The Levelheadedness of Chinese Religions
And the downside of Chinese pragmatism
Religion begins prehistorically with animistic, shamanic protoscience or with what the animists regarded as magical negotiations with the “spirits” that seemed intuitively to animate natural processes.
With the rise of civilizations, religions were politicized, and the spirits gathered into strict social hierarchies that mirrored the human class or caste divisions. Animism morphed into polytheism, and the slaves, women, and minorities of the lower classes tended to accept their lots in the natural, divinely ordained order.
And religion wasn’t yet driven by alienation or resentment.
The intolerance implicit in monotheism changed all of that, as I’ve explained elsewhere in the cases of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. But monotheism wasn’t the only source of religious alienation. The Axial Age reforms were generally alienating in that they empowered marginalized members (gurus, ascetics, philosophers, monks) who personalized religion.
Religion no longer served just the state, but became “spiritual,” an imperative to enlighten every soul, and “enlightenment” meant seeing through natural illusions into a secret, uplifting reality. Consequently, the religions of India, which were driven by that mystical vision…
