical Problems that this Paper Reflects on

I

N the past five years, I have been responsible for a significant issue“Research on Contemporary Religious Conflicts and Dialogues,” oneof the “Chinese Ministry of Education’s Key Projects of Major Subjects of Philosophical and Social Sciences” (2003–2008). After these
five years of progressive research, I not only deeply felt that this topic
was extremely crucial, but I also perceived a number of questions on
the theories of religious studies that were worth pondering over. If
these questions were integrated as one point, that would be how one
re-understands the social role or cultural functions of religion underthe background of “globalization” or “global village,” especially under
the reorganization of international politics, economics and cultural
structure in the post-Cold War era. Let me first explain briefly mycomprehension on the above two questions: Firstly, the comprehensionof the important practical problem raised by this issue which I was
responsible for. Secondly, the comprehension of the theoretical problems of religious studies that I have perceived through the probing of
this important issue.
1. Important Practical Problem
One year prior to the September-11 attacks (9/11), Mr. Qian Qichen,
Vice Premier of China, and concurrently holding the position as thedean of the School of International Studies (SIS) of Peking University,
pointed out that: Religious and ethnic issues have stood out after theCold War. Many international hot issues are mostly related to religious
and ethnic problems. The religious issues after the Cold War have thefollowing characteristics: (a) Religion is often associated with ethnic
issues. (b) Freedom of religion is often associated with human rights
issues. (c) Religion is often associated with fundamentalism or terrorism. (d) Religion is often associated with the political situation of the
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state and the problem of ethnic division or unity. (e) Religious identity
often cuts across national and ethnic boundaries. Therefore, we muststudy religious issues attentively.1
After the world-shaking 9/11 incident, the importance and seriousness
of religious problems has aroused the universal concern of the international community. This prompted many experts and scholars in China
and abroad to reflect on the great changes of international situations
before and after the Cold War, and re-think the extensive influence ofreligious factors on the various international hot issues and major conflicts. As one expert on international issues pointed out, the following
series of political, economic and military conflicts; such as the conflictsof Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Ireland, the Molucca Islands and Acehprovince in Indonesia, the disputes over Kashmir, and etc., contain evercomplicated and ever-increasing religious factors. “We can say that
rapidly change of international situation could not be separated withreligions. After the 9/11 attack, religious and ethnic problems have been
important driving force in international politics and caused the convulsive fluctuation in the world situations.” 2This poses an important practical problem upon us: Why do religious
factors cause such extensive and heavy impact on the various international hot issues and major conflicts after the Cold War?
2. Some Theoretical Problems of Religious Studies(1) Formulation of “religious conflict” is relatively simplistic.
After the Cold War, although “religious conflict” has become the mostfrequently used keyword in domestic and foreign media, if studied
closely, “simple or direct religious conflict” is rare, small and has little
effect. This signifies that, what is known as “religious conflict” would
usually appear in a more complex and intricate form. Actually, the factmany domestic and foreign theorists pay attention to is that almost allinternational hot issues or major conflicts in the post-Cold War containsome religious factors or are on the basis of religious background thatcannot to be ignored.
(2) Current religious views or concepts of religious studies are also relatively simplistic.
How does one explain the extensive influence of religious factors orbackgrounds toward international hot issues or major conflicts after theCold War? The following viewpoints are commonly found in the related
study results: Firstly, they are “ in the coat of religion,” “under the ban-RE-UNDERSTANDING OF THE SOCIAL ROLE OF RELIGION185

ner of religion” or “took advantage of religious faith” and others. Secondly, the so-called “Benefitism”: attributing religious influence or roleto this or that benefits, such as economic benefits, political benefits, military benefits, benefits for an ethnic group or a nation. Thirdly, the“combination-of-factors theory”(theory of synthetic factors): the international hot issues or major conflicts are generally made of many
interwoven factors, such as territorial disputes, struggle for resources,
security issues, political interest, ideologies, religious beliefs, racial or
ethnic discord, and so forth.
With regards to the former two viewpoints, anyone who researches onsome major religious traditions and not looks upon them as “fraudulent
matters,” will then easily find these two views are simplistic and superficial. As for the third viewpoint, more explanation is required. This view
was proposed by “war and conflict” researchers, and has become a common methodology in this field.3 This methodology seems to be comparatively comprehensive and have “taken every aspect into consideration.”
However, in my opinion, this view on religion is still simplistic. That is,
it put the religious factor in the same category with various factors orcauses of the economy, politics, military, races or ethnic groups. Thisview apparently ignored the uniqueness of religious phenomena, andthis cannot explain the mutual interaction of “religious faith factor” withthe other factors, and its complicated influence. The above views havebeen prevalent mainly in the studies of international politics and international relations.
The religious academic world has been ever-changing over the past
century, nevertheless, some theoretical viewpoints are still holding dominant positions, such as theories on the decline and fall of religion; separation of government and religion; personalization of religion; secularization of religion; marketization of religion and so forth. Do theseviewpoints suffice to explain the fore-mentioned important practicalproblem? Here is the question first, then I will review and comment.
It is precisely because the above theories are insufficient in general, I
considered, by exploring the fore-mentioned important practical problem—why does religious factors cause extensive and significant influence to the many international hot issues and major conflicts after theCold War—we would likely be able to achieve a breakthrough in thetheory of religious studies in order to understand more comprehensively
and deeply the complicated characteristics of religious phenomena andits social role or cultural function. The following is a brief report of mytheoretical attempt in recent years. The main method is to grasp the“religious factor” as the keyword of the aforementioned important prac-

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tical problem, then explain it emphasizing the four complexities influenced by it. I named them as “nature of accumulation,” “nature of permeation,” “nature of infiltration” and “nature of depth.”

II. Nature of Accumulation of Religious Factors and
Its Influence
After the Cold War, a number of many international hot issues andmajor conflicts have been increasingly and deeply affected by religious
factors. This is a new problem arising from new circumstances. However, first we need to be aware of is the fact that religion is an ancient, universal social and cultural phenomenon. Precisely because of the longand profound relationship of religion with human society or culturalactivities, thinkers dedicated to cultural history or civilization history
researches, mostly put emphasis on the social role or cultural function ofreligious traditions. Due to the limited space of this paper, we can only
review on the inspiring studies of Toynbee (Arnold Toynbee) and Dawson (Christopher Dawson) of the social role or cultural function of religious traditions.
According to the great work of comparative history of civilizations“A Study of History” (1934–1961), Toynbee’s plan to interpret the history that he had studied with great concentration, is the systematic categorization of the relationship between religious traditions and social
civilizations (cultures in a broad sense) and the comparing of the 26
social civilizations in order to reveal the basic model of transformationof human civilization. He investigated deeply into the important socialand historical role of religious traditions in the process of civilization’sbirth, growth, breakdown, and disintegration. He considered that religious belief as a fundamental attitude of human life could be said as“source of life” or “spiritual bond” of each social civilization, and thatonce a certain social civilization lost its traditional spiritual belief, it
was bound to decline until replaced by a new form of civilization.
Why did he say this? Toynbee believed that for hundreds and thousands of years, various major religious traditions were able to attract
many followers because they responded respectively to some major
psychological types of humankind, and satisfied the emotional needs
generated by each type of believers under different forms of civilizations. Therefore, all activities of civil society including politics, economy and culture have been maintained by the way of life which eachreligious belief explained. As a result, when he overviewed the transformation process of civilization, he kept paying attention to the deep

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impact of the different religious traditions towards the cultural mentality or cultural sub-consciousness. Such investigation and analysis permeate the entire volume of the “A Study of History.”Same as Weber (Max Weber), Christopher Dawson, the renowned
cultural historian and philosopher of history, also investigated the origins of modern Western culture from the aspect of religious traditions.
But when compared with Weber, Dawson’s theories hold a broader
view. Weber’s research was strictly limited to the affinity between
Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Dawson’s investigation
was on the historic connection between the religious traditions and theevolution of Western culture. In his opinion, to reveal the causes ofmodern Western culture, one must not overlook the historical process ofaccumulation of traditional religious culture. In particular one must notunderestimate the period which was the threshold to the modern age
because the spiritual creative power which was necessary to the modern
culture, even to the pioneers of modern culture, was all bred and formed
during this period.
Basing on the comprehensive investigation of Western cultural history, especially the Medieval cultural history, Dawson pointed out something which gave one much to think about: What is known as a religion
is not an abstract ideology, and it is not merely a kind of an ancient spiritual resource, but is mainly continuous cultural traditions and cultural
customs that exerted its subtle influences in history. Yet, previous
researchers often concentrated on the “high-level issues,” that of political, ideological, intellectual and so on, they were not aware that theseissues made just a very small portion of the long course of history. In
fact, the greatest influence on the common people and social life stillcomes from the cultural customs or religious traditions.4
Summing up the study results of the above two eminent scholars, we
can obtain the following points:(1) If we can say that only a broad view of the evolution process ofhuman history or culture, instead of a study on certain period of time inhistory or culture, make us possible to study and discuss the social roleor cultural function of religious traditions comprehensively and deeply,
then, the currently existing religious factors in the human society or cultural activities should mainly be regarded as the result of historical accumulation. This is the point that I would like to stress first from the standpoint of methodology. This point allows us to reflect upon ourselves asfollows: the fore-mentioned modern theoretical views on religions,
theory on the decline and fall of religion; separation of government and188

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religion; personalization of religion; secularization of religion; marketization of religion and so forth, are the views mainly limited within“Western Modernization,” a particular space and time and cultural stage.
If we stretch the meaning of this interpretation, why cannot we say thatit impedes our comprehensive and profound understanding of the socialrole or cultural functions of Eastern and Western religious traditions?
(2) As a result of historical accumulation, religious factors and its
influence usually don't surface, rather be stored up in the depth of society and cultural activities. In other words, the influences of religious factors mostly work in a subtle manner, like the cultural traditions, cultural
customs, cultural psychology or social sub-consciousness that the forementioned two scholars investigated.
(3) Although “in a subtle manner” may be comprehended as a normal form of religious factors and its influence, people always review andreflect on their history or cultural tradition in one way or another, especially when in the historical turning point, corresponding to the challenge of time. In this crucial moment of history, the most religious
factors and its influence would strongly affect and be clearly reflected .
I think this historical characteristic will help us to understand thebackground of the evident increase of the religious impact after the Cold
War. However, it is noteworthy that the obvious influence of religious
factors on many international hot issues and major conflicts of today
emerge not only from the new situation, that is, the realignment of international political structure, but also from the historical background of“globalization” or “global village.” This has provided us an unprecedented “theoretical opportunity” in order to re-understand the social roleor cultural function of religion from the global viewpoint.

III. Nature of Permeation of Religious Factors and
Its Influence
The accumulation nature mentioned previously is mainly probed andillustrated from the historical point of view on religious factors and its
influence. When we look back to the present reality, the permeation
nature of religious factor and its influence is another characteristic thatshould not be neglected. The permeation nature of religious factors
derives from the wide spreading of religious phenomena. To understandthis is not difficult at all. Let us go over the following statistics first:
It was estimated that up till 2001, the world population was about

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6.128 billion, among which 2.024 billion Christians, 1.213 billion Muslims, 363 million Buddhists, 823 million Hindus, 14.552 million Jews,
and about 23.68 millions Sikhs, 1.03 billion were followers of all othernew religions.5
The above statistics show clearly that most believers in the world still
subscribe to several traditional religions. This fact proves the former
characteristics, that is, the religious factors and its influence should
mainly be regarded as the results of the historical accumulation. Morethought-provoking fact is that even in the present hi-tech era, the believers account for 80% of the world’s population.
This huge figure awakens us that: (1) Such widespread religious phenomena are not illusion, but a true reflection of the situation of faith andmost people's way of life in the world. (2) Although the objects of worship of various religions are all “transcendent, sacred and even mystified,” all believers have explained “the ultimate meaning of life” andalso set their “rule of earthly life” basing on such beliefs.
One of the founders of modern sociology of religion, Durkheim(Émile Durkheim), pointed out long ago, “A religion is a unified systemof beliefs and practices relative to sacred things.”6 Sociologist of religion
Yinger (John Milton Yinger) also stressed that: “Religion, then, can be
defined as a system of beliefs and practices by means of which a groupof people struggles with the ultimate problems of human life.”7 In the
recent three or four decades, one of the most influential concepts ininternational study of religion is “Ultimate Concern.” This concept
includes an attempt to grasp the nature and function of various religious
beliefs by the method of comparison with cross-cultural and cross-age
concepts. Its advocate Tillich (Paul Tillich) considered that: “Religion,in the largest and most basic sense of the world, is ultimate concern.
…….Religion is the substance, the ground, and the depth of man’s spiritual life. This is the religious aspect of the human spirit.”8 Such views
are designed to show that : for the broad masses of believers, religion is
not just a world and life view or their standard of value. It is the way oflife to which they are devoting themselves. Or one can say that religious
belief is in fact the lifestyle that certain types of believers acquired
through their ultimate concern. Therefore, we can determine that the socalled religious factors are bound to permeate and influence the spiritual
activities and material life of followers.
We can recognize the breadth of religious phenomena caused by permeation nature of religious factors, as well as from the viewpoint of therelationship between religions and ethnic groups. Broadly speaking,there are over 2,000 ethnic groups, large and small, which spread out in

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more than 200 countries and regions. Until now, no ethnos or country isfound without any religious phenomena. The religious beliefs of mostethnos are multiplied and diversified. But some ethnos have embraced
their common religious tradition. For example, almost all Arabs are
Muslims, almost all Jewish are Jews, most Indians are Hindus, and soforth. Accordingly, we can judge that religious factors permeate andinfluence all ethnos, countries and regions. The religious atmosphere isstrong, especially where the majority of the population are religious
believers. Therefore, the social influence or cultural function of the religious factor particularly cannot be ignored. For example, this is the casewith the so-called “Christian World” and “Islamic World.”

IV. Nature of Infiltration of Religious Factors and
Its Influence
The fore-mentioned permeation nature of religious factors means that
religious factors have a very strong nature of infiltration. In other words,
religion can infiltrate and affect several major factors of human social
activities, such as politics, economy, culture, and so forth. The term
“nature of permeation” is used to graphically show that religious factors
are distributed throughout the entire social life in tangible or intangible
ways. Like this, “nature of infiltration” can explain that the religious factors can penetrate into all the other factors of social activity obviously or
obscurely, resulting that the religious belief as the view of the world, life
values, and the way of living is infused together with the other factors
such as politics, economy and culture. Then they become inseparable,
functioning together and causing influences. When one is aware of thiscomplex feature of religious factors, this enables us to think further into
how religious factors have affected the many post-Cold War international hot issues and major conflicts.
As previously mentioned, many Chinese and foreign scholars believethat major international hot issues and conflicts are not caused by “onesingle cause,” but are the result of various factors of economy, politics,
military, culture, ethnos and religions interwoven together. If so, why do
I consider this type of research concept is too simple or even too superficial to understand religions? The main reason is that this type of concept
still remains in “the mere recognition of surface phenomenon,” simply
explaining the religious factor as a kind of relatively independent phenomenon which can be discussed on the same plane as factors of economy, politics, military, ethnos and nations. Yet, is this true in reality? Thisis the problem. Let us see with two examples.

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As commonly known, the root cause of the Palestine-Israel conflict,which is also the deadlock of the problem, is the territorial dispute,particularly on Jerusalem. This dispute is connected with the struggle
for survival and development of both. Therefore, it entirely affects thevarious benefits of the two conflicting parties; such as the political,
military/security, economical and cultural benefits. However, the complication is that it is the continuing territorial dispute from religious
backgrounds. Most Palestinians are Muslims, while the majority of
Israelites are Jewish, and Jerusalem is the holy place that is never tobe lost in the hearts of both parties. Just as Huntington (Samuel Huntington) wrote,“Once the conflict becomes focused on religious issues,
it tends to become zero sum and difficult to compromise: …….either
Jews or Muslims control the Temple Mount.”9The above analysis clearly states that in such an uncompromising
territorial dispute between Palestine and Israel, the so-called religious
factor does not appear singularly and not play a partial role; instead it
creates “the specific atmosphere” in the entire conflict. This atmosphere envelopes all the other conflicting factors, such as territorial
issues, ethnic contradictions, economic benefits, political divergences,
cultural differences and so forth. These factors are inevitably infiltrated and conditioned by the heavy influence of religious factor to a certain degree. If we can regard the Palestine-Israel territory dispute as a
typical case, would the “infiltration nature of religious factors and its
influence” assist our further and deeper understanding on the influenceof “the religious background or atmosphere” towards international hot
issues and major conflicts? To prove this point, let us take a look at
the following example.
Is America, as Bush (George W. Bush) claimed, entrusted with a special mission from God—to spread freedom and democracy to the wholeworld? This is the question Albright (Madeleine Albright) intended topursue in her recent book The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on
America, God and World Affairs (2006). She, former United States Secretary of State, examined and analyzed this problem through various
angles; such as the impact of religious traditions towards America’sview, the effect of the Christian Right on U.S. policies , the Bush administration’s success and failure in responding to 9/11, the challenges
posed by the war in Iraq and the importance of understanding Islamic
World. She came to the following conclusion: U.S. policy-makers must
understand the power and role of religion in motivating others or coloring how American actions are acceptable. Religion and politics are not
only inseparable, but when the two are joined, if utilized appropriately,

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can be a force for justice and peace.10
Schröder (Gerhard Schröder), former chancellor of Germany, looking
back his many meetings with President Bush after 9/11, recalled thatPresident Bush time and time again said he was a devout believer, hewould obey only the highest authority—God’s will. In President Bush’s
speech on January 29, 2002, he used many words from the Bible todeclare that Iraq, Iran and North Korea were the “Axis of evil,” and theywould be next U.S. military targets. Schröder pointed out that: If a
devout believer determines his behavior through prayers in his personal
life, it is understandable. However if in the political decision-making, its
legitimacy is from God’s will as President Bush claimed, it would be
problematic, because it would not allow any criticism, and less likely tomake changes through exchanging views. Schröder reflected on this andsaid that all of them (mainly refers to state leaders of the European
Union) underestimated the role of religions and ethical teachings in
America. The political group formed by neoconservative intellectuals
and Christian fundamentalists had great influence on U.S. domestic politics and on the President, but “personal demonization of Bush” had hindered them from analysing this political group critically.11

V. Nature of Depth of Religious Factors and Its Influence
Regarding the religious influence on the depth of culture, Paul Tillich
pointed out years ago that: “Religion as ultimate concern is the meaning-giving substance of culture, and culture is the totality of forms inwhich the basic concern of religion expresses itself. In abbreviation:
religion is the substance of culture, culture is the form of religion.”12 He
explained that all religious acts, not only in organized religion but also
in the most intimate movement of the soul, are culturally formed. In
other words, there is no cultural activity without an ultimate concern
expressed in it, be it from the theoretical function or practical functionof human spirit.
On the research of cultural meaning and social function of religious
traditions, the most important theoretical result in the last thirty years is
probably the “Thick Description: Towards an Interpretive Theory of
Cultures” by Geertz (Clifford Geertz). Based on solid fieldwork andthorough case studies, this theory explains more concretely and deeply
how “religious tradition as a system of symbols” is accumulated andforms the worldview and the sense of values in a certain cultural region;
how the tradition subtly influences the psychological tendency and the
motivation of action in a certain ethnos or social grouping. Geertz

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defines “religion” as (a) a system of symbols which acts to (b) establish
powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men[and women] by (c) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (d) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factualitythat (e) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.13
Even though the achievement of these studies may not be perfect, oreven have a certain kind of deviation such as “religious determinism,”
however they have undoubtedly reasonable and inspiring contents. Fromthe perspectives of these two fundamental theories—the “nature” and“function” of religious belief, we can deepen our understanding of religious factors and their impacts. The foregoing discussion shows that theso-called religious factors do not only refer to a particular religion itself,
but generally refer to the reflections or embodiments of various religious
beliefs in the human culture and the social living realm. The effects of
the religious factor mainly mean the cultural function or social role ofreligious belief. Speaking academically, the function or role of a matter
depends on its essence or its nature. The religious factor in the social life
should also be the case. Therefore, on comparison studies we can define“religious belief ”as “ultimate concern,” or in the more common concept
it refers to the world and life view or values with some ultimate, absolute, or sacred characteristics. Then, it is not difficult for us to comprehend the depth nature of religious factors and its influence that we areprobing here.
Here I use the phrase “the depth nature,” mainly because I want toemphasize the following: Religious factor is the reflection of religious
belief in the real life or the social embodiment of the belief. It includes,
therefore, the world-life view or values of various religions in the depthof it. Consequently, from deep or the most fundamental level, religious
factor exercises huge influences on the political, economic, and culturalactivities of humankind, especially on social organizations, party groupings, races, ethnos, international associations or organizations and soforth, which are possessing deep religious traditions and strong atmosphere of faith. If we acknowledge this nature of depth, we can comprehend more accurately how and why the religious factors and its influence have the aforementioned three kinds of characteristics, namely, thenature of accumulation, nature of permeation and nature of infiltration,at the same time we can get a better understanding where the influenceof religious factors are coming from towards the post-Cold War international hot issues and major conflicts.

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VI. A Brief and Immature Conclusion
For the past twenty years, I mainly followed two lines of research, thetheory and method of religious studies and religious philosophy. As aresult, I have held a general interest, or one should say, a strong theoretical interest to explore the above four characteristics. In my opinion,
if these four characteristics can be established, then this theoreticalidea may help us to reconsider methodologically such long-term popular religious viewpoints, as theories on the decline and fall of religion; separation of government and religion; personalization of religion; secularization of religion; marketization of religion and so forth.
This reconsideration is necessary because these viewpoints not only
could not explain the immense influence of religious factors towards
the post-Cold War international hot issues and major conflicts, but also
made people underestimate and even ignore the social role or culturalfunction of religious beliefs for long periods of time.
This brief report is no more than an immature theoretical attempt. I
would appreciate any comment and criticism from experts and scholars.
Notes
1
See Qian Qichen: Some Key Problems in the Study of Today’s International Relations, Journal of World Economics and Politics, 2000, No. 9.
2
See Lu Zhongwei : Religious Factor in International Conflicts,[The Focus of World Religious Issues], ed.Center for Ethnic and Religious Studies in
China Institute of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), Beijing: Shishi Press,
2003, “Preface,” pp. 1–2.
3
Kalevi J. Holsti, Canadian renowned scholar in international politics pointed out:
“Investigators of conflicts, crises, and war reached a consensus years ago that monocausal explanations are theoretically and empirically deficient,” Peace and War: Armed
Conflicts and International Order 1648–1989, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1991, p. 3. The author refered to the Chinese translation by Wang Puqu and others, Beijing: Peking University Press, 2005.
4
For more information on Dawson’s viewpoint, refer to Progress and Religion; Religion and the Modern State; Religion and Culture; Medieval Essays; Religion and theRise of Western Culture and many other works. Readers can also refer to my book
[An Introduction to Religious Studies], Beijing: Orient Press, 1996,
Chapter 4.
[Dawson’s Cultural History].
5International Bulletin of Missionary Research, January, 2001.
6
Émile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, New York: The Free
Press, 1965, p. 62.
7
J. Milton Yinger, The Scientific Study of Religion, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1970, p. 7.
8Paul Tillich, Theology of Culture, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1959, pp. 7–8.
9
Samuel P. Huntington: Who are We? The Challenges to America’s National

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Identity, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004, p. 357. The author refered to the Chinesetranslation by Cheng Kexiong, Beijing : Xinhua Press Agency, 2005.
10
See Madeleine Albright, The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America,
God and World Affairs, New York: Harper Collins, 2006: Abstract.
11
See Gerhard Schröder: Entscheidungen. Mein Leben in der Politik, Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe, 2006. The author refered to the Chinese translation by Xu Jinghua, Li
Yueyi, Shanghai: Yilin Press, 2007; mainly pp. 91, 110, 113.
12
Paul Tillich, Theology of Culture, Ibid., p. 42.
13
Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, New York: Basic Books, 1973,
p. 90.