동시대 종교현상으로서 "유동적 종교"(Fluid Religion)에 대한 논의

Abstract

Based on recent religious survey results in Europe, USA and South Korea, the decline of organized religions and the increase of deinstitutionalized religiosity can be identified as the chief characteristic of contemporary religious landscape. In this article, the term ``fluid religion`` was used, which was inspired by ``liquid modernity``, a central concept in the works of Zygmund Bauman, to understand the contemporary religious change more comprehensively. ``Fluid religion`` was here applied as a broad concept comprising the both dimensions, i.e. religious organization and individual religiosity. By using the term in this way, the interdependency of these two dimensions was underlined and furthermore, the direction of religious change in late modern societies was suggested. In regard to the organizational dimension of ``fluid religion``, degree of organizational flexibility was classified into 4 types with examples of new religious movements, paying particular attention to the third type, namely ``entrepreneurial religion``. With regard to the dimension of individual religiosity, frequent ``religious switching`` of contemporaries - moving between religions as well as within a religion - was seen as a significant indication of ``fluid religiosity`` and thereby, changed religious propensity of people today was described.