CHAPTER 5. A SUMMARY COMPARISON OF FGS AND IKT
6.4 FGS AND IKT’ S P ROPAGATION S TRATEGIES
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6.3 FGS and IKT’s Doctrine and Rituals
Both FGS and IKT see themselves as the hope of the future and as a redemptive religion. While FGS aims at transforming the world, people have to continually do good deeds and cultivate themselves to reach the ultimate goal: extrication from samsara, which may not be achieved in this life. IKT directly targets on immediate individual salvation. One of Iannaccone’s assumptions on religious risk is that most religious commodities are risky, promising large but uncertain benefits.176IKT tactfully affirms the immediate salvation, the accumulation of merits and a reachable future – people only need to cultivate themselves in this life, and they will return to heaven.
Even though FGS and IKT ratify the value of wealth and health, IKT’s doctrine, concerns of this life and the ultimate salvation tend to be more pragmatic and promising.
As society changes from an agricultural one to commercial society, the link between people and some religious rituals cannot persist. FGS’ invention of etiquette and rules help Buddhism to blend in people’s lives and continue this connection, the FGS order and Master Hsing Yun create a distinction against other organizations and teachers. Likewise, IKT’s conservative Confucian elements and complicated rituals help to shape cultural identity.
6.4 FGS and IKT’s Propagation Strategies
FGS and IKT have a massive global following, with each accounting for millions of people. The influences of Buddhist doctrine and concepts are not monodirectional, religions and socio-culture mutually influence each other. FGS and IKT, while one has
176 Laurence R. Iannaccone, “Rational Choice: Framework for the Science Study of Religion”, p. 33.
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its traditions, beliefs, texts, and practices, and another one has to adopt scriptures from other five major religions, they are both influenced by traditional Chinese culture.
FGS aims to “purify human’s mind”, and IKT’s ultimate goal is to return to heaven, they provide social goods (hospital, voluntary work, environmental protection, etc.) and religious products (sutra reading, spiritual retreat) that are suitable to the modern society.
“May the Buddha’s Light shine upon the ten directions. May the Dharma stream continuously flow towards the five great continents” and “To save the world, to transform human’s mind and to make the whole world become one” is respectively the motto of FGS and IKT. Although they both foster talents in English and try to transform the secular world, FGS is readier and more proactive. While FGS’ website has traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese and English version, Fa-Yi Chong De’s website has a traditional Chinese version only. Furthermore, with the belief that religions should work together instead of rejecting each other, Master Hsing Yun holds inter-religious’ dialogue. Hsing Yun does not only affirm other temples’ teaching but also declares that religions should be able to communicate with each other without changing and losing its intrinsic culture and tradition. With sufficient resources, FGS has become a global influential Buddhist group that achieved localization during its spread in other continents.
To contrast with FGS’ spirit of promoting inter-religious communication, IKT unilaterally includes other major religions which result in dismissal by other religions.
The Confucian values that it emphasizes might be an obstacle when propagating in other non-Chinese society. Its conservative Confucian element is its Achilles heel. The
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traditional Confucian element and its syncretic theology make a core part of it that cannot be modernized and changed. Thus, we still need to observe how successful IKT will be in the future.
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unprosperous situation of Christianity in Taiwan and Macau ascribe to internal and external factors.177On the internal side, whether the clergies are locals and the church has adapted to the local environment is essential. In the 19th century, foreign missionaries governed churches in Taiwan, and they mainly gave sermons in Mandarin instead of Taiwanese. Until the 1980s, the Presbyterian Church developed contextual theology, and Taiwanese could govern the church. In Macau’s context, since the Macau-Portuguese government had been trying to maintain a mild relationship with the Chinese Communist Party, the Catholic Church did and does not engage in propagation work as active as other Protestants. Neither the Catholic Church nor the Protestantism has developed contextual theology to accommodate to Macau’s situation.
On the external side, both Taiwan and Macau residents are immigrants from Fujian and Guangdong. In the REST, it shows a high percentage of Christians in Taiwan believe in “the good will be rewarded and the bad will be punished” (78.8%) this concept, and “to honour one’s ancestors” is the most advocated value to the majority of Taiwanese.178One can predict Macau residents share more or less the same values.
Under Chinese’ long history of blending different religious traditions and teachings, it offers Chinese various cultural tools to deal with complex situations in life. Therefore,
177 Within the length of this thesis, I could not explain in great detail why Christianity fails to flourish in Taiwan and Macau. I intend to do an in-depth study about why Christianity does not develop well in these two places in the future.
178 Yen-zen Tsai, Religious Experience in Contemporary Taiwan and China, pp. 33, 117.