The Challenge and Persistence of Christian Schools in the Context of Secularization: Studies on Aletheia University and St. John\'s University in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Chen, Yu-Hai, 陳玉海
• Other Authors: Tsai, Yuan-Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/4zt6pt

博士 === 國立政治大學 === 宗教研究所 === 107 === The thesis on Aletheia University and St. John’s University is evolved from the Christian schools of the two academic traditions that were rooted in Taiwan and mainland China separately. These two traditions are also the origins of all Taiwanese Christian schools. The Christian Schools were established and based on the grounds of their stronger or weaker religious intentions, and challenged by the secular environments when they started and operated the educational institutions. The purpose of this research aims to explore the tension between religion and secular areas (political, economic, intellectual) in the field of Christian high education, and to comprehend the decisions made by the leaders under the conflicting values through the analyses in terms of the sociologist Max Weber’s “Idea Type”. This study points out that once the Christian school was founded, it would suffer from the oppression of local political power instinctively in both the mainland China and Taiwan. The government set pressure to the school through the restricted policies of filing qualification and course content and the cooperation with the government’s development in economic policies to favor industrial and commercial college. But the school would survive and adjust through getting rid of the church’s control by obtaining the status of the juristic person. However, the “Homo Religiosus” had the ethic of convicting that achieved to their mission without counting the cost so that they could seek survival in conflicts and compromises. Facing the changes in the future of secularization, whether the flames in the hearts of religious people are still prosperous, whether they respond to the challenges in a realistic manner, the religious ethic will be the vital energy to the survival of Christian schools.