宗教倫理の担い手たち(続) : ウェーバー宗教倫理論ノート(五)
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概要
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In Part 4 of this series of papers, we focused our attention upon the thoughts and actions of religious leaders, namely, those of priests and prophets. And we showed that both of them contributed largely to the development and rationalization of religious ethics. In this paper, we consider the roles and works of the 'religious masses' or laymen, who unconsciously 'cooperated' with the leaders in forming religious circles and communities. The priests and prophets could not have existed and worked without the support of these laymen. First of all, we can divide laymen into two types. One is intellectuals, and the other is lay people in general who supported their religious leaders. The former group was not as important to the leaders as the latter group, because the leaders, especially the priests, had to care about the needs and interests of ordinary laymen in order to establish and maintain their religious associations. In other words, the religious associations had to be 'laymen's associations.' According to Weber, priests had to endeavor to respond to or counteract the critical deeds and attitudes of laymen, including prophets who were originally lay people. As a result of their own efforts, they codified the 'holy canons' and 'dogmas,' which were systematically constructed from religious writings including prophetic legends and other oral traditions. However, they did not only work on theoretical levels, but also on practical levels, namely, on the religious activities such as 'preaching' and 'pastoral care.' It is evident that they influenced the attitudes of life or 'Ethos' of ordinary people through these activities. Lay people sought and took the advice of priests, and in consequence revised their attitudes towards life. That is why we say that laymen 'cooperated' with priests in the rationalization of religion and ethics. However, we have to take notice that laymen were certainly accelerators of the rationalization of life on the one hand, and on the other hand they were barriers to it because many ofthem believed in magic and traditionalism. Now we shift our gaze to Weber's sociological analyses of intellectual laymen. He divides intellectuals into two kinds by social class, namely, the upper class and the lower or middle classes. As the intellectuals from the upper or 'socially privileged' classes wished to be liberated from inner or spiritual anguish, their religious theory of salvation was rather abstract and sophisticated. However, that was why they were able to pursue the 'meaning' of life and the world, and construct rational religious theories including the so-called 'theodicies.' Most intellectuals from the lower and middle classes were self-educated, ordinary people. Their intellectualism was mainly composed of two types, namely, 'petit-bourgeois' and 'pariah' intellectualism. We can see the former type in ancient Christianity, and the latter type in ancient Judaism. In early Christianity, many scholarly fellows including St. Paul were 'artisans.' Although they were the forerunners of the religious intellectualism of the Church Fathers, their fundamental viewpoint was 'anti-rationalistic'. To sum up, lay people in general, including intellectuals, 'cooperated' with priests and prophets in order to create religious dogmas and rational attitudes towards life, and to develop religions and ethics in the world. We think Weber's most important achievement in the comparative study of religious ethics is his minute analyses of the dynamic process of their 'cooperation.'
- 東京女子大学の論文
- 2004-03-10