婉飾、慣習與神蹟創造：現代性下的神如何不死？

Euphemism, Habitus, and the Production of Miracles: Why Won't God Die in Modernity?

在「護教學」之外，宗教本身是否有著某種內在機制，使它能夠在世俗理性的挑戰下維持神的真實性，成功解決世俗化所帶來的宗教可信度危機？本文以台灣民間信仰中的神蹟創造為例來進行討論。神蹟是對事件的一種詮釋，它的產生牽涉到某種特定詮釋方式的浮現，以及他類詮釋的被壓抑，因此牽涉到的是一種意識的社會控制。本文首先將之放在涂爾幹「神如何被認知為真」的脈絡下，認為這是一個關於宗教如何生產「誤識」的問題。然後援用布迪厄的場域、慣習與婉飾等概念來討論這種「誤識」如何透過宗教的內在機制而被生產。並且將時間的向度放入分析之中，呈顯現代性在這當中所扮演的角色。最後本文也試著將這個問題放在韋伯「文化人的歷史命運」的脈絡下，認為宗教如何維持其真理性的問題，反映了多元主義與相對主義給人們帶來的「缺乏真理的確定性」的困擾。民間信仰的神蹟創造提供了我們思索這一有關人的現代處境問題的範例。

In addition to 'apologetics,' are there any intrinsic mechanisms of religion that enable it to maintain the plausibility of gods under the challenge of secular reason? This article uses the production of miracles in Taiwan's folk religion as a case to undertake this discussion. A miracle involves the emergence of a particular interpretation of an event and the repression of other ones, and therefore it is about the social control of consciousness. This article considers miracles in the context of Durkheim's argument about 'how god is conceived as true' and as a problem of how religion produces 'misrecognition.' It then uses Bourdieu's concepts of 'field,' 'habitus,' and 'euphemism' to discuss how this 'misrecognition' is produced. The discussion proceeds within a diachronic framework by taking into account the consequences of modernity. This article also considers the issue of individuals' predicaments under the modern circumstance of pluralism. The case examined provides significant understanding of how people cope with this situation.