Education, Religious Commitment, and Religious Tolerance in Contemporary China

Abstract

Most existing research on education and religion has been situated in the United States, a context where it is normative for youth to receive religious socialization within families that is often thought to be challenged once they enter college. This study examines the relationship between higher education and religion in a non-Western context, China, where children are typically raised in secular contexts and anti-religious ideology permeates the education system. For Chinese youth, college is often individuals’ first significant exposure to religious perspectives. Using data from the 2007 Spiritual Life Study of Chinese Residents, we find that the influence of education on religion is not a secularizing one: Although the least educated are more likely to identify themselves as members of a religious group, this is true only of older adults. People with at least some college education report similar levels of religious salience and belief in their lives compared to both the least and moderately educated. In fact, younger adults who went to college are more likely to hold a religious belief than younger adults with only a primary school education, and more likely to report religion is important to them than those with a middle or high school education. Moreover, college-educated people are more likely to tolerate religious beliefs as alternatives to communism, and younger adults who went to college are more tolerant of religion vis-à-vis science than are younger adults with middle or high school education.