User:Sqqqqqqq/Secular Shrine Theory

=== Rewrite the Lead ===

=== Rewrite the Lead ===

'''Secular Shrine Theory''' (''Jinja hishūkyōron,'' 神社非宗教論) was a legal and political theory arising in Japan during the 19th and early 20th centuries that treated Shrine Shinto as nonreligious. It argued that shrines and shrine rites belonged to the public sphere as expressions of national custom, civic morality, and imperial tradition rather than private religious belief. This theory became an important basis for the state's administration and played a central role in debates over the relationship between Shinto, religion, and the modern Japanese state.

'''Secular Shrine Theory''' (''Jinja hishūkyōron,'' 神社非宗教論) was a legal and political theory arising in Japan during the 19th and early 20th centuries that treated Shrine Shinto as nonreligious.{{Cite journal |last=Shimizu |first=Karli |date=2017 |title=Shintō Shrines and Secularism in Modern Japan, 1890–1945: A Case Study on Kashihara Jingū |url=https://ixtheo.de/Record/1566787327 |journal=Journal of Religion in Japan |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=128-56}} It argued that shrines and shrine rites belonged to the public sphere as expressions of national custom, civic morality, and imperial tradition rather than private religious belief.{{Cite journal |last=Shimazono |first=Susumu |date=2009 |title=State Shinto in the Lives of the People: The Establishment of Emperor Worship, Modern Nationalism, and Shrine Shinto in Late Meiji |url=https://web.tohoku.ac.jp/modern-japan/wp-content/uploads/Shimazono-State-Shinto-Late-Meiji.pdf |journal=Japanese Journal of Religious Studies |volume=36 |issue=1 |pages=93-124}} This theory became an important basis for the state's administration and played a central role in debates over the relationship between Shinto, religion, and the modern Japanese state.{{Cite journal |last=Teeuwen |first=Mark |date=1999 |title=State Shinto: An ‘Independent Religion’? |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2668275 |journal=Monumenta Nipponica |volume=54 |issue=1 |pages=111-121}}

=== Add a "Background" section before "Linguistic debate" ===

=== Add a "Background" section before "Linguistic debate" ===

'''Background'''

'''Background'''

In the early Meiji period, the Japanese officials were forced to decide how Shinto institutions would fit the new modern categories of state, society and religion. As the government responded to the growth of organized Shinto groups, "Sect Shinto" was formed as an administrative category for movements treated more clearly as religions. However, Shrines increasingly followed a different institutions path. The 1882 separation of shrine priests from national evangelists, and the later 1900 division between the Bureau of Shrines and the Bureau of religions, helped establish the idea that shrines belonged to a national civic field distinct from Buddhism, Christianity, and Sect Shinto. Under this setting, Secular Shrine Theory developed as a way of explaining and defending the state's treatment of shrine rites as public practice rather than religion in the narrower legal lens.

In the early Meiji period, Japanese officials were forced to decide how Shinto institutions would fit the new modern categories of state, society and religion. As the government responded to the growth of organized Shinto groups, "Sect Shinto" was formed as an administrative category for movements treated more clearly as religions.{{Cite journal |last=Inoue |first=Nobutaka |date=2002 |title=The Formation of Sect Shinto in Modernizing Japan |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30233729 |journal=Japanese Journal of Religious Studies |volume=29 |issue=3-4 |pages=405-27}} However, Shrines increasingly followed a different institutional path. In 1871, the state officially declared shrines to be public institutions rather than private ones. The 1882 separation of shrine priests from national evangelists, and the later 1900 division between the Bureau of Shrines and the Bureau of Religions, helped establish the idea that shrines belonged to a national civic field distinct from Buddhism, Christianity, and Sect Shinto. name=":1" /> By the late nineteenth century, the distinction became increasingly important as Japanese officials tried to define both "religion" and the "secular" within a modern constitutional order. In this context, Secular Shrine Theory developed as a way of explaining and defending the state's treatment of shrine rites as public practice rather than religion. name=":2" />

'''Add a intro sentence at the beginning of the "Linguistic debate" section'''

=== Small deletions ===

'''Delete this sentence in the "Further reading" section:''' "The following materials have been quoted, processed, and verified. Other materials have been quoted, processed, and verified from the "books, articles, and websites" listed in the Sources section (in accordance with Article 32 of the Japan Copyright Law)."

The linguistic debate over ''shūkyō'' (宗教) was important because modern Japanese officials were not simply translating a foreign term. Instead, they were also deciding which institutions would be governed as religions and which would be treated as part of public life.

'''Remove''' the '''"Part of a series on the philosophy of religion"''' template in the "Linguistic debate" section, AND the '''"Philosophy of religion"''' category at the very end.

'''Add a intro sentence at the beginning of the "Meiji Constitution" section'''

- These sections about philosophy does not really match the article's current focus, making the article feels distracting.

The Meiji Constitution gave the debate over Secular Shrine Theory practical legal significance by linking religious freedom to the state's authority to define which practices counted as "religion".

=== Small deletions ===

'''Delete this sentence in the "Further reading" section:''' "The following materials have been quoted, processed, and verified. Other materials have been quoted, processed, and verified from the "books, articles, and websites" listed in the Sources section (in accordance with Article 32 of the Japan Copyright Law)."

=== References ===

=== References ===