An Introduction to Modern Belief Studies

An Introduction to Modern Belief Studies is the theoretical fruit of Professor Jing Xuemin's years of research, systemized and established as a discipline. Rather than exploring specific religious beliefs, the book constructs a meta-theoretical framework around 'belief' itself. Drawing on philosophy, sociology, psychology, and other disciplines, the author offers an in-depth analysis of the nature, structure, and functions of belief and of its transformations in modern society. The book is logically rigorous: beginning with a survey of conceptions of belief in Chinese and Western intellectual history, it gradually moves into core issues such as the mechanisms by which belief arises, the relationship between belief and reason, and belief crises and reconstruction. Its most illuminating section is the dialectical analysis of the relationship between 'modernity' and belief, revealing how belief remains possible and necessary today, when instrumental rationality prevails and values are pluralized. For researchers in the humanities and social sciences, this is a foundational work of methodological significance; for general readers concerned with the building of spiritual life, it offers a rational tool for examining their own systems of conviction beyond specific doctrines. The book is highly academic and abstract in its argumentation, yet clearly structured; patient reading yields profound insight into the fundamental question of how human beings ground their existence.