中美宗教文化差异演讲稿

Hello everyone, my name is Jiang Xingyou. Today the topic of my presentation is religious culture of China and America. As we all know, Religion is a cultural phenomenon that the society engendered by a certain historical period. In this world, there are many different of religions, but the three major religions are Islam, Christianity and Buddhism. Religious culture is an important part of national culture.

Now, let me explain religious culture of China briefly. China is a multi-religious country, and Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Christianity are the main religious in the country. Chinese people enjoy the freedom of religious belief according to law, and regular religious activities are protected by the Constitution. Here I will introduce 3 kings of Chinese traditional religion, they are Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. First of all, Confucianism was regarded as an ethic political system in ancient China. As opted as the orthodox thinking system for more than 2000 years in Western Han Dynasty (206BC-24AD), Confucianism has exerted a profound influence on the civilization of China. Its greatest contribution to the Chinese nation is that it has shaped and mould the Chinese character and complete system of knowledge. The ethical thought of Confuc ius is ‘Ren,Yi,Li,Zhi,Xin’. As its Core thought and methods, it has exerted great influence on the thinking of the Chinese and on almost each aspect in our cultural life. There are four literary works that were the elementary materials of Chinese education in the feudal society and served as the basis of the imperial examinations by which scholars were selected for official posts at different levels of the government in Confucianism, they are The analects, Mencius, University, Moderation. Next, Buddhist attaches great importance to the progress and awareness of human mind and morality. Today, about 200,000 Buddhist monks and nuns with over 13,000 Buddhist temples in China. The Journey to the West is one of the greatest literature about Buddhist. The third, Taoism is indigenous to China with a history of over 1800 years . It is a religion which takes the Tao(the ways) as the basic belief , esteem the Lao Zi as the supreme god and take the Dao De Jing by Lao Zi as the canons. Last, people have the power of freedom of religious belief in China. Moreover, all religions have equal status, they have been coexisting peacefully.

The following, let me explain religious culture of America. There is a survey indicates that 41% of American citizens report they regularly attend religious services. And the most of Americans believe in Christianity, but other various religions are also subsistent at the same time, it has its historical reasons. This is the main religious preferences of America, 60% to 76.0% of American believe in Christianity, 15.0% to 37.3% are Unaffiliated and so on. For one thing, Christianity is rooted in Judaism and founded by Jesus in the Palestinian territory in a mid-century and break away from Judaism as an independent religion in 135 years. Its basic Christian beliefs are that there is only one God, God is three in one or a Trinity and so on. For another, Judaism is one of the three oldest and biggest religions in the world. It has a long history which is more than 3000 years. Abraham is the one who got messages from the god. The only difference between Judaism and Christianity is that Judaists don’t believe Jesus is the person who is the son of the god. But they all admit that Jesus is a great prophet. And they are all monotheists. Next, Islam originated in the Arabian Peninsula by Mohammed founded. Today the total number of Muslims(its Christians) have accounted for 23% of the world. Now what effects do religious cultures have on American life? Well, it has influence on education, movies, election, and so on. For example, development of education in America was much influenced by religion in the early stages before and after independence. There are many famous university founded by the church such as Harvard , Yale and Princeton University. In addition, we always see in the American movie is that the hero often considers himself as a savior such as Iron Man and Spider-man. They reflected a thought of Puritanism and Hegemony.

In summary, Christianity preached that man and God , the separation of man and nature . While Chinese religion would emphasize that the harmony between man and nature , issues of life within a confined themselves , to solve problems with people-oriented. That’s all, thank you for watching and welcome to answer the following questions. First, What is the ethical thought of Confucius? You can answer it in 5 Chinese words. Second, who is God in Christianity? Third, what do you think of religion?