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This research begins with some certain religious images of the pinities and demons in folk tales and literature works, discussing the comparisons and evolution. It is not only for the better understanding the similarities and persities of different civilizations, also for better communication between the Chinese and Westerners.
2 Key Terms and Research Methodology
2.1 Religious secularization and Folk beliefs
Religious secularization is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward nonreligious (or irreligious) values and secular institutions. Secularization thesis refers to the belief that as societies "progress", particularly through modernization and rationalization, religion loses its authority in all aspects of social life and governance.
Secularization refers to the diminishing significance of the role of religious precepts and rites in the daily activities of inpiduals and groups. The modern secularist view stemmed from the 18th century movement called the Enlightenment (R.L. Johnstone:2001). Developments in science and technology, growing literacy, and progress in the articulation of inpidual rights gave rise to disparate voices challenging the worldview that extant social relations reflect a pinely inspired, ordered hierarchy. It reflects the modification of religions themselves as well as the interaction between religions and the outside world. In most cases, secularization weakens the sacredness of religions in essence.
Folk beliefs consist of ethnic or regional religious customs under the umbrella of an organized religion, but outside of official doctrine and practices. Don Yoder has defined "folk religion" as "the totality of all those views and practices of religion that exist among the people apart from and alongside the strictly theological and liturgical forms of the official religion." (Yoder, D:1933, 2)
2.2 Research Methodology
One of the research methods is document analysis method. Commonly, the data come from relevant printed sources (Books, Magazines, and Journals) and in electronic sources (Encyclopedias, or online services, such as the Internet). Most of the books for this research
are about religions and the present secularization situations, such as Brown C.’s Christianity and Western Thought Vol.1 and R.L. Johnstone’s Religion in Society: A Sociology of Religion, which both give a profound and general resource to provide relevant theory support for the study. The Internet is also very helpful for the data collecting, especially religious professional homepages.
Case study is another valuable method, with its distinctive characteristics that make ideal for many types of investigations. The research will focus on four certain images of the pinities and demons in folk tales and literature works, which are Guanyin Bodhisattva (or Avalokitesvara) and God, Yama and Satan, both in Chinese and Western culture.
3 The Folk Beliefs and Folk Culture
3.1 Chinese Folk Beliefs and Folk Christianity
Chinese folk religion is a term of considerable debate and the label used to describe the collection of ethnic religious traditions which have been a main belief system in China and among Han Chinese ethnic groups for most of the civilization's history until today. Shenism (or Divinitism) comprises Chinese mythology and includes the worship of shens which can be nature deities, Taizu or clan deities, city deities, national deities, cultural heroes and demigods, dragons and ancestors. (Wang, 2007:75) Chinese folk religion retains traces of some of ancestral primal religious belief systems, which include the veneration of (and communication with) the Sun, the Moon, the Earth, the Heaven, and various stars, as well as communication with animals. It has been practiced by the Chinese people for thousands of years, and alongside Buddhism, Taoism, and various other religions for the past two thousand years.