本論文主要關懷台灣佛教如何披荊斬棘，一步一腳印中，創造今日一片天空的議題。為呈現這樣的變遷特質，故本論文擬以明鄭時期最先發展的佛教中心，也是台灣佛教最早立基之地，台南區域為範圍，藉創立年代有先後、理念有別之開元寺與妙心寺，在現代轉型上的比較，配合文獻分析與田野調查等方法運用，作為考察對象，期望達成以下四個目的： （1）、了解開元寺與妙心寺在現代轉型過程中的歷史與傳承等之 演變差異性。（2）、了解台灣戰後現代轉型過程對早期成立之台灣佛教僧團發展之影響。（3）、了解台灣戰後現代轉型過程對晚近成立之台灣佛教僧團發展之影響。（4）、對台南地區兩佛教僧團在經濟、政治與社會文化的層面進行比較分析，進而能助益對相關特定都市地區的佛教特性有所了解。 最後，本論文從中提出三項意義作為結論：（1）、反映台灣傳統佛教的新貌；（2）、顯示人間佛教改革實踐上的歷程與艱難；（3）、證實台灣傳統佛教與人間佛教無須涇渭分明。 The topic of this thesis mainly concerns about how Taiwanese Buddhists overcome many social and political difficulties and develop the present full-fledged monastic institution. To present the characteristics of the transition from the traditional Chinese form of monastery to the modern Taiwanese one, this thesis provides a comparison between the Kai-yuan and the Miao-shin monastery-temples, both of which are located in Tainan, the oldest city and the earliest Buddhist center of Taiwan, founded during the Dutch and late Ming period of the first half of the seventeenth century. This comparison is based upon the distinctive historical origin, founding idea and the process of modern transition between these two temples. Textual-historical analysis in combination with fieldwork is adopted in this work in order to achieve the following four goals: （1）to understand the difference between the Kai-yuan and the Miao-shin on the historical context of modern transition, particularly, regarding the heritage of Zen Buddhism;（2）to understand the influence of modernization in post-War II Taiwan to the development of the early-founded Buddhist Monastery, i.e., the Kai-yuan;（3）to understand this influence to the development of the newly-founded Buddhist Monastery, i.e., the Miao-shin;（4）to analyze and compare the economic, political and social environments in which these two temples have developed and faced challenge in order to picture the characteristics of Buddhism in contemporary urban Taiwan. This thesis concludes three significant points as below:(1) to reflect the new face of the traditional Taiwanese Buddhism.(2) to exhibit the process and difficulty of the “humanity Buddhism” reform in modern Taiwan. (3) to prove that there is no differentiation between the traditional Taiwanese Buddhism and the “humanity Buddhism.”
