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In his work Religion in Human Evolution published in 2011, Robert Bellah had returned to the topic of religious revolution since he firstly engaged with it in 1964. As compared with the paper 47 years ago, Religion in Human Evolution is characterized by its larger references both to historical works of each religious cultures and to theoretical ones including studies in evolutionary psychology.

These references can be interpreted as made in and against two recent trends in the study of religions, that is, criticism toward the Western ethnocentrism, and application of naturalistic evolutionary theory to religion. Bellah introduces K. Jaspers' theory of axial ages and M. Donald's theory of cognitive and cultural evolution, for distinguishing his own theory from the old fashioned type of evolutionary theory which had flourished in the late nineteenth century. From G. Burghardt's theory of play, Bellah also employs a natural scientific language without reductionism which most other naturalistic evolutionary theories entail.

The fundamental aim has been the same between the paper in 1964 and the book in 2011; in his theory of religious evolution, Bellah attempts not only to explicate historical roots of the modern social dilemma he calls as "ecological crisis," but also to figure out a way to conquer it. However, recent trends in the study of religion come to reject this type of discourse on religions as inadequate more and more. With upgrading the theory of religious evolution, Bellah intends to show again the significance of engaging the issue on modern societies and religions beyond the trends.

It is fair to say, however, that Bellah never gives an answer to a fundamental problem with which the study of religions today is confronted, that is, one of cultural and political connotation the concept of religion necessarily implies. Even though the substantial part of his book wouldn't lose its significance, the strategies Bellah applied in the work are regarded as just reactive to the criticism of the conceptual matter. After his death in 2013, this difficulty still remains an unavoidable challenge for the study of religion today.

The aim of this paper is to reinterpret the so-called secularization theories and then to show the significance of continuous investigation for the question of "what is religion?" from the sociological viewpoint. The classical version of secularization theories implies a theoretical examination for the concept of religion with comparative analysis of religion in a conventional sense ("church-oriented religion") and in a non-conventional sense. However, these theories have an inadequate presupposition in which the concept of religion is treated as just an analytic instrument each sociologist can define before beginning a research project. In addition to this methodological issue, the worldwide "religious revival" after 1980s had sociologists recognize the "failure" of the secularization thesis, and unfortunately led to avoidance of a general theoretical approach to religion in the sociology of religion.
　
Recent genealogical studies of the concept of religion criticize academic use of the concept of religion, but this criticism does not indicate the necessity to renounce it. Rather, the research program they require is a sociological study to examine the concept in its positional value within the global social order with a reflective perspective. This sociological critique of the concept of religion should make a unique contribution by examining not only social and historical restraints but also possible applications of the concept.

This paper examines the usage of the concept of religion in the Social System (1951) by Talcott Parsons, which is almost only work he defines religion clearly in his theoretical framework. In the work, a complex of "religious beliefs" and "religious rites" functions as "religion" in an action system. It is required as a residual category corresponding to inevitable conflict between cultural and social systems. Far from keeping the social system static, it ensures a dynamic brought about by the cultural system.

Parsons's definition of religion as a residual category makes it possible to avoid both essentialist and reductionist understandings of religion, although in the later works he had not followed his own definition of religion. In fact, this seems to show that the concept of religion, in not only a sociological usage but also common usages, would have a residual character.

This presentation examines the inherent relation between sociology of religion and the concept of religion itself. The concept of religion makes it possible to classify radically differing cultural elements into the same category despite their substantial variety. This concept thus corresponds to the modern idea of cultural pluralism in which the same rights must be equally attributed to different cultural groups. From this viewpoint, the sociological study of religions should be regarded as a representation and development of the intention which the concept of religion originally implies. Some of the difficulties with which the sociology of religion is confronted, especially regarding the definition of religion, are not merely methodological but essential issues to intercultural interpretations. This means that as far as sociology of religion is involved in intercultural studies, such a difficulty is inevitable. Sociology of religion should undertake positively the concept of religion as its main theme.

Topic: Occasionally, comatose or confused people suddenly become lucid in their final hours before death. Similarly, some terminally ill patients show temporary reviviscence and die soon after. This study aimed to, in Japan, investigate such phenomena called, respectively, terminal lucidity and remission.

Background: In Japan, while these phenomena are occasionally and locally recognized as folklore, such as in nakanaori (literally, “midterm recovery”), Fukatsu (1975) was the only study to investigate them systematically. In the English-speaking world, several researchers, including Michael Nahm, Peter Fenwick, and A. D. Macleod, have described them in words such as “terminal lucidity,” “lucid moment,” “lightening up before death,” and “premortem surge.” In these studies, two different orientations?a parapsychological one and a practical one for hospice care?coexist and have sometimes been merged.

Method: We conducted a questionnaire on bereaved people who had cared for a family member between 2010 and 2014 until their death and while they were receiving home hospice care. Responses from a total of 663 people were collected.

Results: The results showed: (1) 30% answered “yes” to “the patient suddenly showed a genial attitude,” (2) 25% to “the patient temporarily improved from severe symptoms,” (3) 24% to “the patient temporarily became lucid from out of a decreased state of consciousness,” (4) 21% to “the patient gazed at his or her own hand,” and (5) 19% to “the patient soberly said goodbye to the people around him or her.” Some significant correlations were found between these and the dying person’s gender. Additionally, as qualitative results, several anecdotal accounts are introduced and analyzed herein.

Conclusion: This study revealed terminal lucidity and remission are not rare among the dying. These phenomena are highly meaningful for patients and their family members, not because they seem “paranormal” or “miraculous” but because they offer an irreplaceable opportunity for interaction with the dying. The “mechanism” or “cause” of these phenomena therefore has only secondary importance, although it has been regarded as the central problem in parapsychological and biomedical studies.

This paper’s aim is to elucidate patterns in the attitudes toward death and dying among contemporary Japanese people. A research team including the author conducted a questionnaire survey of bereaved people who had cared for a family member until their death while receiving home hospice care service between 2010 and 2014. Responses from a total of 663 people were collected.

Analyses of the collected responses showed the following patterns: in references to death as a general topic, what implicitly constituted the focal point was present daily life rather than death itself. In descriptions of the expectations about one’s own death, many respondents showed a preoccupation with financial and care burdens. However, on the contrary, in accounts of a person who died, respondents often indicated that the deceased left something of value to their family or that they continued to feel their presence after their death.

Previous studies on this subject have tended to focus exclusively on the notion of an afterlife or afterworld. However, the overall results of this study suggest that the notions and attitudes toward death among Japanese people are inseparably combined with the interests in mundane issues such as the availability of care services or financial and care burdens.

This paper is to show quantitative and qualitative data of Omukae experiences in which a dying person meets the already dead relatives or acquaintances; and then to consider the communicative significance of Omukae that resists any previously prevalent interpretation.
　
In the questionnaire survey we asked the bereaved carers about the experiences of terminally ill patients receiving home hospice service. We got 366 responses (response rate is 57.5%), and 45.6% of them report Omukae experiences. These experiences are not necessarily painful for the dying; actually 45.8% seemed to react positively while 36.8% did negatively and 5.2% showed mixed reactions toward the experience.
　
Although Omukae is usually interpreted in terms of the Buddhist concept of Pure Land, this survey makes clear not only that there are elements of ancestor worship but also that Omukae doesn't need to involve any well-defined religious worldview.
　
In addition, Omukae is different from near death experience which happens only in a decreased consciousness level. Near death experience is the experience received as offering clue for life after death or the other world; in contrast, when narrating an Omukae experience, people are concerned directly and primarily with the dying (died) patients. This is the reason why Omukae experiences take the form of personal narratives which meaning depends on the teller and listener's relationship with the dying (died).
　
In the current situation of Japan, the medical diagnosis as delirium is perhaps the most authoritative interpretation for Omukae. However, the diagnosis of delirium qualifies Omukae as just a pathological hallucination, so the experiences are deprived of communicative significance as rich and valuable stories with which people reconfirm and recreate mutual bonds.
　
To the dying (died) and his/her caregivers, Omukae offers an irreplaceable episode. Previous interpretations tend to miss its communicative significance because it does function as the source of story regardless of “veridicality” or “objectivity” as an experience. The concept of Omukae is to indicate the unique dimension of the experiences.

AWA KENZO(1880-1939) is known as a legendary master of Kyudo through the book Zen in the Art of Archery written by Eigen Herrigel(1884-1955). Herrigel emphasized Kyudo was the way to Zen, but his master did not exactly regard so.

Awa had build Daishadokyo, "a religion" to discipline one's mind by practicing archery. To explain the doctrine, he employed terms not only of Zen but also of Confucian and Shinto traditions. Such a mixed discourse was common to a variety of religious thoughts in modern Japan.

Since the Meiji Restoration, Kyudo had needed to discover its raison d'etre instead of requirement for the Samurai class. Awa's enterprise to associate Kyudo and religion was a response to the request for modern formation of Kyudo or Budo.