Abstract: While this paper is concerned about how to use religious sociological theories to reasonably explain the religious phenomena in modern society， it questions the explanatory power of the rational choice theory of modern religion. Despite of its supposedly strong and comprehensive explanatory power， this paper still wants to criticize the usage of this rational choice theory to account for modern religion， arguing that it is a wrong logic to understand religion from the “supply” and “demand” of the religious market in the “religious economic model” because of the confusion or substitution between the two important concepts of instrumental rationality and value rationality. The paper finally warns the readers of the danger in using only the religious economic market theory to study religion in China and calls for cautious application.

Key words: modern society, religious economy, rational choice theory